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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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There appears to be this belief in the U.S. (but not just there) that people usually got married straight out of high school back in the old days i.e. during the patriarchy. This was, in fact, never the case, and was only relatively widespread for a few years after WW2.

The median age at first marriage for women in the US was rangebound from 22 to 20 from 1890 until 1980. With, yes, the nadir just after WW2. This wasn't anything like "right after high school", partially because high school graduation rates didn't reach even 50% until the 1930s, but it's much younger than today (about 28). The gap between men's and women's age at marriage has shrunk also, from 4 years to 2.