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OCR for page 156
CHAPTER 7
NUPTIALITY
As will be seen in the next chapter, a decline in marital
fertility was the primary determinant of the fertility
declines noted above. This conclusion parallels that of
the national-level analysis in Part I. Before analyzing
marital fertility, however, it is important to examine
some other determinants related to nuptiality -the type
of union and the initial, mean, and final age at mar-
riage--that can contribute to a rise or fall in fertility.
TYPE OF UNION
Distribution of Types of Union
Table 53 shows the distribution of ever-marr~ed women from
the NIER according to type of union in three periods of
timeool960, 1910 f and 1915. Before this table is anal-
yzed, some points must be made about the various types of
unions During the colonial and imperial periods in Bra-
zil, marriages were performed by the Catholic Church. In
189G, however, civil marriage was legally instituted as
the only valid form of marriage. Since then, those who
follow some kind of religion have continued to conduct
religious marriages, either exclusively or as a complement
to legal marriage. Two other types of union are present
in Brazilian society: consensual union and permanent
union. Both of these are also known as free unions since
they are not limited by any type of binding connection,
civil or religious. Both consensual and permanent unions
are defined as stable: in the former, the couple live in
the same house; in the latter, they do not.
Comparing the nine NIER contexts tTable 53), for a
fixed time period, say 197S, there is a great difference
156
OCR for page 157
157
in the types of union, ranging from the situate on in which
practically all unions were legal (Santa Cruz do Sul-
Urban) to the opposite extreme, in which less than 30
percent of couples legalized their unions (Parnaiba-
Rural). It is also noteworthy, in the same line of
thought, that in Parnaiba-Urban and -Rural, and in Con-
ceicso do Araguaia, the category Religious Only accounted
for a large nu~nher of unions; in the other contexts, free
union was more common than religious union, even reaching
one-third of all unions in Recife. This diversity mung
contexts found for 1975 can also be seen for earlier per-
iods from at least 1960 onward, as the data in Table 53
clearly show. Indeed, in 1960 the proportion of legal
unions varied from 29.9 percent in Parnaiba-Rural to 92.5
percent in Santa Cruz-Urban; between these extremes, there
were intermediate figures such as 52.0 percent in
Parnaiba-Urban, 63 percent in Araguaia, and 66.6 percent
in Recife. What is noteworthy here, however, is that for
all contexts, the main change over the 15 years analyzed
consisted of a gradual decline in religious as compared
with free unions. In certain contexts, this decline was
smaller, as in Sao Jose and Santa Cruz-Urban; in others
it was greater, as in Parnaiba-Urban and -Rural, and in
Recife. In Sertaozinho, the fall in the number of relig-
ious unions was not sufficient to account for the increase
found For free unions, but was partly due to a reduction
in the relative weight of legal unions; the same can be
said of Conceicso do Araguaia.
This relative increase in free unions as a result of a
fall in either religious or legalized unions is also shown
in Table 54, based on the findings of the 1960 and 1970
censuses and the 1978 PNAD (National Household Sample
Survey). It should be observed that in these sources,
free unions include only consensual unions; there is no
explicit mention of permanent unions. From this it can
be concluded that the latter have been incorporated in
either the consensual or single category. Indeed, the
1970 census defined single women as follows: Those women
who have not entered into any civil or religious, or civil
and religious marriage, and do not live in a stable con-
sensual union..
The data in Table 54 also lend some validity to the
findings from the NIER shown in Table 53 (which are depen-
dent on sample fluctuations given the small number of
cases): there is a great deal of similarity between the
contexts (Table 53) within a particular region and the
results for that same region (Table 54); in other words,
OCR for page 158
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TABLE 54 Percent Distribution of Ever-Married Women, by
Type of Mar ital Union, 1960, 1970, and 1978: Brazil
Type of Union
Con text
Religious Civil and Religious
Only and Civil Only Consensual
Brazil
1960 20 O 2 73. ~ 6.
i970 140. 78~6 801
1978 8 O 1 81 O 2 10.7
.
