Originally published on TheAtlantic.com.
For a few decades, women’s rising share of the workforce probably led to fewer women getting married. But that’s not the case anymore.
It is common knowledge—and true—that marriage rates are falling and unmarried parenting is becoming more common (nicely illustrated here). On the other hand, it is also common knowledge—but not true—that women’s employment rates have continued to rise in the last two decades (as illustrated here.)
In the long run of history, there is little doubt these trends are related: As women’s economic independence increased with better job opportunities, marriage became more optional and fewer women got (or stayed) married. But in the medium run, on the scale of a few decades rather than long eras, it’s not that simple.
Here are the trends in marriage and labor force participation for women using U.S. Census data going back to 1900.
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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