Note 45 — Chapter III

In searching for the causes of the changes of opinion upon this question we discover that here again they are due in the last analysis to the economic life. This springs from the fact that the number of women who work independently, who gain their own bread, increases continually. The causes which bring this about are of diverse kinds but can be reduced to the following. In the first place, the number of marriages contracted is in general diminishing, and this decrease is due to the continually diminishing number of marriages among the moneyed classes, and to the fact that these marriages take place later in life than formerly.45 It is not difficult to see that a retrograde movement in the marriages of the bourgeoisie must tell. Marriage brings an increase of expenses indeed, but among the proletariat it brings also an increase of revenue (the woman may earn something by working away from home, or save by doing the work of the house herself). Among the bourgeoisie, on the other hand, it brings with it pecuniary disadvantages only, at least if we except those cases in which the wife is more or less rich. The struggle for existence becomes more and more difficult, and especially among the members of the petty bourgeoisie and those who practice the liberal professions marriage does not take place until later in life, and in general the number of marriages diminishes.46 To this it is still necessary to add the fact that in Europe and in some of the states of North America the number of women exceeds that of the men.47