Bi-national Weddings in Spain: A Recent and Increasingly Frequent Phenomenon in the Context of the Globalization of the Marriage Market

Abstract

Our proposal gathers data from an ongoing project about the formation of binational heterosexual couples in Spain. Our focus is the new territory built by binational couples to address and understand part of the transformation of the concepts of femininity and masculinity and gender relations. Our contribution proposes the hypothesis that the emergence of these unions in Spain is mainly related to the changes experienced in the last decades by most Spanish women and the reaction provoked by these changes in the masculine Spanish population that has embarked upon the search of a more traditional woman. Specific characteristics of these couples are described, paying attention to variables such as the age of women, the percenta ge of these that are housewives, urban or rural origins of men, educational level of both spouses and occupational class of the wife.