General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is it okay for a 18 year old to have sex with a 14 year old [View all]Hekate
(91,367 posts)The world has changed hugely since your great-grandma's day. I don't know when she was born, but in most of the US it was considered progress that girls had more options and could stay in school awhile longer, or possibly work awhile to save some money.
My grandma was born in the 1880s in Nebraska and grew up to be a schoolteacher like her mother before her. It's interesting that both my grandfathers had an 8th grade education, but they were not married at that age and saddled with children, instead having years in which to learn a trade and become successful before marriage. In other words, a male option.
Anyway, I've come to think of marrying off girls at 12 to 14 years of age as being rather tribal-- it used to be a workable strategy at one time in our development. We're not there any more.