“I do” is possibly one of the shortest sentences in the English language, but it is undeniably one of the most loaded and meaningful. Here in the United States, as in many other countries, marriage has been a vital part of history, and probably always will be: History would not continue without the institution of marriage and establishment of the family.

But like most things, the trends in marriage are swiftly transforming, thanks to women’s increasing power and financial independence.

According to the book, “Women and the American Experience” by Nancy Woloch, in the Colonial period of early America, most women had little or no authority over their own lives. Their existence was defined by the way of their father’s house, and eventually through the man they married.

For example, according to British common law, which was quickly adopted in early Colonial America, women were not allowed to own land, run businesses or represent themselves in a court of law. The only exception to this idea was that a widow could take over one-third of her husband’s land, and the wife of a man off fighting at war could temporarily take over his business — but only with much harassment from local male business owners.

Basically, a woman’s role was to stay at home, cook, clean, wash and prepare food. Not a big surprise, but that left little time for women to educate themselves enough to be independent, let alone independently wealthy. Thus, women had almost no choice but to financially depend on men.

This left little opportunity for single unmarried women to be successful on their own. If they had no siblings or other family, these women’s last resort for surviving most likely was to turn to prostitution in port cities such as Boston and Charleston, serving sailors coming in from sea or war. For centuries, women had been considered inferior, made to serve and care for men.

Since the 1700s, significant advances have been made in the women’s movement for equality. We first garnered the right to own property, then to vote in the early 1900s. In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act barred employment discrimination based on race, sex and other grounds. Title IX even gave many women athletes opportunities their predecessors had been denied for years.

So what does this have to do with trends in marriage? Women now have the power to shape the dynamic of marriage in the United States. You could argue marriage should only come as a result of love and commitment between two people, but not unlike arranged marriages in India, sometimes marriages in the United States have been formed for financial security or other reasons. However, most women today don’t have to feel compelled to marry for obligatory reasons, because they have the resources to support themselves.

First off, women are attending college in roughly the same numbers as men. Last year, 44.7 percent of ISU enrollees were female, according to www.iastate.edu/

~registrar/stats. Of all female high school graduates, 63.6 percent attended college last year, compared to 59.8 percent of male high school graduates — more females are going to college than males, a trend prevalent since 1988.

Women are also breaking away from career choice norms such as nursing and home economics. In 1972, nine percent of women earned medical degrees, compared to 38 percent today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov. Although only 15.9 percent of the ISU College of Engineering enrollees last year were female, that number is likely to be almost 15.9 percent more women than were involved in engineering 50 years ago — even though the number may be small today, it shows women are gaining the ability to branch out into more lucrative fields.

It’s no wonder the median income of males has maintained the same average over the last 20 years, while women’s has increased every year, the biggest increase being 12 percent in 1998. This also happens to be the year the least marriages occurred.

Since women are focusing more on their education and careers, they delay getting married — the median age at marriage of women has risen to almost 26 years old, compared to around 21 years old 30 years ago. Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show that if trends continue like they have over the last 50 years, the population of unmarried women will soon surpass the number of married women.

If this trend continues, “traditional” marriage could disappear. Less women will be getting married, and if they do, it will be at a later age. Maybe more women will learn to love their independence, and not feel the need to get married. A women should not have to settle for a marriage because she hardly has a choice — women should marry because they want to.