Sao Paulo
1960 5~1 9201 2~8
1970 301 92~8 4~1
1978 1e 1 90~3 8eO
Southern States
1960 9.6 86.8 3.6
1910 6.2 89.7 4.l
1978 3.5 90.0 6.5
Minas Gerale/
Esplrito Sento
1960 17.9 78. a 3. 2
1970 lO.B 85.2 4.0
1918 5. 0 89.0 6.4
North.~atern States
1960 42.S 48.1 9.d
1970 33. ~ 57 O 6 9O 3
1978 21~5 64ol 1404
=
Source s Milton and Hong (1981b) .
Sao Jose dos Campos is similar to Sao Paulo, Santa Cruz
do Sul to the Southern Region' and Parnaiba to the North-
eastern Region. It is also noteworthy that Table 54
shows, both for the country as a whole and for the four
regions, a marked increase in free unions between 1960
and 1978.
Marriage strategies can also be understood in light of
the various types of union in which interviewees found
themselves . Consider ing the nine contexts as a whole
f irst of all, it can be seen that out of a total of 2, 23 4
unions, the great majority--88 percent--were first
unions. Of these, 71 percent were legal unions, while
half of the remaining 30 percent were religious and the
other half free (Table 551. It ~s evident that, with
divorce impossible in Brazil at the time, a new civil
marriage was impossible, so that mung second unions,
permanent and consensual unions were more frequent. Thus
legal unions among second unions refer to cases where Ache
OCR for page 161
161
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162
f irst legal union ended in widowhood, or the f irst relig-
ious or f ree union ended in separation ~
It is iIIunediately noteworthy that at the start of their
married lives, 14 percent of women (or of men or of part-
ners) preferred no binding connection J and 6 percent did
not even choose the bond of living together. This type
of preference is a focal point of the discussion in the
present chapter. First, the chapter analyzes whether this
kind of behavior is more colon in more recent than in
older unions ~ Next, it examines whether even the conven
tional rural/urban distinction dif ferentiates this beha~r-
ior O Finally, these issues will be elaborated by examin -
ing each context individually.
Table 56 shows the distribution of the total of 1967
first unions of ever-saarried women according to when the
unicorn occurred, that is, women rearried by 1960, between
1961 and 1970, and after 1970. As can be. seen, more than
half were older unions--before 1960--while 29~1 percent
took place between 1961 and 1970; the rest were more
recent unions. It is interesting to note that the prefer-
ence for legal unions remained at the same level: about
71 percent of first unicorns were legal, irrespective of
when they were initiated. Religious unions, however,
gradually lost their relative position' falling from 18.4
percent for older unions to 7 0 3 percent for those initi-
ated after 1970; there was also a concomitant rise in per-
manent and consensual unions, which together accounted
for 2lo3 percent of more recent unions. In other words,
the points made in the analysis of Tables 53 and 54 are
supported by using as a reference point whether the union
is recent or not' that is, the different marriage cohorts.
PI breakdown of the total sample from the nine contexts
into urban and rural shows first that within both groups
there is considerable similarity in the temporality of
first unions. Indeed' 52 percent and 51 percent calf women
were married before 1960 in urban and rural contexts,
respectively; for both contexts 29 percent were married
between 1961 and 1970.
on the other hand, some very
interesting differences can be seen in both contexts in
r egard to types of unions and thing. As regards the
preference for religious union as the first union, in
urban contexts, this preference declined drastically over
tine, from 14.0 percent to 2.6 percent, a drop of 5.4
times (see Table 57); in the rural areas, ache drop was
only 1. 8 times . For more recent rural mart Sages, relig i-
ous unions represented about the same proportion (13.8
percent) as that for marriages that took place at least
OCR for page 163
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15 years ago in urban contexts (14.0 percent). Moreover,
in the rural contexts, the preference for legal unions
also fell in relative terms, although less drastically.
