Marriage is having a renaissance while divorce numbers are falling ...
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008 figures reveal a 20-year high of 118,756 weddings last year.
Only 47,209 couples divorced, 754 fewer than in 2007 and the lowest number in a single year since 1992 ...
The 2008 divorce rate was 2.2 per 1000 people, its lowest for 20 years.
The chart accompanying the article (not online) tells a predictable story. During the height of third wave feminism in the 1990s there was a disruption to family formation. Between 1989 and 1999 the number of marriages actually fell (from 117,176 to 114,316) and the number of divorces rose (from 41,383 to 52,566).
I suggested early in 2006 that feminism had moved into a downphase and that this might open up some space for improved family outcomes:
I'm not suggesting that institutional feminism will go away ... But perhaps at ground level some more space will open up for romance, marriage and motherhood.
And this is what has happened. The rate of marriage has recovered (118,756 in 2008) and the divorce rate has fallen (47,209). Most significantly since 2006 the median marriage age has stopped rising - there has been a pause in the trend to ever later marriage.
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