INTER-GROUP MARRIAGE AND UNITED STATES MILITARY SERVICE

Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Summer 2003 by Jacobson, Cardell K, Heaton, Tim B

The United States military services provide contact and opportunities for inter-group marriages that do not exist in the larger society. The services recruit men and women from all ethnic and racial groups. Since the military serves in all parts of the world, military personnel meet individuals from a variety of countries. Further, the military services emphasize non-discrimination and equal opportunity, and individuals of all groups train together. We argue that these factors provide an environment that is relatively tolerant of heterogamous marriages. We examine the effects of current and past military service, military rank, and type of service on rates of inter-group marriage. The data are from public use microsamples of the 1990 census (PUMS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 1976 to 1998. The results show increases in exogamy rates for blacks and whites, but not for Hispanics and Asians. Considerable variation is found by period, rank, and type of military service.

INTRODUCTION

Inter-marriage between individuals of different racial and ethnic groups long has been used as an indicator of assimilation and acceptance of different racial and ethnic groups in society. Persistent low rates of out-marriage, or marriages across racial lines, suggest that assimilation and acceptance are far from complete, however. In this paper we examine inter-group marriage in one arena, the United States military services, where many of the traditional barriers to heterogamous marriages are significantly reduced. The weakened barriers we discuss include demographic patterns (segregation and age differences) socioeconomic factors (education), societal norms, and homogeneity of local marriage markets. We compare patterns of interracial marriage in the military to national rates, and we examine the effects of military rank, type of service, and periods of military service on inter-group marriage.

A basic proposition on group size, incorporated by Blau and others, provides a general theoretical perspective for inter-group marriage. Blau and others (see Blau, 1977; Blau, Blum, & Schwartz, 1982; Blau, Beeker, & Fitzpatrick, 1984; Blum, 1984; Sampson, 1984; Alba & Golden, 1986; Hwang et al., 1994) argue that relative group size is critical in determining the amount of outgroup contact that individuals are likely to experience. This increased contact can lead to romantic interest and increased rates of out-marriage. This is particularly true for small groups. Since group size is inversely related to the chances that individuals will marry out of their own group, a setting where traditional barriers are low is likely to have higher than normal rates of intermarriage.

Despite its multiplicity of races and ethnic groups, the United States exhibits high levels of segregation (Massey and Denton; 1993). The segregation combined with normative sanctions reduces the chances of outgroup marriage. But these factors are reduced significantly in one institution in American society, the United States military services. White non-Hispanic males, for example, constitute 85 percent of married men in the 1990 census. But they constitute only 76 percent of married men in the military. Prior research has shown that ethnically heterogeneous regions have high rates of interracial marriage (Hwang, et al., 1994; Jacobson & Heaton, 1996). Thus the increased heterogeneity in the military means that individuals are more likely to meet people from and marry outside their own group.

Cultural norms and prejudice are also part of the nexus of segregation. While group norms usually emphasize marriage within one's own group, these forces are mitigated in the military because of its emphasis on non-prejudicial, non-discriminatory treatment of other groups. Because the military services promote an attitudinal environment that is often at variance with the traditional group and cultural norms, acceptance of other groups is higher in the military services than in society as a whole. For example Moskos and Butler (1996;2) report:

A visitor to an Army dining facility...is likely to see...blacks and whites commingling and socializing by choice. [They] also patronize equally such nonduty facilities as barber shops, post exchanges, libraries, movie theaters, and snack bars. And in the course of their military duties, blacks and whites work together with little display of racial animosity.

In sum, military personnel have contact with other groups and cultures both in the United States and abroad, under favorable conditions, that may reduce resistance to outgroup marriage.

Further, socioeconomic factors often divide minority groups from the majority population. The role of socioeconomic status in inter-group marriage long has been recognized by exchange theorists who focus on the attributes potential spouses bring to marriages. Socioeconomic statuses, along with race or ethnicity, and physical attractiveness, are commodities that are potential exchanges. Members of minority groups are said to exchange high socioeconomic advantage to overcome the socially perceived disadvantage of minority status (see Merton, 1941; Schoen & Wooldredge, 1989; Kalmijn, 1993; Heaton & Albrecht, 1996; Qian, 1997). While substantial research demonstrates that members of disadvantaged minorities who marry into majority groups have above average socioeconomic status (e.g., Fu & Heaton, 1997; Heaton & Jacobson, 2000), marriage is most likely to occur if overall attributes are perceived to be similar. Thus, where are socioeconomic status of groups is equal, inter-group marriage is more likely to occur than where the groups are unequal.