At the same time, there was a moderate rise (and a steeper
one than in the urban contexts) in permanent and consen-
sual unions as a percentage of all first unions; this
reached 26.2 percent of initial preferences for more
recent unions.
The next step in the analysis was to investigate how
these findings operated within each context, that is, to
see how the preferences for the various types. of union
among the total first unions developed over tome. To this
end, Table S8 shows the distribution of ever-married women
according to the type of union, for the same three marri-
age cohorts. It may be noted immediately that in all con-
texts, there was a progressive increase in permanent and
consensual unions; only Santa Cruz-Urban showed any sta-
bilization in the proportions of permanent unions, while
only in Cachoeiro did consensual unions show an increase
in proportions, followed by a decrease.
In this comparison of contexts, it is highly interest-
ing to note that in the country' s poorer areas analyzed
here Parnaiba and Conceicao do Araguaia--religious
unions represented a noteworthy alternative among unions
occurring before 1960; indeed, they competed with legal
unions in Parnaiba-Orban and overtook them in Parnaiba-
Rural. A number of different reasons may explain this.
First' work relations, above all in the countryside, then
offered no protection in the form of social security for
individuals or their families; thus no documents were
required on family structure, birth of children, and so
on . Another reason, somewhat related to the f irst , may
be the fact that no property was owned that could be
divided for inheritance. It is also worth mentioning the
possible absence of civil registries at that time in cer-
tain areas of the country, whereas churches have always
been universally present. Then, too, the continuation of
the custom of religious marriage, which is so deep-seated
in Northeast Brazil, represented a resistance to the new
relative prominence granted the Catholic Church by the
Republic. Finally, religious marriage as a first union
can be seen as a forerunner of legalized union.
The relative decline of religious unions in these con-
texts may be due to changes in all or some of these ele-
ments. One change is undeniable: access to registries
became easier with Improved communications. Moreover, the
fact that a legalized union entitled one to social secur-
OCR for page 166
166
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167
ity certainly represented a stimulus. For example, in
Parnaiba, the Social Security Office performs a most
important role in the life of wage-earners (Loyola, 1978),
many of whom are laid of f for s ickness due to nervous
exhaustion. They then reg ister with the Soc ial Secur Sty
Office and, as they themselves put it, Stay on the shelf.
for months or even years receiving benef its. A new supply
of labor is therefore recruited to replace those laid of f .
When some of these fresh workers are in turn laid of f
s deck, some who have previously been laid of f are reen~-
ployed, and so on. Thus, each family group always has the
possibility of one of its members being either laid off
and receiving a portion of his or her wage from the gov-
ernment, or employed and receiving the full wage.
Although this situation may seem strange, At represents
an attempt to overcome the problem of poverty in the
region, or to Redistribute poverty..
At the other extreme low proportions of religious
unions are observed in most contexts, except unions initi-
ated before 1960 in Recife, where this type of union still
represented 11 percent of the total (Table 58). In Cach-
oeiro and Sao Jose dos Campos, this proportion was already
low, falling to zero for more recent union=.
As for legal unions, Cachoeiro practically maintained
stable pattern (around 90 percent); Santa Cruz-Orban and
-Rural, which accounted for the highest level of legal
unions, saw an increase of this type of union from the
first to the second cohort, mainly because of a drop in
the relative importance of religious unions.
In these two
contexts, the decline in the relative weight of legal
unions among more recent unions can be explained directly
by an increase in free unions. It should be remembered
that Santa Cruz do Sul is made up Largely of European
immigrants, mostly of German origin, who developed family-
based agricultural activities and later specialized in
tobacco growing. This led the urban part of the munici-
pality to develop an industrial complex based on the pro-
cessing of tobacco.
