Attitudes toward Marriage in the Philippines

Lindy Williams, Cornell University
Maria Midea M. Kabamalan, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Nimfa B. Ogena, University of the Philippines

Using the 2002 YAFS and data from 16 urban and rural focus group interviews, this paper examines attitudes toward marriage in the Philippines. Over the course of the twentieth century considerable diversity in marriage patterns has been discernable, not only within Asia as a whole, but also within Southeast Asia. While some notable shifts have been observed in marriage patterns in the Philippines, non-marriage has been more accepted there than in many other countries in the region, a number of whom are now “catching up.” Both the YAFS and the focus group transcripts have information on attitudes toward sex roles, marriage, and cohabitation that provide new insights into the contexts in which unions are formed (or not) in the Philippines. We are able to compare attitudes across cohorts using the focus group data and to assess the views of younger women and men at the national level using the YAFS.