” When I say, ‘The choice to not marry,’ that doesn’t always translate into, ‘I am a woman, and I am deciding that I am not going to get married,’ or ‘I am rejecting marriage. “
” In the nineteenth century, in part because a ton of American men moved west, in part because of the Civil War, and in part because of trepidation about marriage, which was then a very confining institution, there was a big population of women – mostly middle-class white women on the East Coast – who didn’t marry. “
” There is a kind of woman who is economically powerful, professionally powerful, who threatens a white male grip on power that has a long historic precedent in the country. Independent women living outside of marriage threaten all kinds of things about the way power is supposed to work. “
” One of the things that gets confused often is the difference between marriage and good marriage. Marriage is a theoretical concept of the institution, and ‘you should be married,’ is actually meaningless. Marriage is pretty meaningless without the notion of having a specific person to whom you are married. “
” One of the favorite conservative themes is that the cure for poverty is more marriage and earlier marriage. We hear that all the time, there have been billions of dollars now, between the Bush administration and the Obama administration, which has continued the marriage education program, on trying to get more people to get married. “
” Throughout America’s history, the start of adult life for women – whatever else it might have been destined to include – had been typically marked by marriage. “
” Since the late 19th century, the median age of first marriage for women had fluctuated between 20 and 22. This had been the shape, pattern and definition of female life. “
” Marriage has been a way of attempting to ensure the replication of power and wealth from one generation of another, passing it down from men to men. “
All 8 Rebecca Traister Quotes about Marriage in picture






Topics: Marriage quotes