The prominence of legal unions can
be linked not only to cultural factors, but also to issues
of property ownership and inheritance. One possible
explanation of any decline in the proportion of legal
unions may therefore be removal of the latter stimulus by
the breaking up of these properties, already small, over
the years.- In Sao Jose dos Campo8, where much of the
working population is employed on a wage-earning basis by
large and medium-sized companies, it could only be
expected that legalized unions would account for a high
percentage of the total number of unions.
OCR for page 168
168
The Role of Consensual Unions
To understand Brazilian marriage strategies, it is essen-
tial to examine the role of Consensual unions more close-
ly. Consensual union may be an option for living together
when there is no stimulus for legalized union, as discus-
sed above. To this reason should be added the far from
negligible cost of a civil marriage.8 In Parnaiba, for
example, one can clearly observe the phenomenon of ~mar-
riage by seduction. (Loyola, 1978) as a strategy to avoid
spending money on a civil' or even a religious, marriage.
This represents a method used by women--above all those
from the poorer groups within the population--to guarantee
a union in a context where the male-female ratio in the
15-49 age group was only 84:100 in 1960 and 1970. Once
the girl had been ~seduced, ~ her family stoned the
~seducer. and demanded that he remain with the girl To
correct his error,. but without a dowry or any wedding
feasts or ceremonies, as a pseudo-punishment.
Consensual unions are also a solution to separations
f allowing legal or even religious unions. Indeed, up
until 1978,9 dissolutions of legal unions, even when
formalized before a judge (desquite), made new civil
unions impossible. The Catholic Church also does not per
mit a second religious union, since this bond is indis-
soluble according to the law of God. Thus, the only way
to marry again was through a free union e
Consensual union may also result from a change in
values that sees legal bonds as unnecessary. This may be
especially important among the younger groups of the pop-
ulation' as part of a general questioning of traditional
norms and values e Women's liberation has made women both
more economically independent and more disposed to express
their sexuality, again leading to a preference for f tee
unions.
The preference for Consensual union may reflect a
definitive decision, or it may represent a preliminary
stage in conjugal life prior to a legal and/or religious
union. It is also probable that pregnancy may contribute
to legalization in large Brazilian metropolises. However,
the size of the cities included in the NIER, such as
Recife and Sao Jose dos Campos, together with the tome
covered by the survey (which stopped at 1977), made it
impossible to support this conclusion empirically.
The issue raised here can be clarified by a brief anal-
ysis of Consensual unions for each of the nine contexts.
To this end, the following classification has been devel-
oped:
OCR for page 169
169
(1) consensual union as the only union
(2) consensual union following a legal union
(3) consensual union following a religious union
(4) consensual union prior to a legal union
(5) consensual union prior to a religious or permanent
union
The study was made based on the three above-mentioned
marriage cohorts, with results as shown in Table S9.
It should be noted at the start that the small number
of cases for each context, except Recife, permits a merely
illustrative analysis of each situation. It must also be
remembered that marriage strategies are a dynamic process;
thus a woman living in a consensual union at a given
moment has a certain probability of legalizing it or of
entering a religious union at any subsequent moment.
Sao Jose dos Campos is one context where the great
majority of consensual unions represented a second or
third union following a civil marriage. It thus illus-
trates situations (2) and (31. Out of the total of 42
cases, 16 occurred before 1960, a further 16 between 1961
and 1970, and the remaining LO after 1970. For older con-
sensual unions, 68.7 percent occurred as the only marriage
solution after a legal union. This proportion fell Deco
56 e 3 percent for the following cohort, while for more
recent unions it was 60.0 percent. The 6 cases out of 42
in which consensual union preceded a civil union took
place before 1971. Of these, 3 cases involved the legal-
ization of a consensual union, with 2 cases taking place
after the birth of a child; in the other 3 cases, the
legal union was with a different person. Situation (1)
represented 9 cases, or 21.4 percent of the total; these
9 cases were equally distributed over the three marriage
cohorts.
