{"id":844,"date":"1942-08-20T09:02:13","date_gmt":"1942-08-20T13:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/?p=844"},"modified":"2017-08-24T23:16:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T03:16:31","slug":"marital-family-ties-strengthen-during-wartime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/1942\/08\/20\/marital-family-ties-strengthen-during-wartime\/","title":{"rendered":"Marital, family ties strengthen during wartime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wartime is creating families as couples exchange their vows before husbands depart for battle abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n

This marital boom started as early as the Pearl Harbor attacks last December. In some cities, there were more than twice as many marriages in December 1941 compared to December 1940. <\/span><\/p>\n

The marriage rate has continued to rise in 1942, and it shows no sign of slowing. The 1942 Summer Social Register, chronicling the increase, refers to a new category of\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cwar marriages.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Reasons for the marriage boom include men trying to stabilize relationships and secure their commitments before they go to war, and women seeking to find husbands since they are eager to start families and don\u2019t know when the war will be over. Many young women between the ages of 17 and 22 are consumed by their fear, and some older adults confirm that wartime marriages could be looked at as a \u201cnow or never\u201d scenario.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not everyone is reaching for the champagne, however. Some church officials are warning against rushing into marriage and worry that a rise in wartime marriages could correlate to a rise in divorce once the war is over.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those people is Gould Wickey, the vice president of the Washington Council of Church Women. <\/span><\/p>\n

Wickey said, \u201cGirls just aren\u2019t thinking\u201d when it comes to the rush of wartime marriages. She added that, \u201cMerely the desire to be married or sheer physical attraction are the basis for most of the brief-acquaintance marriages.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

She suggested that couples take their time to get to know one another before getting married to have a happy relationship. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf boys and girls are truly in love with each other, they will be true unmarried as well as married. Also, the soldiers can go away with an easier conscience without a wife and a possible family to worry about. He can\u2019t be very happy if the soldier is vitally concerned over a coming baby,\u201d Wickey said. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Edward H. Pruden echoed these sentiments. Pruden warned against marriages that serve as a way for young adults to gain economic security. He added that there is nothing wrong with being \u201ca bachelor or maiden lady.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, some government officials suspect that couples are trying to escape provisions of the Selective Service Act through dependency deferments as a way to use marriage to avoid direct involvement in the war. <\/span><\/p>\n

Denver draft officials said that they were seeing \u201can alarming tendency to use marriage as a method of draft evasion.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Many couples who plan to get married before entering the war have opted for spring weddings this year. On May 29, the U.S. Military Academy, in West Point, N.Y., was the scene of 25 marriages in one day. They took place simultaneously in three separate chapels, with half-hour ceremonies proceeding like clockwork the entire day, from 12:30-9 p.m. Most of the 25 grooms had just been commissioned as second lieutenants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

A “marriage mill” in Salome, Arizona helps couples who are eager to tie the knot. Photograph by Russell Lee. From Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n

It remains to be seen whether the marriage boom will also bring a baby boom. The U.S. birth rate was the largest recorded in the country’s history with nearly 2.5 million babies recorded, a whopping 140,000 more births than in 1940. Those babies were conceived well before the U.S. entered the war, but\u00a0Katharine F. Lenroot,\u00a0<\/span>Chief of the Children\u2019s Bureau of the Department of Labor, says high marital and birth rates are actually common during wartime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn every war period there is a great tendency toward early marriages and an increased birth rate, and that is true at this period,\u201d Lenroot said. \u201cYoung people are getting married either in anticipation of separations or just after men enter the military service, and the numbers of babies is increasing for that reason.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Lenroot added that she suspects that the birth rate will continue to increase over the next year or two. <\/span><\/p>\n

Committees in various Washington churches will plan courses to help control and ease the marital boom, and to inform couples of the truths of marriage and family life. These courses will put an emphasis on courtship, engagement, and premarital and post-marital counseling. <\/span><\/p>\n

Despite criticism, some officials say that the wartime marriage trend is here to stay.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo bring readjustment to such a marriage is practically impossible. Parents of World War I didn’t know each other well enough to make adjustments to changed conditions. Neither will the boys and girls today be able to do any better\u2014 if as well,\u201d Wickey predicted. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Allan, Robert Tate. \u201cPastors discuss courtship and marriage, problems of youth in war world.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>The Washington Post<\/i>, Feb. 02, 1942, pg. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirth rate in \u201941 highest in history.\u201d The New York Times<\/i>, Jun. 04, 1942, pg. 16. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cowan, Ruth. Associated Press. \u201cDespite the war, world found plenty of time for romance in\u00a0<\/span>1940; cupid\u2019s range was wide and weddings ran social scale.\u201d The Washington Post<\/i>, Dec.\u00a015, 1940, pg. S8. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lackman, Libby. \u201cWest Point scene of 25 marriages.\u201d The New York Times<\/i>, May 30, 1942, pg.\u00a0<\/span>10.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarital cupid: Wartime engagements hold spotlight in capital circles.\u201d The Washington Post<\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>Aug. 19, 1942, pg. 15.<\/p>\n

Reynolds, Genevieve. \u201cWoman church leader deplores war marriage.\u201d The Washington Post,<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/i>Aug. 9, 1942, pg. D6. <\/span><\/p>\n

The United Press, \u201cFlood of marriages marks our war entry; some cities report increases up to<\/span> 150%.\u201d The New York Times<\/i>, Jan. 10, 1942, pg. 32.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wartime is creating families as couples exchange their vows before husbands depart for battle abroad. This marital boom started as early as the Pearl Harbor attacks last December. In some cities, there were more than twice as many marriages in December 1941 compared to December 1940. The marriage rate has continued to rise in 1942, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3783,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[27,24,26],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-the-home-front","tag-family-life","tag-the-home-front","tag-wartime-marriages","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/files\/2017\/03\/8a30968v.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8bpwr-dC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3783"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}