WSC students postpone proposals freshmen noted that being well-off financially and having an established career was much more desirable than was marriage and raising a family.| “Some people feel they need a husband and family to be fulfilled. I need to be successful,” said freshman Brenda McDonough. Being successful, in many cases, translates into reaching the upper echelons of the students’ chosen profession. ‘“‘When you're striving to reach the top ngela Cole places value on marriage, but said people need to be financially “established” before matrimony. So when her boyfriend proposed this year, she put him off. ‘He didn’t have a good job, he was poor. I told him we needed to wait,” Cole said. ‘“He’s engaged now to another person.” Angela is one of a growing number of Weber State students who are postponing marriage and family life to establish their careers. For many, marriage and an 8 to 5 job are no longer enough. At Weber State and nationwide, studies indicate values are shifting away from hearth and home and towards careers and cash. “T don’t plan to marry until I’m 35 or older,” said Shannon Dorrance. “Why risk my future?” Dorrance, a freshman majoring in radiology, has an uncle who, at 45, recently married. His uncle makes $175,000 a year. “TI want to make at least $75,000 before I get married. I want to live nice,” he said. For some, wedding vows mean losing freedom and assuming too much responsibility. Indeed, a growing number of students seem to feel that establishing a family is something they will inevitably do, but the thought fills them with dread. ‘Marriage is not the way to make me happy. It’s depressing just to think about it,” Dorrance said. A WSC study in 1985 by a political science class noted that over 70 percent of Weber State students are single. Some in that group are not married because the opportunity has not presented itself, but a significant number are electing not to risk their careers for marriage. And the phenomenon is not peculiar to Weber State. A recent study by UCLA of approximately 250,000 full-time college you're selfish. I want to, be selfish, and selfishness and marriage don’t go together,” McDonough said. “When you get married men want children, and hey. that slows life down. That’s the way it is.’ But marriage is perceived as not nly slowing the ascent up corporate ladders, it also slows the accumulation of personal wealth, students noted. Given a choice, many will put off marriage if it means escaping the financial struggle their parents experienced in their early years. “I don’t want to be financially pinched,” said Kristy Hughes, a junior. “I want a nice house and money to go shopping without someone telling me I can’t. Those things make life ie mvIne. It’s enjoyable to do what you want.’ ‘| don’t want to scrimp and save to buy things,” added Quinn Richens, a junior from Bountiful. “I’ve never really had to scrimp and save and | don’t want to start.” Students who spoke of delayed marriage envision themselves making $50,000 to $100,000 plus within three to five years after graduation. They want it all, and they want it now. “I don’t want to wait a long time,” one said. “I’ve got to have that BMW.” 70,000 | : 1989 Average age at marriage bs 1980 1970 1960 | 1950 be Men. [-] Women 1940 1930 1920 1910 1900 30 relationship skills, he said. “Children are going to lose out on a lot of things,” the WSC professor said. “It takes an awful lot of parental support to produce children who are self-confident and have a feeling of self-worth. I’m not sure they can be produced as well when both parents are away from the home.” income family 50.000 + |_| Executive twoincome family Dollars Dr. Campbell, however, is not convinced. Drug abuse, alcoholism, crime, juvenile delinquency and many other youth-related ills are simply symptoms of a society focusing on acquiring things instead of relationships, he said. ‘“‘Nobody’s saying we need to go back to ‘Leave it to Beaver.’ But on the other hand, some of the options we’ve come up with are not very good, to my way of thinking,” Dr. Campbell said. Society and families need to scrutinize what they are doing, and decide whether their actions help or hurt. Parents need to be particularly concerned they are not teaching the wrong values by their actions, he said. “There’s been a value shift during the last decade which is producing a snowball effect, and I think soon we will pay some mean consequences,” he said. According to the U.S. Census Bureau during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s the average age at marriage was 22 for men and 20 for women. But in the 1980’s those statistics took a dramatic leap. Women, especially, seem to be waiting longer. “Men don’t have a lot to worry about in a marriage. They can work and come home and relax. It doesn’t work that way for women,” McDonough said. What does all this say for the future? Family experts are not sure, but they are nervous. “What we do octsighe has consequences,” said Dr. Dean Collinwood, a sociologist. Two of the most obvious of those consequences are children who are much less susceptible to change and have less human or repair area with the wife in a clerical job. The mean combined salary for such couples 40,000 was $27,800. Couples where both husband and wife worked in the executive, professional or managerial areas comprised the high end of the salary scale taking home a mean yearly 30,000 20,000 income of $39,170 in 1981. * 10,000 By 1987 the average married couple’s salary was $37,170 while the income of husbands and wives who were both in pro- e : fessional positions had jumped to $62,760. 04 1950 1960 1970 1980 1987 Two-income _ family comparisons In 1981 9.6 million married couples, or 23 percent of all husbands and wives, worked. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the most frequent husband/wife work team was a husband employed in the production, craft “There’s a real polarization developing in America, the distance between rich and poor,” said Dr. Dean W. Collinwood, associate professor of sociology at Weber State. ““We’re developing an elitist class, but we are also developing a very, very poor section. Then there are those in the middle who pay inflated prices because merchants know couples have two incomes. But for those in the middle who have not yet arrived at the executive level, they really suffer,” he said. Source for graphs: U.S. Census Bureau