Parnaiba-Rural illustrates a certain balance between
the types of consensual unions, with the greatest inci-
dence for situations (4) and (5} (34.5 percent). AS noted
above, religious union has always been highly valued in
this region, one of Brazil 's poorest. Thus there were 6
cases in which a consensual union preceded a legal union
and 13 in which it preceded a religious union. Of these
6 former cases, 5 were unions legalized with the same per-
son, with 3 of these occurring after the birth of chil-
dren. Of the 13 cases where religious unions followed
consensual unions, 50 percent were with the same person,
with Ache bearing of children an associated factor. In
Parnaiba-Rural, it is also worth noting that 21 of the 55
OCR for page 170
170
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OCR for page 171
171
consensual unions began before 1961, meaning that they had
already lasted at least 16 years; only 3 of these had
occurred following a legal and/or religious union.
The picture presented by Parnaiba-Urban is to some
extent parallel. Of the consensual unions prior to
another union (24.3 percent), 6 cases preceded fecal
unions and only 2 preceded religious unions. Of the 6
former cases, 5 were with the same person, with legaliza-
tion occurring after the birth of one or more children.
Santa Cruz-Rural and Sertaozinho were the contexts that
showed the highest proportions of consensual unions as the
only union (situation (1)); in both contexts, most of
these unions occurred before 1961. Consennual union as a
strategy preceding another type of union (situations (4)
and (5)) was most infrequent. It was also infrequent as
a solution following a separation, perhaps because the
separation rates in these two rural contexts were among
the lowest for the whole NICER (12.4 percent and 18.S per-
cent, respectively for Santa Cruz and Sertaozinho, as com-
pared, for example, with 34.4 percent and 39.5 percent,
respectively, for Parnaiba-Rural and Recife). In Sertao-
zinho, there were 2 cases in which consensual union pre-
ceded a legal union, with legalization associated with
the birth of a child; in Santa Cruz-Rural, Were were 2
such cases.
However small the number of consensual unions in Santa
Cruz-Urban and Cachoeiro, where the numerical results were
subject to considerable sample fluctuation, it should be
noted that these contexts showed a very similar absence
of consensual unions as a stage prior to a legal union.
This may simply indicate that not enough time had passed
for these unions to be converted into legal marriages
since, as seen Wove, religious unions were extremely rare
in these two urban contexts. However, from the data for
Cachoeiro, it can be seen that of the 14 consensual unions
as only unions, 7 had already occurred by 1961, while the
other 7 had occurred during the past 15 or 16 years.
Thus, th:s is not a recent practice. The situation was
analogous in Santa Cruz, where for 7 cases, 3 were older
and 4 had occurred over the preceding 15 years.
The context with the highest number of consensual
unions was Recife, which represents 36 percent of the
total for these unions. Table 60 shows how the different
consensual situations were distributed in Recife for three
distinct carriage cohorts. These figures show that the
first two marriage cohorts behaved in a very similar way:
consensual union as the only union had a greater weight,
OCR for page 172
172
TABLE 60 Distribution of Consensus
Unions, by Type for Three Marr iage
Cohorts, Recife: Brazil
Marr iage Cohor t
Consensual Union
Only Type of Union 44.2 42.5 61.1
Before a Legal and/or
Religious Union
Af ter a Legal and/or
Relig ious Union
28.9 27.0 5.6
26.8 30.0 33.3
Total ~ ~ er of Women S2 40 54
from 42 percent to 44 percent, while the remaining 60
percent was equally divided between the other two situa-
tions. In other words, almost 30 percent of consensual
unions preceded a legal and/or religious union. For the
more recent cohort O the situation is the same as regards
consensual union after a nonfree union. It can therefore
be seen that around 30 percent of consensual unions,
irrespective of the marriage cohort, represented a solu-
tion to the problem of separation. As for consensual
union preceding a nonfree union, this percentage fell con
siderably for the last cohort, with a resulting rise in
the percentage of consensual unions as only union. This
suggests that there had not been enough tome for a con-
sensual union initiated between 1971 and 1977 to be trans-
formed into a legal and/or religious marriage. Examining
the 17 cases of consensual unions preceding a legal union
for the three cohorts, it can be seen that in 8 cases,
legalization occurred with the same person and following
the birth of a child; in 2 cases, legalization was not
associated with the birth of a childe
Type of Union and Fertil' ty
The mean number of children born in consensual unions,
while lower in most instances than the means for religious
a
OCR for page 173
173
and legal unions, is still significant in all nine con-
texts, as can be clearly seen from the data in Table 61.
