As a philosophy scholar, I discover the controversy round marriage fascinating as a result of it’s one thing nearly everybody has private expertise with—whether or not by their very own relationships, household, or society at giant. On the floor, marriage would possibly appear to be a easy establishment constructed on love and dedication, however after we dig deeper, we begin to see cracks in its basis.
Marriage has lengthy been thought to be a cornerstone of social life, offering construction for intimate relationships, authorized advantages, and a framework for elevating youngsters. However as authorized students and human rights advocates have more and more identified, marriage additionally capabilities as a gatekeeper to financial safety, authorized protections, and social recognition—and it doesn’t serve everybody equally. This raises severe moral questions: Does marriage reinforce systemic inequality, significantly for ladies and non-traditional households? Is it time to reform, exchange, or abandon it altogether? On this weblog, we’ll discover three modern philosophical arguments about marriage and their implications for justice and human rights.
Susan Okin: Marriage Makes Girls Weak
Susan Okin argues that marriage, because it exists at present, creates and reinforces gender-based vulnerabilities, significantly for ladies. In Vulnerability by Marriage, she explores how society expects girls to tackle many of the caregiving tasks, which results in an unfair division of labor each at residence and within the office.
In keeping with the American Time Use Survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, girls spent a mean of two.4 hours per day on family actions, in comparison with 1.5 hours for males. Girls had been additionally way more seemingly to supply unpaid caregiving for youngsters and aged members of the family. Even in so-called egalitarian households, research present that males’s careers are likely to take precedence, affecting selections about the place to reside and tips on how to divide time and sources.
These patterns have actual financial penalties. Girls who step again from paid work to care for youngsters typically expertise long-term wage penalties and lack of retirement financial savings. After divorce, the gender wealth hole turns into much more stark. A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office discovered that ladies’s family earnings fell by 41% after divorce, in comparison with simply 23% for males.
Okin’s critique factors to a bigger human rights subject: financial dependency can restrict girls’s autonomy and political participation. With out systemic assist, reminiscent of paid parental go away, sponsored childcare, or equitable divorce legal guidelines, marriage stays a structural drawback for a lot of girls.
Laurie Shrage: Ought to the State Be Concerned in Marriage at All?
In her piece, The End of Marriage, Laurie Shrage takes Okin’s critique even additional. Slightly than simply reforming marriage to be extra equitable, she questions the function of the State in structuring intimate relationships. Shrage argues that marriage, as a state-sanctioned establishment, supplies authorized and social privileges to some relationships whereas marginalizing others. In the event you’re married, you get tax breaks, simpler entry to healthcare, and authorized rights over your associate’s well-being. However what about folks in non-traditional relationships, cohabiting companions, or polyamorous households that don’t match into the authorized mould?
Take into account this: The U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace recognized 1,138 federal statutory provisions through which marital standing is a think about figuring out advantages, rights, and privileges. However for single companions—even these in long-term caregiving relationships—those self same protections are sometimes unavailable. This creates a system of authorized exclusion that disproportionately impacts LGBTQ+ people, lower-income households, and people exterior conventional household buildings.
Shrage doesn’t argue that the state ought to completely take away itself from intimate relationships. As a substitute, she believes the regulation must be restructured in order that protections and advantages should not solely tied to marriage. As a substitute of privileging marriage, we may develop various authorized buildings that assist all types of caregiving relationships with out requiring folks to suit into a particular mould. Some states have made makes an attempt to implement this. As an illustration, Colorado’s Designated Beneficiary Agreements enable people to assign rights reminiscent of hospital visitation or inheritance with out marriage. But these reforms are patchwork and sometimes restricted in scope.
Shrage’s argument forces us to rethink what marriage truly does. If it’s primarily about securing authorized and monetary advantages, then why ought to it’s tied to romantic relationships in any respect? Shouldn’t anybody have the ability to create binding authorized partnerships that mirror their chosen household buildings? Shrage proposes another: decoupling authorized advantages from marital standing. Authorized agreements may enable people to designate monetary companions, medical proxies, or co-parents without having a state-sanctioned marriage. By guaranteeing equal entry to authorized protections no matter relationship sort, we may create a system that higher serves the varied methods folks construct their lives collectively.
Claudia Card: Tear It All Down
Whereas Okin and Shrage recommend methods to reform or restructure marriage, Claudia Card takes a extra radical strategy in Against Marriage and Motherhood. She argues that marriage just isn’t merely flawed however essentially coercive—and sometimes serves as a mechanism for management and abuse.
Certainly one of Card’s strongest arguments is that marriage can lure people in violent or exploitative relationships. As a result of marriage is a authorized contract that binds two folks collectively, leaving an abusive marriage typically requires authorized intervention—one thing that may be costly, sluggish, and emotionally exhausting. In keeping with the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey by the CDC, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 9 males have skilled extreme intimate associate violence. On account of monetary dependency and authorized entanglement, many individuals discover it troublesome to go away abusive marriages. A 2020 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research discovered that financial abuse, like controlling entry to cash or employment, was a key barrier to leaving. In lots of circumstances, the authorized system inadvertently works to maintain abusive relationships by making it more durable for the abused associate to go away, which is the elemental cause why Card believes marriage, in any kind, is past restore.
Moreover, Card critiques the cultural glorification of motherhood. Whereas motherhood is commonly idealized, moms within the U.S. face one of many highest unpaid caregiving burdens within the developed world. The U.S. is the one rich nation with out assured paid maternity go away. Girls, particularly single moms, are left to shoulder the prices of caregiving with out ample assist, resulting in heightened charges of poverty, stress, and burnout.
Card’s radical proposal—to abolish marriage as a authorized establishment—requires constructing new social buildings based mostly on mutual care and autonomy quite than management and dependency. From a human rights standpoint, her argument challenges us to rethink whether or not any establishment ought to have the facility to restrict freedom, safety, or self-determination.
The place Do We Go From Right here?
In philosophy, we frequently come again to the identical elementary query: Ought to we work inside the system to make it extra simply, or ought to we tear it down and begin over? Okin, Shrage, and Card every supply completely different visions for the way forward for marriage, however all of them agree on one factor—the best way issues at the moment are isn’t working.
At its core, the controversy about marriage is a human rights subject. Who will get entry to financial safety, authorized protections, and social recognition—and at what price? And marriage legal guidelines don’t simply reinforce inequality for adults; additionally they impression susceptible populations in methods we hardly ever acknowledge. For instance, child marriage remains legal in parts of the U.S.—a actuality that raises severe moral issues.
Our three authors all spotlight alternative ways through which marriage has traditionally marginalized sure teams, significantly girls, and ask us to think about various frameworks that promote justice and equality. Whether or not by reforming marriage, eradicating state involvement, or abandoning it altogether, the objective must be to make sure that all people—no matter their relationship standing—have equal rights, safety, and autonomy. As we proceed to problem conventional norms, we should prioritize human dignity, equity, and inclusivity within the methods we construction relationships and social establishments.
