Marriage and liberation, part two

When I told an acquaintance about the impending nuptials, she said she didn’t believe in marriage because it's a sexist institution that represses women. Oh, and congratulations, by the way.

I’ve been thinking about this view a bit lately. I’m wondering if it’s possible for an institution to be innately sexist. Along with looking up definitions of ‘institution’, I’ve been trying to walk backwards in my mind, back to my long-ago undergraduate days when I did a course called 'Institutions in Australian Society'. I haven’t been terribly successful, so if anyone can help me out here I’d appreciate it.

I have a whole range of questions percolating in my brain. What I’m wondering is this: do institutions reflect the society which produces them, or do they help to shape that society? Or is it a complex, two-way process? Doesn’t marriage change over time, as society changes? Can we still say that marriage is a sexist institution? And what if two girls get married?