Irène Théry - DR

SOCIOLOGIST

France

Biography

Irène Théry, a professor at France’s Higher Institute of Social Sciences who specializes in family issues, said the popularity of the PACS among heterosexual couples is largely explained by the growth of free unions, in which unmarried couples live together. Setting up such households has become a declaration of independence from religion and crusty social traditions -- and so common that more than half the babies in France, including those of PACSed couples, are born out of wedlock.