OT: "The westernized world"
Herb Stahlke
hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jun 12 00:25:19 UTC 2009
I'm not sure the comparison between the rate of single mothers in the
US with that in Nordic countries is apt. In this country much of
single motherhood arises outside of a long-term relationship. In
Nordic countries there is a wide-spread practice of living together
and raising families without marriage. In Sweden the term for such a
partner is "sam bo" [sAm bu], meaning "live with." The term connotes
the same thing as "spouse," but without marriage. Sometimes such
partners may raise a family and live together for decades before
formally marrying. All births to such partnerships are out-of-wedlock
in a strict sense but not functionally. One figure quoted in Sweden
is that only about ten percent of couples actually marry.
Herb
On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Joel S. Berson<Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Re: OT: "The westernized world"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 6/11/2009 12:51 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>A solicitation I just received asking support to those who seek to
>>"provide responsible sex education to teens" contains the following
>>passage:
>>
>>The US has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the westernized world.
>>But why? "Abstinence-only" programs censor, mislead and misinform
>>teens, creating ignorance and a lack of trust.
>
> OT, but although the US *may* have the highest teen pregnancy rate in
> the westernized world, the US does not have the highest rate of
> single mothers in the westernized world. Some countries with higher
> rates are, if I remember correctly, Iceland, Sweden, Norway.
>
> Joel
>
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