The Link Between Education and A Lasting Marriage
Marriage symbolizes the union of two people, ready to take on the challenges of life together. Marriages can be divided into two broad types: love marriages and arranged marriages. While there is a third in-betweener known as arranged love marriages, we shall discuss that later.
Fortunately, we have successfully abolished the practice of child marriages in most countries, paving the way for women’s education. Now, as more women get empowered with education, the inclination of getting married at a young age seems to be reducing.
Having the option to build a career and be self-sufficient through education has helped women make sound decisions regarding their marriages. Making hasty decisions to jump into long-term relationships by getting married leads to instability in marriage and may result in divorce.
Educated women know their options surrounding the marriage, such as divorce, which allows them to make a holistic decision and steer their relationship using tools such as couples therapy and much more. In contrast, lack of education induces a sense of entrapment, causing couples to opt for divorce as a means to break free.
Egalitarianism and The Future of Marriages
“As a twenty-seven-year-old woman, I often find thoughts relating to marriage haunting my mind. One of the million great questions that pick my brain is the role of economic independence in enabling us to choose the right partner.”
The olden days witnessed marriages being used to secure a woman’s future by marrying an educated or working man. The groom would take care of the bride by providing financial support to her. The bride would serve as a homemaker, usually deprived of education, providing emotional support to her husband.
While this looked great on paper, the reality was far from perfect. The lack of education among women paved their suppression through marital rapes and domestic abuse incidents. As women started gathering the courage to break free from their abusive marriages, the laws also considered their plight. It led to shattering the taboo mentality surrounding divorces.
The reforms surrounding divorce laws have been groundbreaking. Education acts as the cornerstone of an egalitarian world where men and women are treated as equals.
The economic independence that education provides empowers women to renegotiate their terms of marriage free from societal bias and backward thinking. Since educated women don’t have to depend on their counterparts for financial support, their choices regarding their marriages are more organic.
Educated women seem to lead stable marriages as they choose their partners after carefully considering their options. Factors such as emotional compatibility, progressive thinking, and trust take priority over your partner’s financial and social status.
Egalitarian marriages focus on the value your partner adds to your life irrespective of societal ailments such as caste, power, social status, and even appearance.
Patriarchy and Feminism
A common reason for educated women’s hesitation to get married is to avoid the dilemma of continuing living in a patriarchal society by giving up on their careers and raising children or the other way around.
However, with the times changing, women are choosing partners that are supportive of their dreams. More men are willing to step up to lend a hand to their partners at home. As the awareness surrounding gender discriminatory practices grows, men and women strive to create a fair world for future generations.
Educated women tend to prioritize their careers over marriage which leads to getting married later when they are financially secure. It ensured they could opt for divorce solely based on their union quality rather than factoring in their social and financial status.
Not just women, educated men are more inclined to understand the importance of women’s health and how relationships affect it. People have started acknowledging and talking about issues such as marital rape and mental abuse within marriages.
Trivialized women’s health issues such as abortion and birth control or my body, my choice, are being discussed actively on social media and gaining the right kind of attention.
This growing awareness surrounding the patriarchal ways of society forced on a woman has caused many educated men seeking an equal world to opt for reversible vasectomy. It eliminates the need for women to get on birth control or be forced to have a baby when it’s against their wishes.
An educated couple lasts longer since they focus on fixing their issues based on their union quality without any incentives. They tend to exhaust all the options that could help them resolve their relationship before opting for divorce.
Marriage is a union of two individuals of free will who are ready to support each other through the thick and thin of life. It is far from a patriarchal institution that suffocates two people pushing them to produce offspring fostering resentment.
“Marriage is a choice with its roots in education.”