Individuals used to get married prior to living together, having children, and establishing careers. Today, before marrying you may live with your future spouse or with someone else, you may spend several years establishing yourself in the labor market, and you may even have children. It is not a status to enter into lightly; rather, you wait until you’re sure it’s going to work. Marriage is a status you work toward, a personal achievement, a mark of distinction. In some ways, then, marriage’s symbolic value has increased even as its practical significance has decreased
