Argument Analysis: Is Marriage Becoming Obsolete?

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“Is marriage becoming obsolete?” (Lemons, 2017, p. 1009). That is the issue given to Isabel V. Sawhill, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution, and Alan J. Hawkins, Associate Director of School of Family Life at Brigham Young University, to respond to. It was given by Jane F. Lemons for her report “Future of Marriage” in the 2017 CQ Researcher. It appears that Sawhill holds the stronger argument on this issue due to the strengths that appear in her response.
The written response from Isabel Sawhill to the question of whether marriage is obsolete, concludes that it is becoming obsolete. Sawhill explicitly states “I hope not, but I don’t think it’s coming back” (as referenced in Lemons, 2017, p. 1009). She starts off by pointing out that …show more content…
1009). Furthermore, she asserts that the “[g]roups with the lowest marital rates-minorities and the young-are becoming a larger share of the population” …show more content…
Hawkins states “I think it’s hard to make a case stick that marriage is becoming obsolete, if by obsolete you mean ‘no longer useful’” (as referenced in Lemons, 2017, p. 1009). Hawkins first argues that many Americans still get married and even are remarried. Secondly, he states that most adults, who aren’t married yet, want to get married eventually. Another argument is that among the “well-educated...divorce rates are significantly lower than they were for their parents’ generation” (as referenced in Lemons, 2017, p. 1009). Hawkins also, states that research shows staying married holds multiple benefits for the adults. In addition, he points out how a marriage is important to the child’s health. Hawkins concedes that popular voices, such as Millennials, believe that marriage is becoming obsolete. In fact, nearly half of them believe it is. However, he states that they believe this because they are accepting of other forms of family and they may not have the best example of marriage from their parents. In support of his conclusion, he argues that most Millennials say they would like to still get married. Hawkins gives a partial rebuttal by stating that “[t]here are voices arguing that marriage is a ‘vestige’, a remnant of an earlier time before the sexual revolution shaped both public and private life. But research that documents changes in marriage also prove
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