MORE HARD EVIDENCE BEHIND MAN‑WOMAN MARRIAGE

News

Marriage is a nation’s “most fundamental institution” and it “may matter more than ever for the well-being of children and adults”, a leading American sociologist has said.

Writing for The Heritage Foundation – a major US think tank – the University of Virginia’s Professor Brad Wilcox stresses that it’s marriage itself that makes people healthier – it’s not just that healthier people get married in the first place.

“Marriage is not simply an institution that collects relatively hardworking, socially adept and happy people”, he writes.

“It is also an institution that transforms people, bonding men and women to a particular person, to a whole way of life. In doing so… it endows their lives, day in and day out, with more meaning, prosperity, stability and solidarity, all of which typically boost the sense of satisfaction that men and women take from their lives after they enter our civilization’s most fundamental institution.”

The evidence of marriage’s benefits has been accumulating for decades, compiled through the research of top academics. Prof Wilcox summarises:

“So, more than 50 years of social science and medical research generally demonstrate that married men and women live longer, have healthier lives, earn and save more money, recover more quickly and successfully from illness, steer clear of trouble with the law, are less likely to attempt and commit suicide and are more likely to be happy. Indeed, on most measures of financial, physical, social and emotional well-being, men, women, and children in stable married homes do better.”

Wilcox concludes that this evidence should of course not just be of academic interest; it should change the way we run society, putting marriage at the centre where it belongs:

“Scholars, journalists, professionals and policymakers should not only take note of marriage’s rising value, but they should also act to make sure that more men, women, and children benefit from our nation’s most fundamental institution.”

While the world chases after fashionable ideologies of ‘gender identity’ and ‘blended families’ based on pseudoscience and wishful thinking, the evidence shows that marriage – real marriage between a man and a woman – is what works, because it’s hard-wired into human nature.

At C4M we keep the evidence front and centre. That is why we urge policymakers to rebuild a culture that prizes lifelong, man woman marriage. It’s why we resource supporters with clear, credible research such as Prof Wilcox’s, and it’s why we challenge every proposal—however fashionable—that sidelines this foundational institution. Together let’s do all we can to ensure that more children grow up in stable homes, and that society reaps the proven benefits of real marriage.