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The Significance of Marriage: Contrasts between White British and Ethnic Minority Groups in England
Author(s) -
MACLEAN MAVIS,
EEKELAAR JOHN
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9930.2005.00204.x
Subject(s) - ethnic group , institution , government (linguistics) , variety (cybernetics) , white (mutation) , white paper , political science , white british , gender studies , sociology , law , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , philosophy , linguistics , artificial intelligence , computer science
It is widely believed that the institution of marriage enhances communal wellbeing, and governments in the United States and the United Kingdom have expressly adopted policies designed to “promote” marriage. These policies, however, are little informed by evidence about how people who marry are using the institution, or how entering or not entering marriage affects people's ideas about the rights and obligations they owe within intimate partnerships. An Oxford study has sought to explore these issues. The study allowed special attention to be paid to the way individuals with differing ethnic backgrounds responded to the investigation, and the current article reveals the results. They show that marriage is used in a variety of ways, and that these uses may vary between ethnic groups. The evidence suggests that the usefulness which people find in marriage may depend on cultural and individual factors that are independent of the goals that government policies seek to promote.