WHY DO WOMEN MARRY?

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 128, 1 June 1908, Page 2

WHY DO WOMEN MARRY?

In a recent number of the "Scrap Book" the results of' Professor Ferriani's painstaking attempts to discover why women marry are amusingly reviewed. This, it seems, isa subject well worth the attention of an eminent sociologist. If you are not a sociologist; (says the reviewer) you will probably think that it was hardly necessary to take statistics on this subject. You will say to yourself that most women get married because they want tol and presumably because they are in love. But Professor Ferriani took no such frivolous view of an important question. He wanted exact information.

Therefore, he questioned one hundred different young women who had lately been married^ and he noted down their answers with the utmost care.* ,

These hundred women were not personal acquaintances of his. They lived in different parts of Italy, and belonged to different classes of society. It would undoubtedly have been better had the Italian sociologist questioned a thousand! women rather than a hundred, for the latter is rather a small number from which to draw any general conclusion. Nevertheless, it is quite interesting to summarise the results which Professor Ferriani has now' published. Thus, of the hundred young women, ten said that they had married because their life at home was either unhappy or narrow and 'restricted. They thought that marriage would enable them to get more enjoyment out of life-

Five answered that they married because their husbands were about to travel; and the prospect of seeing new countries appealed to the prospective brides.

Seven women said that, while they were happy enough with their families, they preferred to have homes of their own which they could direct and manage as they pleased. Five declared that they wished to be able to walk about without a chaperon, which they could not do as unmarried girls. In other words, they married so as to be freer to come and go at their discretion. Fou,r women took husbands because they thought that housekeeping was a pleasant thing, and because they were fond of children.

Three women declared that they hadn't intended to marry, and were sorry . after marriage that they had done so; although they did not explain to the professor just what compelled them to engage in matrimony against their own ' wishes.

Sixty-five were unable to answer the question at all. They, asserted that they had no reason whatever in marrying.

Professor Ferriani, in his summing up of these statistics, thinks that they indicate a very serious and grievous state of affairs. Only four per cent, of the women, he remarks, were led to marry because they cared for home life and household joys. The majority, he said, look at marriage simply as giving them freedom from the seclusion in which young girls are brought up. It means to them getting out into the great world and seeing life. He exclaims sardonically: "Our young women are finely prepared for marriage !" If Professor Ferriani. however, were not- so scientific, and if he had had a little more practical knowledge of the ways of women, it is likely that he would have seen some significance in the fact that sixty-five per cent, of his subjects gave no reason in particular for marrying.

He evidently thinks that this answer indicates a profound indifference. Most persons will, say that it proves the con+rary.

. When n strange scientist comes forcing his way into a household and questions a bride about her reasons for marrying it is not very probable that she will confide in him.

'Ir the iruill were known, it would most likely tur .l out that the sixtylive per cent, who gave no satisfactory answer really married for love. To this number we may add at least the four who dwelt upon the joys of domesticity, and children, ' which will give us a total of sixty-nine per cent, as representing perfectlf normal women, leaving only thirty-one per cent, in the category of the frivolous and undomestie

And of this thirty-one per cent., who can say how many were guying the professor?