William J. Good Book Award 1999
American Sociological Association
Family Section
Marriage in Men's Lives
by Steven L. Nock
William J. Good Book Award 1999
American Sociological Association
Family Section
Husbands
and wives share a marriage, but not the same experiences of marriage. Men and
women live in worlds that are organized around gender, and their marriages reflect
differing realities. As life companions, they respond to each other; but they
also respond to the cultural definitions of what it means to be a husband and
a wife. What has fascinated social and behavioral scientists for several years,
however, is not only that husbands' and wives' experiences are different, but
also that "his" marriage is better than "hers." Numerous
findings have reported that married men are better off than married women on
measures of both physical and mental health, but the reasons are not yet fully
understood.
In Marriage in Men's Lives, Dr. Nock proposes an explanation for this. He focuses on marriage as a system of rules, customs, and expectations. The book shows that marriage changes men on basic dimensions of achievement, participation in public social life, and philanthropy because marriage reinforces such behaviors as part of adult masculinity. Men in modern society crave well-being, comfort, luxury, and prestige, and marriage affords a means of achieving these things within circumscribed legitimate boundaries. Using a huge data base of over 6,000 interviews with men studied yearly since 1979, Dr. Nock draws some interesting and far-reachin conclusions about the nature of marriage, and predicts that marriage is definitely here to stay.
More books by Steven L. Nock
Measuring
Social Judgements: The Factorial Survey Approach
The Costs
of Privacy-Surveillance & Reputation in America
Introduction to Sociology
-Third Edition
The Sociology of Public Issues
Sociology of the Family
- Second Edition