Between marriage and divorce

by Marie (May 8, 2004)

We marry more often... but not for ever!

Good news! In two centuries, the married life has tripled. Worse news, it is necessary to manage! To love tenderly three times longer is marvellous, but not always within the range of everyone. The solution? To live like cats: to have several lives, and not to be astonished at seeing "marriage" and "divorce" written... in the plural!

We marry a lot in France. More and more since the year 2000. In 2001, we reached 304 000 marriages. Although the number of births has rather decreased since the 70's.
A new "fashion" is coming to strike us: divorce. Today, there is no age to divorce. 40% of the divorces occur in the first ten years which follow marriage. The course of the seven years aremaining fateful, as if love had difficulty in getting over the reasonable age! The percentages decrease regularly with the number of years spent together.

But, curiously, late divorces, although a minority, keep increasing.

Moreover, nearly 1000 divorces have occurred each year for people married for 45 years or more!
Between marriages and divorces, it is easy to be lost.

And you, what do you think about marriage?

For or against?

Let us benefit from this article to raise the media question of the moment:

What about homosexual marriage?

Yes or no?

If you wish to react to this article, write to the editor.

What I think about marriage is that you don't have to get married even if two people love each other. Because it's very important for your life. Nobody would like to spoil his or her life.

June 24, 2004

First, Marie, I found your article very interesting. I am rather for marriage. It's a symbol. But I also think that it's a matter of style and that you don't need to be married to prove your love. However, I am totally against marriage if it leads to divorce. I think that nowadays people don't really care about marriage because they know that there is divorce, so they take it as a game. On the opposite, some people still believe that marriage is a "security". So after getting married, they think that they can do everything...

Regarding homosexual marriage, I am totally for. Indeed, homosexuals can also officialize their union ; love is not only a heterosexual's thing. Everyone has got the same rights, so why not the right of loving and the right of celebrating in the traditions ?

One thing is sure, for homo or hetero, with the number of divorces, marriage doesn't make people envious !!

Jenny (YGTP)

April 29, 2006

It was very interesting to read your article, because here in my country things are the other way around. You say that people in France are getting married younger, and numbers are increasing; but here in Argentina, young people don't have the money to go and live on their own, so they stay with their parents for a long time. Also women's role in society has changed. Nowadays, young women want to have a career and to be independent, so they normally get married after 
graduating from University. The increase of divorces has changed the way young people see marriage today. They are more scared about marriage, so they prefer living together, but without getting married first. The only point both cultures coincide with is in the important increase of divorces. In my opinion, this is because divorce is being more and more accepted through the years.
The conclusion most people come to is that they don't need a signed paper to say that they love each other. What they don't understand is that it is easier if the state recognises you as a married couple. For example if one of the persons die, you won't have to go to court to decide who gets the money , because it's legally the wife's property. It's also easier in other situations.

Martina (Buenos Aires, Argentina)