Sociologists use the term marriage to refer to a. the set of norms that establishes and characterizes the relationship between married individuals. b. the married couple. c. a social custom involving a wedding. d. a group consisting of an individual, his or her spouse, and their children.

Sociologists use the term marriage to refer to a. The set of norms that establishes and characterizes the relationship between married individuals.

The chosen description provides a general description of marriage, which turns to be accurate if we consider that its definition is highly controversial.

The set of norms that establishes and characterizes the relationship between married individuals depends on a variety of factors such as cultural traditions, religious beliefs, legal rulings, and ideas about fairness and basic human rights of the married individuals. This is why the concept of "marriage" varies from culture to culture, and from couples to couples.

For some, marriage is a permanent social and legal contract and relationship between two people that is based on mutual rights and obligations, for others it is a legal contract based on a sexual, romantic, emotional and/or economical bond and other cultures consider "marriage" the state of living together regardless of the lack of others types of bonds.

affirmative action refers to the policies that take gender, race, or ethnicity into account in order to promote equal opportunity.

employers subject to title vii are prohibited from taking race or sex into account in any employment decisions. aa is a penalty for having any job group substantially statistically "underutilized" in any race or either sex. the employer must take steps to eliminate the underutilization, then stop, ending its aa efforts