A shotgun marriage is an informal phrase coined in America that commonly refers to a marriage forced to take place when a woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock. The baby's father is forced to marry her, so she will not give birth without benefit of a husband. The marriage generally is intended to guarantee the woman and child’s financial stability.
No firearms are normally involved in a shotgun marriage, which is also commonly referred to as a shotgun wedding. The shotgun reference is thought to have started in the 1700s or 1800s when fathers and brothers of the pregnant woman supposedly used firearms to force the suspected father to marry her. It is rumored that the distraught and angry men often followed the man to the altar with guns pointed at him to ensure his compliance.
Not only were shotgun weddings thought to punish the involved male for his improper behavior, they were considered necessary to provide the child with two parents. It was once considered an appropriate way to prevent so-called illegitimate children. Many times, the mother would hide the pregnancy to avoid being ostracized.
As social norms changed, shotgun weddings became less frequent. Not only did the common practice of settling issues with guns generally fall out of favor, financial support in the form of government aid became available to single mothers. Birth control and abortion also provided more options. Single motherhood became fairly accepted, and mothers without husbands became commonplace.
Although shotgun marriages were called such mainly in America, other countries picked up on the phrase and concept. The Japanese term dekichatta kekkon is slang for a marriage dictated by an accidental pregnancy, but was not introduced until the late 1990s. The loose translation of the phrase means, “it’s already happened marriage” or “oops marriage.”
Once a very serious act of retribution against a man with bad luck, poor judgment or both, the term shotgun marriage or shotgun wedding is often used in jest in films or on television shows. For example, the Japanese term for shotgun marriage was used as the name of a popular sitcom there, and the popular American television comedy “The Office” made reference to the practice.
In recent years, the term has been used in the media in reference to a totally different scenario. If a situation or decision is forced upon someone with the threat of serious repercussion for failure to comply, the term is used as a metaphor. For instance, one might hear, “He voted for the referendum, but based on his past voting record, it seems he was the victim of a shotgun marriage.”