Except for Cacho-~ro de Itapem~rim and Santa Cruz do Sul-
Urban, the mean number of children born per woman was
greatest for women in religious only unions, followed by
those in legal unions, and, lowest of all, those in con-
sensual unions. Unfortunately, the small size of the
samples makes it impossible to break down each type of
union by its duration.
For this reason, although a central point of this
report is variation among the contexts, it is useful to
combine them in order to increase the sample size and be
able to control for the duration of the union, which
enhanced the study of the influence on fertility of the
type of union. Table 62 shows ache mean namer of children
for those women who had had only one union and were still
married at the time of the interview. This group was
chosen to avoid the problems raised by combining all the
children born of different unions that might have occurred
within the same period. As can be seen, there is a clear
decline in the mean number of children from only religious
to permanent unions for the first two marriage cohorts.
TABLE 61 Mean Nether of Children Ever Born Alive by
Ever-Married Women, by Type of Marital Union, Nine
Contexts, lets: Brazil
Context
- of union
Civil and
Religious Religious and
Only Civil Only Consensual
Cachoeiro de Itapemirim 2~2 3el 3~2
Santa Cruz do Sul-Urban 3.5 2.5 305
Sao Jose don Campos 4.2 304 1.2
Sertao Zinho 5.8 4.3 2.6
Santa Cruz do Sul-Rural 5.8 3.9 2.3
Recife 4.4 3.5 2.1
Parnaiba-Urban 5.6 5.3 3.1
Conce$ceo do Araguata-
Rural 4.1 3.9 2.3
Parnsiba-Rural 6. ~ 5.3 2.7
OCR for page 174
174
TABLE 62 Mean Number of Children Ever Born, for Currently
Married Women (first marriage), by Type of Union and
Three Mar r iage Cohor ts, N ine Contex ts: Br ~ z i 1
r
_
Marr iage Cohorts
Types of Union
Until 1960 Prom 1961-70
A B
From
1971 on All
C
Religious Only
406 (181) 4.4 (128) 1.9 t46) 4.2
Civil and Religious
and Civil Only 4~3 (922) 3.2 (708) 1.5 (464) 3.3
Continual
Permanent
3.9 (46) 20 ~ (°~7) 1.6 (79) 2. ~
3.4 (32) 2.? (40) 1.6 (45) 205
Note: Numbers in parentheses are nor of women.
However, the difference between the fertility of women who
had only religious unions and those who had civil and/or
religious unions tended to increase considerably for
unions between 1961 and 1970. It should be noted that any
conclusion about the most recent marriage cohort must be
regarded with caution since this period covers 6 years at
the most, and may thus include unions that lasted a very
short time; in this period, a difference of, say, one
year makes a considerable difference as regards fertility.
AGE AT MA=IAGE
It is valuable for the study of nuptiality and fertility
to estimate some nuptiality parameters, such as initial,
mean, and final age at marriage. The information used for
this purpose concerns the proportion of nonsingle women
and the average par ity per age bracket for 1965, 1970, and
1975. The method used to adjust nuptiality patterns to
the empirical data was that suggested by Coale (1971),
with r2 defined as the ratio of nonsingle women aged
15-20 to those 20-25, and r3 the ratio of nonsingle
women aged 20-25 to those 30-35. Initial age at marriage
was conf ined to the 10-14 age bracket . The small number
of cases in each context once again made it duff icult to
interpret the results, as shown by the data in Table 63.
