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A picture of a newlywed.
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Some 31 percent think that marriage is no longer relevant, while 71 percent say that couples marry too quickly without thinking about the move carefully enough, according to a poll released Tuesday.
"This shift in attitude may be a testament1 to the fact that women feel liberated2 enough, sexually and socially, to not have to walk down the aisle3, or it could be that today's cynical4 attitude to almost everything has minimized marriage to an outdated5, over-romanticised practice," said psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos, commenting on the poll.
Most recent official statistics show that the number of marriages annually6 in England and Wales fell from 351,973 in 1981 to 270,700 in 2004.
They add that 54 percent of men and 50 percent of women are married, while 10 percent of men and nine percent of women live together.
The poll also explores women's attitudes to work -- 70 percent of women feel pressure to earn as much money as men, while one in 10 said they would be unlikely to quit their jobs to look after children, even if they did not need the money.
It also revealed that older women were less inclined to think that marriage should mean one partner for life than younger ones.
"Older women are, in fact, more cynical when it comes to their views on marriage," Papadopoulos said.
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英国本周二公布的一项民意调查显示，约31％的人认为婚姻已没什么必要，71％的人认为很多人在没有考虑清楚的情况下就草草结了婚。
心理学家琳达·帕帕多普洛斯博士对这项调查的结果进行了分析，她说：“对于婚姻态度的改变可能是因为女性在性和社会地位方面已获得彻底解放，因此她们觉得结婚已没什么必要；也可能是由于如今的人们无论对什么都抱着一种‘愤世嫉俗’的态度，因此结婚被‘贬’为一种过时、过于浪漫化的做法。”
最新官方数据显示，英格兰和威尔士一年内的结婚数从1981年的351973例下降到了2004年的270700例。
此外，54％男性和50％女性已婚，另有10％的男性和9％的女性在同居。
此项调查的内容还包括女性对于工作的态度，调查发现，70％的女性觉得要和男人挣钱一样多很有压力，十分之一的女性说，就算家里不缺钱，她们也不大可能辞职在家照顾孩子。
另外，与年轻女性相比，年龄较大的女性对“从一而终”看得较淡。
帕帕多普洛斯说：“事实上，年龄较大的女性对于婚姻的态度更加玩世不恭。”
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