Women's Marital Timing at the Turn of the Century: Generational and Ethnic Differences

Abstract

This article utilizes accelerated failure time models to estimate the effect of immigration, generation, and ethnicity on timing of first marriage among women living in the United States in 1910. Although historical research suggests that family need resulted in marital delay, I argue that family strategies for socioeconomic mobility is a more likely explanation. Second-generation women from groups experiencing substantial socioeconomic mobility across the generations demonstrate the greatest likelihood of marital delay; this is particularly notable for Jewish women. Migration does not have the expected delaying effect on marriage; those arriving as children or single adults marry at younger ages than either those who wed in the country of origin or their second-generation counterparts. Findings are discussed in light of ethnic group stratification and the importance of integrating women into mobility frameworks.