The Western European marriage pattern is a family and demographic pattern that is marked by comparatively late marriage (in the middle twenties), especially for women, with a generally small age difference between the spouses, a significant proportion (up to a third) of people who remain unmarried, and the establishment of a neolocal household after the couple has married. In 1965, John Hajnal posited that Europe could be divided into two areas characterised by different patterns of nuptiality. To the west of the line, which extends approximately between Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Trieste, Italy, marriage rates and thus fertility were comparatively low, and a significant minority of women married late or remained single, and most families were nuclear; to the east of the line and in the Mediterranean and particular regions of northwestern Europe, early marriage and extended family homes were the norm, and high fertility was offset by high mortality. In the 20th century, Hajnal's observations were assumed as valid by a wide variety of sociologists. However, since the early 21st century, his theory has been routinely criticised and rejected by scholars. Hajnal and other researchers did not have access to, or underplayed nuptiality research from behind the Iron Curtain, which contradicts their observations on central and eastern Europeans. Though some sociologists have called to revise or reject the concept of a "Hajnal line", other scientists continue to cite Hajnal's research on the influence of western European marriage patterns.
Overview The shift toward this "Western European Marriage Pattern" does not have a clear beginning, but it certainly had become established by the end of the fifteenth century on most of the shores of the North Sea. It is a marriage pattern where couples married comparatively late in life (and especially late for the bride compared to other places). On average first marriages took place around the middle twenties for both genders, with men marrying at slightly older ages than women, and only setting up a nuclear household when they were financially stable enough to care for a household, all of this preceded by time working as servants, farmhands or apprentices. Also, a significant proportion of women married after their twenties and 20–30% of women never married. During the Middle Ages and the modern times, all kinds of movements developed which gradually sought to diminish the influence of the Church in matrimonial matters. The impetus was given in the Netherlands since the Middle Ages with urban ordinances threatening civil and criminal measures against those guilty of kidnapping, i.e. marriage without parental consent. This evolution continued and in 1540 Emperor Charles V decreed that any man who married under 25 years of age and any woman who married under 20 years of age without paternal consent forfeited all the benefits normally accruing to the surviving spouse. Female age at marriage has proven to be a strong indicator for female autonomy and is used frequently by economic history research.
Effects The pattern of late and non-universal marriage restricted fertility massively, especially when it was coupled with very low levels of childbirth out of wedlock. Birth control took place by delaying marriage more than suppressing fertility within it. A woman's life-phase from menarche (which was generally reached on average at 14 years, with some women reaching it earlier) to the birth of her first child was unusually long, averaging ten years.
Compared to other cultures To the west of the Hajnal line, about half of all women aged 15 to 50 years of age were married at any given time while the other half were widows or spinsters; to the east of the line, about seventy percent of women in that age bracket were married at any given time while the other thirty percent were widows or nuns. The marriage records of Western and Eastern Europe in the early 20th century illustrate this pattern vividly; west of the Hajnal line, only 25% of women aged 20–24 were married while to the east of the line, over 75% of women in this age group were married and less than five percent of women remained unmarried. This marriage pattern varied across time and space and class; noblewomen certainly married early, but they were a small minority. The comparatively late age at marriage for women and the small age gap between spouses is rather unusual; women married as adults rather than as dependents, often worked before marriage and brought some skills into the marriage, were less likely to be exhausted by constant pregnancy, and were about the same age as their husbands Outside of Europe, women could be married even earlier and even fewer would remain celibate; in Korea, practically every woman 50 years of age had been married and spinsters were extremely rare, compared to 20–30% of women in western Europe age 50 who had never married.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
