In recent years, people are getting married later than ever before and the mean age at first marriage rise. During the latter half of the 20th century, the increase of the age at first marriage among Americans is obvious and related increases in the proportion of unmarried and never-married adults (Kreider 2005). The average age of first marriage up from 20 and 22 in 1960 and 23 and 26 in 1990 respectively for women and men to 27 for women and 29 for men in the United States (Eleanor 2013). There is a 86% probability of women and a 81% probability of men will have married for the first time by the age of 40 which is higher than get married at 30 a 74% probability of women and a 61% probability of men (Desai, S & Andrist, L 2010).
According to past research of this topic, the age at first marriage based on place of residence. In general, people in rural areas have higher rates of early marriage than in urban areas (McLaughlin 1993 & Westoff 2003). The 2000 MDHS reports the median age at first marriage is18.7 years in urban and 17.8 years in rural for women who from 20 to 24 years old. Moreover, 17.7 years, 18.3 years and 17.7 years for women from the Northern Region, Central Region and Southern Region regions respectively (Malawi Government 2002)
Religion is also a factor that has a significant effect in determining age at marriage, particularly for girls. Dixon states that elders assume they have a religious obligation to marry off their sons and daughters (1971). According to research various religious groups have different mean age at marriage. In Nigeria, Muslims have a mean age at marriage of 21.5 years different with Christians (non-Catholic) who have an average age at marriage of 22 years, and Catholics of 22.5 years (Adedokun 1999). The Nepal Fertility and Family Planning Survey of 1986 reports the mean age at marriage of girls as lower for Muslims which is 14.5 years than 16 years for Hindus and 19 years for Buddhists.
Another effect in age at first marriage is education, the age of marriage based on the duration of schooling. Age at marriage for educated women was significantly higher than women who had no formal education. Moreover, it was observed that for woman the higher level of education, the stronger the effect of educational attainment on age at marriage (Maitra, P 2004). Young women who want to receive higher education are more likely to delay marriage. Sheela and Audinarayana (2003) found the average age at marriage of women for 0–5 years of schooling is 20 years increases to 22.6 years for 11–15 years of schooling. The 2000 MDHS reports that the median marriage age of women increases incrementally with years of education, women who have no education is 17.4 years, have primary education is 17.5 years, have senor primary is 18.0 years and have Secondary and above is 20 years (Malawi Government 2002).
The mean age at first marriage is influenced by factors above which have been researched and discussed and there are many resources can be found. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to identify the effect of career on age at first marriage. It is hypothesized that women who are born after 1980 are more likely to consider their careers above marriage. Firstly, this report discusses the methodology; secondly, designing a questionnaire survey and then address a result through discussion, conclusion and recommendation of future.
References
Adedokun, A. 1999, “Perspectives on African Traditional Architecture and Planning”, Lagos, Nigeria, viewed 5 September 2014,
< http://uaps2011.princeton.edu/papers/110642>
Desai, S. & Andrist, L. 2010, "GENDER SCRIPTS AND AGE AT
