Women: Marriage Reconsidered

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Careers have been proving more attractive to women than early marriage. More than half of all women now work, and the median age of a woman at her first marriage has increased by two years in the past decade, a huge jump compared with the typically glacial pace of demographic change. Last week, however, the Census Bureau announced a reversal in that trend. New findings show that the median age of first-time brides registered its first drop in 20 years, falling to 23.1 years from a record 23.3 in 1985.

Sociologists caution that the decline is not a sign that women are choosing the altar over the office. Rather, it may be that women as a statistical group have now delayed marriage as long as possible. "At some point," says the Census Bureau's Steve Rawlings, "all these trends reach a peak period of stabilization."

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