The news that 51 percent of all American women live without a spouse might be enough to make you invest in cat futures.

美國所有婦女中有51%沒有配偶，這則新聞可能足以讓你投資貓期貨。

But consider, too, the flip side: about half of all men find themselves in the same situation. As the number of people marrying has dropped off in the last 45 years, the marriage rate has declined equally for men and for women.

但再換個角度想想，約一半男人發現，他們處境相同，過去45年來，結婚人數直直落，不管男女，結婚率都下跌。

But when it comes to marriage, the two Americas aren't divided by gender. And it's not the career girls on the losing end. It's their less educated manicurists or housekeepers, women who might arguably be less able to live on their own.

但談到婚姻，這兩半美國並非由性別切割，而且輸家也不是職業女性，而是教育程度較低的修指甲師或管家，她們可以說是比較無法自力更生的女性。

Statistics show that college educated women are more likely to marry than non-college educated women — although they marry, on average, two years later. In the past, less educated women often "married up." Now, marriage has become more one of equals; when more highly educated men marry, it tends to be more highly educated women.

統計數字顯示，受大學教育的女性比未受大學教育的女性更可能結婚，雖然她們平均晚兩年才結婚。過去，教育程度較差的女性往往「高攀嫁人」算了。現在，談起婚姻，男女平等，受較高教育的男人結婚時，他們的對象多半是教育程度較高的女性。

Women with more education also are becoming less likely to divorce, or inclined to divorce, than those with less education. They are even less likely to be widowed all in all, less likely to end up alone.

同時，受較高教育的女性，比那些教育程度較低的女性較不可能或較無意願離婚。總的說來，她們甚至較不可能守寡，較不能孤家寡人一個。

"Educated women used to have a difficult time," said David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. "Now they're the most desired." In Princeton, where he lives, men used to marry "way down the line," Mr. Popenoe said. No more.

「受過教育的女性本來處境艱難，」羅格斯大學「全國婚姻計畫」共同主任波彭諾說。「現在，她們最搶手。」波彭諾住在普林斯頓， 當地男人過去結婚都「降格以求」，但今非昔比。

Among women ages 25-34, 59 percent of college graduates are married, compared with 51 percent of non-college graduates, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau's June 2006 Current Population Survey by Steven P. Martin, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. The same is true at older age groups: the difference is 75 percent to 62 percent for those ages 35-44, and 50 percent to 41 percent among those 65 and older.

馬里蘭大學社會學家馬丁，根據2006年6月人口統計局當前人口調查分析，25至34歲年齡層的婦女中，59%大學畢業生已婚，沒上大學的只有51%。較高年齡層的婦女情況也是如此，35至44歲年齡層的比率是75%比62%，65歲以上者則是50%比41%。

The difference is smaller between men and women. According to the census, 55 percent of men are married, down from 69.3 percent in 1960, and 51.5 percent of women are, down from 65.9 percent in 1960.

男女結婚比率差距較小，據人口統計數字，55%男性已婚，比1960年的69.3%要低；51.5%女性已婚，也比1960年的65.9%低。

The number of women living without a spouse is greater largely because women live longer, leaving them more likely to be widowed. Older men are also more likely to remarry. To control for these variables, consider 35-44 year olds. In 2005, according to the census, 66.2 percent of men in this age group were married, down from 88 percent in 1960; 67.2 percent of women were married, down from 87.4 percent.

沒有配偶獨居的女性較多，泰半因女性較長壽，因而較可能守寡。另外，較年長的男性較可能再婚。為了控制這些變數，以35至44歲年齡層為例，在2005年，66.2%男性已婚，比1960年的88%低；女性有67.2%已婚，也比87.4%少。

Commitment-averse men in their 20's and 30's, it turns out, look the same whether or not they have a college degree. In surveys and focus groups, they fit well into the old stereotypes: they fear marriage means a loss of liberty; they worry a wife will want to change them. They don't trust women to tell the truth about past relationships, or they are waiting for the soul mate who hasn't appeared. With the rising frequency of cohabitation, they can get sex without marriage, and they might lose their hard-earned money in a divorce, so what's the rush

二、三十歲的男人不願對婚姻輕下承諾，事實證明，不管有沒有大學學位看來都一樣。在調查和焦點團體中，他們和過去的刻板印象不謀而合，他們怕婚後會喪失自由，他們也擔心老婆會想改變他們，他們不相信女性會坦白交待過去的關係，又或者他們還在苦等情投意合的心靈伴侶出現。同居率節節高升，他們不必結婚就可以有性生活，何況離婚時，他們辛苦賺來的錢可能付諸流水，所以急什麼？

As a Marriage Project report concluded, with no biological or sociological clock ticking, "boys can remain boys indefinitely."

誠如一項婚姻計畫報告所下的結論，如果不是生理或社會時鐘滴答響，「男人永遠長不大」。

Why have things changed so much for women who don't have the choices that educated women have While marriage used to be something you did before launching a life or career, now it is seen as something you do after you're financially stable — when you can buy a house, say. The same is true for all classes. But the less educated may not get there.

為什麼那些不像受過良好教育的女人有這麼多選擇的婦女，境遇改變這麼大？過去要先成家再立業，展開人生；如今則要等經濟情況穩定，可以購屋置產後才考慮結婚，所有階層皆然。但教育程度較差者可能辦不到。

"Women are saying, 'I'm not ready, I want to work for a while, the guys I hang around with don't make enough money and they don't want a commitment,'" Christopher Jencks, a professor of social policy at Harvard said.

「女人說，『我還沒準備好，我要先工作一陣子，我正在交往的男友賺的錢不夠，他們也不願被套牢，』」哈佛大學社會系教授詹克斯說。

"The way we used to look at marriage was that if women were highly educated, they had higher earning power, they were more culturally liberal and people might have predicted less marriage among them," Mr. Martin said. "What's becoming more powerful is the idea that economic resources are conducive to stable marriages. Women who have more money or the potential for more money are married to men who have more stable income."

「我們過去看婚姻總認為，如果女人教育水準高，賺錢能力強，她們在文化上比較開放，人們可能預言，她們結婚率較低，」馬丁說。「現在比較有力的概念是經濟資源有助於維繫婚姻。比較有錢或較有賺錢潛能的女人，都和收入比較穩定的男人結婚。」

The better educated husbands and wives tend to share intellectual interests and economic backgrounds, as well as ideas about the division of household roles. They also have more earning power. And as in so many other things, in marriage, money helps ease the way.

受較高等教育的夫妻較能分享知性興趣及經濟背景，乃至於家事分工，他們賺錢能力也較高，而一如其他很多事，在婚姻中，有錢好辦事。




《詞解》
spouse 配偶
manicurists 修指甲師
arguably 可以說是
soul mate 情投意合的心靈伴侶