On Fri, 30 Dec 2005, JC Helary wrote:
> A comment in Le Monde added that "Japanese women have much less a tendency
> to give birth outside of marriage than French women" which, Le Monde
> claimed, explained most of the birth rate difference between the 2
> countries.
When Le Monde is referring here to "outside of marriage" they mean "within le pacte civil de solidarite," right? Which are legal contracts granting all the rights of inheritance, immigration, residence, etc. that for most countries define the legal essence of marriage.
If so, "outside marriage" seems like a comparative misnomer. A French friend in her 60s introducted me to someone who had 6 brothers and sisters, none of them married. But further conversation revealed that 5 of them were in monogamous relationships that had lasted more 15 years, given rise to children, and where they owned houses jointly. And where, if they want to leave each other to make a pacte with someone else, they'll need lawyers.
The difference between marriage and a pacte seems more equivalent to the difference between a marriage in church and a marriage at the justice of the peace than between marriage and what we in America would call cohabitation.
Michael