Is a successful marriage a utopia today?

A second reason might have to do with the role of women in our society. Nowadays nearly every woman is educated or emancipated enough to earn her own money. Therefore only some women are still financially dependent on their husbands which was/is often a reason for women staying married although being unhappy in the relationship. A woman who earns her own money and can lead an independent life without her husband as well will have no fear of getting divorced, as this was the case in the last centuries.

However, not only the roles of women, but also our society as a whole has changed and made divorce absolutely tolerable. In former times our society consisted of either happy or unhappy married couples with at least one or two children. These couples married or were forced to marry fairly early and stayed together till the end of their days. Nowadays our society is structured completely different: many couples life together without marrying or having children, others marry and get divorced once or more often. Additionally homosexual relationships are relatively tolerated and the number of singles, who spend the main part of their life alone, is one the raise too. In such a heterogeneous society divorce has become a normal, for some even a natural, thing. Terms like common law spouses have emerged and some people think of their partners as temporary phenomenon only.

Nevertheless I truly believe that in the 21st century a successful marriage must not be or is not Utopia. I, for myself, cannot tell what future holds in store for me and my relationship, but I can observe many happy and therefore successful marriages which have been lasting for more than 25 years by now in my surrounding. In my opinion the society and therefore the people living in a society are always subject to change. And these changes also include changes of people’s behaviours, customs, morals or values. Although today’s marriage statistics do not suggest bright expectations for a successful marriage, I think it is still can and does happen. Maybe the preliminaries for such a marriage have changed, nevertheless many couples show us that living in our society happily and married is still possible. So, for many couples a successful marriage has become Utopia, but the alternative is still there.