More Men than Women say "I do" to Marriage/ Kafka's Bachelor's Ill Luck

[Smartmarriages]

- MORE MEN THAN WOMEN SAY 'I DO' TO MARRIAGE, FAMILY
- BACHELOR'S ILL LUCK

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- MORE MEN THAN WOMEN SAY 'I DO' TO MARRIAGE, FAMILY
USA TODAY
5/31/2006 
By Sharon Jayson

Men are more likely than women to prefer marriage over lifelong singlehood
and in many ways are as interested in serious family relationships as women,
according to a study that provides the government's first comprehensive
glimpse into the male psyche.

The survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involved more
than 12,000 men and women ages 15 to 44. It asked a variety of questions
about sex, living together, marriage, divorce and parenting.

This the first time men have been included in the agency's study, which has
been conducted periodically since 1973. The analysis, released Wednesday,
focuses on their responses and offers some comparisons with women's
attitudes.

For example, to the statement "It is better to get married than go through
life single," 66% of men agreed, compared with 51% of women.

To the statement "It is more important for a man to spend a lot of time with
his family than be successful at his career," 76% of men and 72% of women
agreed.

"When asked about their attitudes about marriage and family and divorce,
more men agree on the relationship of marriage," says Gladys Martinez, the
study's lead author. "The majority agree it is better to get married, and
few people agree that divorce is best."

Adds Michael Kimmel, sociologist at State University of New York-Stony
Brook: "It's becoming a more sanguine picture of American masculinity."
Other survey findings:

€ 55% of men and 46% of women intend to have a child.

€ Among fathers in their first marriage, 90% live with their kids, and they
are involved with them, from feeding to bathing to helping with homework and
taking them to activities.

Neil Chethik, author of VoiceMale: What Husbands Really Think About Their
Marriages, Their Wives, Sex, Housework, and Commitment, says the new data
seem to mirror research he conducted in 2003 in conjunction with the
University of Kentucky. Of the 360 men studied, more than 90% of married men
said they would marry the same woman if given a chance to do it over again.

"Everything I've seen that has started to look at men more carefully shows
that men are committed or dedicated."
 
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- BACHELOR'S ILL LUCK

Reminds me of Kafka's "Bachelor's Ill Luck" - diane

It seems so dreadful to stay a bachelor, to become an old man struggling to
keep one's dignity while begging for an invitation whenever one wants to
spend an evening in company, to lie ill gazing for weeks into an empty room
from the corner where one's bed is, always having to say good night at the
front door, never to run up a stairway beside one's wife, to have only side
doors in one's room leading into other people's living rooms, having to
carry one's supper home in one's hand, having to admire other people's
children and not even being allowed to go on saying: "I have none myself,"
modeling oneself in appearance and behavior on one or two bachelors
remembered from one's youth.

That's how it will be, except that in reality, both today and later, one
will stand there with a palpable body and a real head, a real forehead, that
is, for smiting on with one's hand.
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