Indeed, these estimates fluctuate considerably from one
period to another within a single context, thus restrict-
OCR for page 175
17S
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OCR for page 176
176
ing any analysis of trends. This effect of fluctuations
in the Samples is reduced by working with data for al 1 the
women in the household rather than just one woman per
household, as has been the case until now in this discus-
sion. In fact r this leads to a substantial increase in
the size of the sampl es for each context; unfortunately,
however, it is only feasible for the year of the investi-
gation, for which information on all members of the house-
hold is available. Table 64 shows mean age at marrisqe
calculated by Hajoal I s method (1953), on the basis of
information about single women in the households by age
bracket. As can be seen, the f indings for 1975-77 are
generally very similar to those for the various regions
of Brazil (see Table 7) in 1976; this suggests that the
quality of the data is acceptable and that the fluctua-
t ions observed in Table S7 were in fact due to the small
number of cases. Moreover', the effect of migration must
also be present as a disturbing element in this type of
analysis. All the contexts were indeed subject to migra-
tory influxes of varying intensity and durations affecting
the contingents of men and women apt to marry.1
With these reservations in mind, it can be seen that
the highest initial age at marr iage in 1975 was found in
Sao Jose dos Campos (14.9 years) and the- lowest in Sertao-
TABr~ 64 Mean Age at Marriage (Hajnal
method), Nine Contexts : Brazil
.
Context
Mean Age at
Marriage
Sao Jose dos Campos
Santa Crllz do Sul-Urban
Santa Cruz do Sul-Rural
Parnaiba-t~rban
Parnaiba-Rural
Sertaozinho
Conceicso do Araguaia
Cachoeiro de Itapemirim
Recife
23.74
2S.22
23.37
23.39
23.47
23.42
19.64
23.9S
23.26
OCR for page 177
177
z intro (10.2 years). These extremes seem consistent with
the mean for Brazil in 1976, estimated by Altmann and Wong
(1981b), at 13.3 years. For the Northeastern region, the
age found was 12.7 years, very close to the values for
Recife (12.8) and Parnaiba-Rural (12.7). For 1970-75,
even taking all the above reservations into account , i ~
can be seen that, in general, there was a certain increase
in the initial age at marriage. As regards the f Anal Able
at marriage r an important index of nuptiality and closely
related to the Marriage market,. the larger urban centers
and metropolises were the regions that most favored late
marriage; this applies to Recife, Sao Jose dos Campos, and
Santa Cruz do Sul-Urban, contexts in which final ages were
highest in 1975. With some exceptions, it can also be
said that the final age at marriage generally increased
between 1970 and 1976.
It should be observed, on the other hand, that the
contingent of women who remain single after a given age
depends, among other things, on the availability of men
Exposed to the risk. of forming a union. In 1970, the
sex ratio varied considerably in the 15-49 age bracket for
all the areas studied. If the information at the level
of municipalities from the 1970 census is used, the sex
ratios per 1, 000 women aged 15-49 were as follows: Ser-
taozinho, 1,115; Sao Jose, 1,040; Santa Cruz, 970; Cacho-
eiro, 960; Parnaiba, 953; Recife 0 785. The proportions
of women still single in the 30-39 age bracket, as shown
by the data at the household level, were, in the same
order, as follows: 7.4 percent, 8.8 percent, 9,1 percent,
12.3 percent, 12.5 percent, and 14.8 percent. In other
words, the higher the sex ratio, the lower the proportion
of still single women.
Given the reservations mentioned above, it may be con-
cluded from this descriptive analytic that, despite the
different levels in the parameters for the various con-
texts, initial age at marriage is rising, mean age at
marriage is also increasing, and final-age at marriage has
also risen. What is far less clear from these data is the
timing of the changes, which makes it difficult to draw
firm conclusions about how they affect fertility levels.
In any case, as indicated in the following chapters, the
primary factor involved in Brazil's accelerated fertility
decline is declining marital fertility, traceable to
changing patterns of contraceptive use.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
consensual union
