By Abdul Masih —
It was 2013, and progressive family historian Stephanie Coontz was celebrating the breakdown of traditional marriage and its replacement — single parent families, different gender combination families — in an address to the National Council on Family Relations.
“Like most visions of a ‘golden age’, the ‘traditional family’ evaporates on closer examination,” Coontz said. “It is an ahistorical amalgam of structures, values, and behaviors that never coexisted in the same time and place.”
Relaxed divorce laws in the 1970s brought a 100% increase of divorce (by the time of her talk) compared to the ’60s. Adults aged 25 to 55 who were married fell to 57% in 2010 from 83% in 1960. Children born out of wedlock was at 41% in 2009.
Coontz and other communist-adjacent pundits were besides themselves with glee. The liberal media wrote article after article about marriage’s imminent demise. Their glow shone through.
But now it’s 2025, and marriage has made a comeback.
“Divorce is down and the share of children in two-parent families is up,” writes Brad Wilcox in The Atlantic. “Marriage as a social institution is showing new strength—even among groups that drifted away from the institution in the 20th century, including Black and working-class Americans.”
Divorce has slowed in the last 15 years by 40% from its peak in 1981. Child-bearing outside of marriage has also slowed.
“For children, less divorce and a small decline in childbearing outside wedlock mean more stability,” Wilcox writes. “Children raised in two-parent homes are much more likely to graduate from college than those raised in other families, and less likely to be incarcerated. Kids who don’t live with both of their married parents are far more likely to be depressed than those raised in intact families.”
Economist Melissa Kearney agrees. The “evidence is clear, even if the punchline is uncomfortable: children are more likely to thrive — behaviorally and academically, and ultimately in the labor market and adult life — if they grow up with the advantages of a two-parent home.”
Meanwhile, new marriages are on the rise. Weddings have increased every year for the last three years to 2023, when it hit its high, rivaling 2008. That’s good news for the dress-makers, the diamond ring vendors, the wedding photographers — and mostly for society. Trad wife and trad life is back in style.
Married men and women report greater happiness, prosperity and stability than non-married. According to the 2024 General Social Survey, married men and women ages 25 to 55 are more than twice as likely to be “very happy” with their life as their nonmarried peers. They live longer, are more financially secure, and build more wealth than single Americans.
Children get even more benefit than adults. Children raised in two-parent homes are much more likely to graduate from college than those raised in other families, and less likely to be incarcerated. Kids who don’t live with both of their married parents are far more likely to be depressed than those raised in intact families.
Harvard anthropologist Joseph Henrich observes, “Marriage represents the keystone institution for most—though not all—societies and may be the most primeval of human institutions.”
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