areer goals are consistent with their family backgrounds (Allen & Kalish). Modern attitudes about sex are also influencing women. Traditionally, marriage was seen as a way to legitimize sexual relations. With the arrival of easily available birth control, sexual freedom is no longer a reward to be associated with marriage(Allen & Kalish). Premarital sex and living together arrangements have become more acceptable to many (Unger & Crawford). Women who married late will have been more able to have adequate sexual lives before marriage than women who married during the average marrying years. Late marriers considered premarital sex more acceptable than normative marriers. Willingness to participate in intimate personal and sexualrelationships outside of marriage reduces the attractiveness of the marriage role (Gottman, 1994). The pursuit of an education is another significant influence on women, with the level of education achieved by women being directly related to their marital age (Elder). College attendance among women has doubled - one out of five women obtained some college education in the mid 1960s compared to two out of five in the early 1980s. With their rapid increase in college attendance, by 1983 women constituted over half of the student body at two-year colleges and closed to half of the students attending four-year colleges (McLaughlin, 1988, p.35). The most dramatic changes have occurred in the professions of law and medicine. The number of women becoming lawyers increased from 230 in 1960 to approximately 12,000 in 1982 up from 3 to 33% of all lawyers. Similarly, the number of women who received medical degrees increased from 3% in 1960 to approximately 4,000 in 1981, representing a jump from 6 to 25% of all medical degrees. Women are also rapidly growing in the professions of architecture and business administration, professions previously dominated by males. By 1985women were earning half of all bachelor ...
