单选题
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Marriage in Men's Lives is
a courageous and innovative book: courageous because it tackles a politically
and socially charged issue—marriage as a social institution—in a time when texts
on the family portray marriage as just one of any number of equally valuable
lifestyle choices; innovative because it looks closely at the ways in which a
key social institution affects individuals, in this case, the way that marriage
affects men.
Even as sex differences within marriage have
diminished, the role of husband still plays a unique function in the lives of
men. Steven Nock argues that adolescent boys face challenges in becoming men
that adolescent girls do not face in becoming women. According to Nock,
"Masculinity is precarious and must be sustained in adulthood. Normative
marriage does this. A man develops, sustains, and displays his masculine
identity in his marriage. The adult roles that men occupy as husbands are core
aspect of their masculinity." The behaviors expected of married men as husbands,
according to Nock, are the same behaviors expected of husbands as men. So
getting married and successfully doing the things that husbands do allows men to
achieve and sustain their masculinity.
Nock argues that if
marriage provides a mechanism through which men establish and maintain their
masculinity, marriage should have consistent and predictable consequences. He
reasons that normative marriage will have different consequences than other
forms of marriage. Nock argues that marriage causes men to become more
successful, participate in social life, and to become more philanthropic. This
is, in today's climate of extreme caution about causal relationships, a bold
claim. He tests it using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and
fixed effect models, to separate changes that accompany aging from those that
happen uniquely at marriage. To measure achievement, Nock uses annual income,
annual weeks worked, and occupational prestige. He measures social participation
with time spent on housework, social contacts, and organizational involvement;
and he measures generosity with gifts to non-relatives and loans to relatives
and non-relatives.
To summarize his results too briefly, when
men marry, their achievements rise on all measures; they reduce their time in
housework; increase their contact with relatives, church services and church
events, and coworkers; and decrease contact with friends and time in bars. When
men marry, they give fewer and smaller gifts and loans to non-relatives and more
and larger loans to relatives. Nock also looks at changes in each of the
measures of adult achievement, social participation, and generosity with changes
in each of the dimensions of normative marriage. He finds, generally, that moves
toward normative marriage increase achievements, social participation with
family and religious organizations, and generosity to relatives. Changes toward
more normative marriage also reduce men's time in housework, their social
contacts with friends, and social events in bars. (465 words)