With work creaming off the best and most time in both the husbands' and wives' lives, it's not surprising that affairs so often originate in the workplace. If Australian Bureau of Statistics figures are anything to go by, the decline of marriage is getting worse rather than better. In 1986 the divorce rate per 1,000 was 10.7, but by 1996 it had climbed to 12.9. Of course, marriage is just one of a number of relationship choices available. Unfortunately, the statistical information on de facto arrangements is more erratic.
Women have children when it is safe to do so.
Strong relationships with her partner and her partner's extended family were vital for a woman's security. For a whole host of reasons, the late 1990s is not a safe time to be having children. In the early 1960s, when marriage was at its peak and women and men got married in their late teens and early 20s, women could expect to have 3.8 children, and most of these children would survive infancy and grow to maturity. With the replacement rate being 2.1, this level of fertility ensured strong growth in the population, independently of immigration. By 1998, the median age for women at first marriage was almost 26.