Except that the wife not working is a product of the Victorian era and the rise of whole classes of people where the husband worked outside the home. In previous social systems the wife did different work than the husband did, true, but if the husband had to work so did the wife. But when both are working in/around the home (instead of one going off to work in a separate place) the distinctions are far lesser.
And age at marriage can vary wildly from place to place, but usually the average age of the two spouses is fairly close even though the husband is usually older at least a little bit. In early modern Europe, for example (1600s-1700s), average age at marriage was 25-27 for men and 22-25 for women. You sometimes got people marrying younger than that; but it was usually rich nobles making a dynastic marriage. Rich nobles who a) had property and land and didn't need to work for it, and b) needed a secure heir to pass it on to as soon as possible.
Here's the thing we often forget about pretty much any other social system in the history of the world: it's all about family, on an inter-generational level. You have a responsibility to your family, and that responsibility is to take your place in society, marry to the family's advantage, and pass on the family skills, jobs, genes, and property to the next generation. This is true in most societies in the history of the world.
In a culture like that, it is deeply, deeply weird to have someone not marry until they are in their 40s, unless they are a pauper ... and by that I mean "can't reliably afford to feed/clothe/house themselves." You have to buck a lot of social pressure to do it. It does happen ... but seldom by accident.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2016-06-23 05:15 am (UTC)And age at marriage can vary wildly from place to place, but usually the average age of the two spouses is fairly close even though the husband is usually older at least a little bit. In early modern Europe, for example (1600s-1700s), average age at marriage was 25-27 for men and 22-25 for women. You sometimes got people marrying younger than that; but it was usually rich nobles making a dynastic marriage. Rich nobles who a) had property and land and didn't need to work for it, and b) needed a secure heir to pass it on to as soon as possible.
Here's the thing we often forget about pretty much any other social system in the history of the world: it's all about family, on an inter-generational level. You have a responsibility to your family, and that responsibility is to take your place in society, marry to the family's advantage, and pass on the family skills, jobs, genes, and property to the next generation. This is true in most societies in the history of the world.
In a culture like that, it is deeply, deeply weird to have someone not marry until they are in their 40s, unless they are a pauper ... and by that I mean "can't reliably afford to feed/clothe/house themselves." You have to buck a lot of social pressure to do it. It does happen ... but seldom by accident.