UN Commission on the Status of Women ignores benefits of marriage
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 24 (C-Fam) In negotiations at the UN, particularly at the just-concluded Commission on the Status of Women, efforts to include pro-marriage and pro-family language in resolutions are facing growing opposition. Feminist activists argue that the family is a structure that perpetuates injustice against women and girls. However, a new study adds to the abundance of evidence showing that marriage is actually beneficial for women's health and well-being.
Researchers followed nearly 12,000 American nurses, all single at the origin of the study, for nearly 25 years. Their work, published in Global Epidemiology, found that married women had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death among women in the United States. Married women were also happier, more optimistic, and less likely to suffer from depression
and loneliness than those who did not marry.
Even though divorce has worse outcomes than staying married, married women, including those who later divorced, had a 35% lower risk of death over the study period compared to those who had never been married.
The study's authors, who published a summary of their findings in a Wall Street Journal article, noted that while their analysis focuses exclusively on women, there are many indications that marriage has even greater health benefits for men,
also being associated with greater life expectancy.
Around the world, marriage is in decline and simple cohabitation or motherhood outside marriage has become more common. Although there are regional and national differences, the general trend is towards fewer marriages and later marriages.
Critics of marriage and the family as institutions, at the United Nations and elsewhere, are right to point out that violence and abuse can occur within the family and have devastating effects on victims. However, the solutions they propose, with the redefinition of "the family" to include virtually all forms of couples and unions of persons or the dismantling of all traditional so-called "patriarchal" structures, ignore a growing body of social science data.
Key UN documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, refer to the family as "the natural and fundamental unit of society" – a formulation that has now become highly controversial in negotiated resolutions, where progressive governments insist on different and diverse forms of family existence.
Family structures are important, especially for the education of children, as Professor Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas has shown in his pioneering studies of large sample sizes. Children fare better when raised by their married biological parents.
The new study on marriage, authored by Harvard researcher Ying Chen and his aides, shows that the benefits of marriage do not come at the expense of women, but that they are also beneficiaries.
The authors acknowledge that the nursing population studied is relatively financially stable and has a good level of education, which warrants a cautious interpretation. Nevertheless, it should be noted that women living in wealthy countries who enjoy many of the benefits of "emancipation" as defined by UN goals, such as education and employment, can see improved health and well-being by marrying (and remaining married).
Researchers followed nearly 12,000 American nurses, all single at the origin of the study, for nearly 25 years. Their work, published in Global Epidemiology, found that married women had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death among women in the United States. Married women were also happier, more optimistic, and less likely to suffer from depression
and loneliness than those who did not marry.
Even though divorce has worse outcomes than staying married, married women, including those who later divorced, had a 35% lower risk of death over the study period compared to those who had never been married.
The study's authors, who published a summary of their findings in a Wall Street Journal article, noted that while their analysis focuses exclusively on women, there are many indications that marriage has even greater health benefits for men,
also being associated with greater life expectancy.
Around the world, marriage is in decline and simple cohabitation or motherhood outside marriage has become more common. Although there are regional and national differences, the general trend is towards fewer marriages and later marriages.
Critics of marriage and the family as institutions, at the United Nations and elsewhere, are right to point out that violence and abuse can occur within the family and have devastating effects on victims. However, the solutions they propose, with the redefinition of "the family" to include virtually all forms of couples and unions of persons or the dismantling of all traditional so-called "patriarchal" structures, ignore a growing body of social science data.
Key UN documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, refer to the family as "the natural and fundamental unit of society" – a formulation that has now become highly controversial in negotiated resolutions, where progressive governments insist on different and diverse forms of family existence.
Family structures are important, especially for the education of children, as Professor Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas has shown in his pioneering studies of large sample sizes. Children fare better when raised by their married biological parents.
The new study on marriage, authored by Harvard researcher Ying Chen and his aides, shows that the benefits of marriage do not come at the expense of women, but that they are also beneficiaries.
The authors acknowledge that the nursing population studied is relatively financially stable and has a good level of education, which warrants a cautious interpretation. Nevertheless, it should be noted that women living in wealthy countries who enjoy many of the benefits of "emancipation" as defined by UN goals, such as education and employment, can see improved health and well-being by marrying (and remaining married).
