Insecurity of Western marriages

Insecurity in Western marriage occurs both on the part of women and of men. Liberation of both sexes has caused the demise of long-held social roles, and while those roles may have been degrading they offered a socially accepted identity which often went unquestioned. Insecurity has been one result of the challenging and changing of those norms. Another is that while married people are still more likely than single people to report they are "very happy" (a sociological fact since at least the early '70s), the gap has narrowed considerably.