abortions, and the sale of contraceptives. The following years
showed a sharp upsurge in the birth rate and a dramatic drop in the
divorce rate, but in 1970 the birth rate again began to decline.

The main reasons for the drop in the birth rate and reduction in family
size have been low wages and a shortage of housing. Many wives must work
to help support the family, but published interviews with working wives
indicate that they want few, if any, children because they lack the time
and energy to care for them as they would like. In addition, the
continuing housing shortage in urban areas forces families to live in
crowded and inadequate quarters, which mitigates against having
children.

In the eyes of the state, marriage is a secular matter. Religious
ceremonies are permitted but must be preceded by a civil marriage. The
minimum age for marriage without parental consent is eighteen for men
and sixteen for women. People generally marry young--43 percent of the
men married in 1968 were aged twenty to twenty-four, and another 30
percent were twenty-five to twenty-nine; 46 percent of the women married
that year were aged fifteen to nineteen, and another 32 percent were
twenty to twenty-four. The urban marriage rate was dropping considerably
in the late 1960s, probably owing to the housing shortage, but the rural
marriage rate remained fairly stable during the decade.

The law assigns equal rights and obligations to both marriage partners.
In case of divorce the father is obliged to provide financial support
for his children. After the passage of a stringent new divorce law in
1967, the divorce rate dropped from 1.94 per 1,000 population in 1965 to
0.35 per 1,000 population in 1969, making it the lowest rate in Eastern
Europe.

In most families the husband and wife are partners whose relationship is
based on cooperation and mutual respect. The husband is the titular head
of the family who represents it to the outside world, but within the
family he customarily consults with his wife on almost all matters.
Patriarchal families where the father is the undisputed head are
encountered among some peasants. Ideally, the husband provides for the
family and protects it from the outside world, and the wife concerns
herself with keeping house and raising children.

The diminution of the family's significance in rearing children has,
however, fundamentally affected the role of the family in the second
half of the twentieth centur