Desperate To Get Married

In 1960 the average age for a woman in America to get married was 20. By 1990 it was raised to 23. In 2013 it is 27. That's quite a jump since 1990 and I have read pluses and minuses to the increasing age of first marriages. But at this moment I can name four young women that I know who are younger than that and seem desperate to get married and I wonder if they are caught in the middle of this shift.

Desperation can lead to poor choices and I wonder if there are any statistics on the marriage success rate of marriages born out of desperation. I'm not even sure how you would measure that. It just stands to reason that you would be starting out on the wrong foot. 

Of course it may be just my judgment that these women are throwing themselves at bad situations and maybe these relationships are better than I suspect. I am not really saying that these guys they are chasing are losers either. I'm just saying they don't really seem ready for that level of relationship.

This got me thinking about why these women settle when they have so much to offer. I don't claim to know anything about biological clocks but I wonder if the late average age for marriage is part of the problem. It seems that in past decades there were a lot more people thinking seriously about marriage at a much earlier age. That would mean that for someone looking to get married they would find plenty of possible partners. In 2013 that pool of partners is significantly smaller and I would guess that that is frightening for someone desperate to get married.

The fear of missing your opportunity is strong but I think making sure you have a solid foundation for a relationship makes up for it. I have a strong urge to yell "relax and be patient" but I don't think they would find it very helpful.

One last thing, There could be just as many desperate young men out there as there are women. Ijust don't know any.