National Marriage Week USA isn't just a week out of the calendar year to express the joy of marriage; rather it is a week to raise awareness on the importance and long-term rewards a stable marriage has to offer.
Every year, February 7-14 is the week that is declared extensively for marriages. Executive director Sheila Weber has consistently expressed to the general public why this week out of the year is one to not be overlooked.
On the official website, Weber explains the significance of marriage and the grand role it plays in culture and society. "National Marriage Week works to promote the benefits of marriage and lets people know where [they] can get help for their own marriages or how to help others," said Weber.
To support the evidence that marriages are a staple to healthy, stable families and homes, testimonies presented to Congress broke down several numbers. According to Weber, 53% of all children are born to single mothers under the age of 30. With no support figure, young women are prone to drop out of school or work to be the caretaker and be in financial hardship, which can lead to welfare or poverty. "If we had the marriage rates today that we had in 1970, we'd have 25% less poverty," explained Weber.
The intertwining of income, finances and marriage is an equation that the nation is not understanding or being taken into full grasp, according to Weber. The difference of classes in the nation in terms of finances is centered around marriage. Calling the decline of marriage as the "most neglected national emergency," Weber elaborates that wealthier individuals manage their home life better because of marriage.
"The wealthy are doing a better job at keeping marriages intact and their children are benefitting from the influence of both male and female parenting influence and from enriching educational habits in those homes," said Weber.
Along with the National Marriage Week, Weber and the committee call for further action on the matter of marriage. Part of the awareness includes action propositions such as programs for home improvement to poorer families, educating on decreasing the rate of wedlock births and keeping youngsters invested in school. The call for research for these programs are all to achieve the goal of restoring marriage in its right definition and decrease the poverty as a result.
National Marriage Week remains to be an acknowledged international movement, where it hopes to show the results of marriage include "stable finances, better health, [and] unsung anti-poverty programs." Statistics have been presented in the connection of marriage and poverty, and the movement will look to once again provide aid and awareness programs on this particular week this year.
