Many fail to realize that the family is not only an important social unit but also an economic unit of great importance. In traditional society, it was held that marriage creates a new economic entity that enriches all society. Peter Laslett writes:
“For marriage, and particularly first marriage, we must repeat, was an act of 
profound importance to the social structure. It meant the creation of a new economic unit as well as of a lifelong association of two person previously separate and caught up in existing families. It gave to the man full membership of the community and to the woman something to run; she became mistress of a household – as the French put it, maitresse de la maison. A cell was added to society, in the town as well as the country.” (Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost – Further Explored, Routledge, London, 2005, p. 101)