As today’s bride walks down the aisle with her future husband, she has every excuse for being nervous. She is about to exchange vows of lifelong commitment; fidelity and mutual support. Yet all around her, she can see that many people do not and cannot live up to these vows. Her own marriage faces a one in three chance of divorce, if present trends continue.

Traditionally marriage in Britain is currently in a turmoil. Not only is the divorce rate rising, but the rate at which people marry is failing. Living together is more popular than ever before. The shape of the family is now no longer one man, one woman and their children. Instead, there are growing numbers of families which include step-patents, half sisters and brothers, or merely one lone parent coping on her own.
Compared with other countries, Britain is still conservative in its marriage patterns. In America, the divorce rate is even more startling. Two out of five marriages end in divorce. In Sweden living together is now more popular than marriage among couples in their early twenties and a similar pattern seems to be emerging in Denmark.

Although this is happening on a smaller scale in Britain, it has not yet become such a marked trend. But if we do follow the America and Scandinavian patterns, the future will see many more couples living together before marriage—and even more divorce.

Interestingly enough, it is women rather than men who get a divorce in the courts. Seven out of ten divorces are granted to the wife. Divorce, of course, only reflects the legal winding up of a marriage which may have effectively broken up long before. The partner who petitions for divorce may not be the partner who broke up the marriage. Women usually have more to gain from the courts in the way of alimony rights to the home, and child maintenance. But there is also a fascinating disproportion in one of the grounds that the sexes choose for divorce. The grounds of unreasonable or cruel behaviors are overwhelmingly chosen by ten times more women than men. Does this mean that women will put up with less than they used to?

What can be inferred from the passage ?