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Examine the reasons for changing family patterns of divorce and marriage…
Examine the reasons for changing family patterns of divorce and marriage in the last 50 years (20 marks)
Divorce
Divorce is a major cause of changing family patterns and greater family diversity as most remarriages involve a divorce which creates both lone parent families and one person households.
- The number of divorce doubled between 1961 and 1969 then doubled again by 1972.
- About 40% of all marriages end in divorce.
Reasons: one reason for the fall in divorce rates since the 1990s is that fewer people are marrying in the first place and are choosing to cohabitate.
Couples who are at a greater risk of divorce: couples whose marriages are at greater risk include those who marry young, have a child before cohabitation or marriage, and those where one or both partners have been married before.
Explanations for the increase in divorce:
- Changes in the law
- Declining stigma and changing attitudes
- Secularisation
- Rising expectations of marriage
- Women's increased financial independence
- Feminist Explanations
- Modernity and Individualism
Declining stigma: stigma to the negative label, social disapproval or shame attached to a person, action or relationship. Churches tended to condemn divorce and often refused to conduct marriage services involving divorcees.
Secularisation: refers to the decline in the influence of religious societies, many sociologists argue religion is losing their influence and society is becoming more secular.
Changes in the law: equalising the legal grounds for divorce between the sexes. Widening the grounds for divorce and making the divorce cheaper. also the ability to file for divorce due to irretrievable breakdown. "Divorce Reform Act"
Rising Expectations of marriage: functionalists argue that higher expectations people place on marriage today are a major cause of rising divorce rates. Higher expectations make couples less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage. people believe marriage should be solely based on romantic love.
Women's increased financial independence: women today are much more likely to be paid in work the proportion of women today working rose from 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013. laws have helped narrow the pay gap. girls better in education.
Feminist explanations:feminists argue that married women today bear a dual burden, they are required to take on paid work in addition to performing domestic labour. This creates conflict between husbands and wives.
Modernity and Individualism: The New right see high divorce rates as undesirable because it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family. feminist like divorce it shows the breaking free, postmodernists see it as more freedom
Marriages
Reasons for changing patterns of marriage:
- first marriages
- changing attitudes to marriage
- secularisation
- declining stigma atatched to alternatives to marriage
- changes in the position of women.
- fear of divorce
first marriages: many of the reasons for a fall are similar to the increase in divorce examined earlier
Changing attitudes to marriage: less pressure to marry and more freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship they want now widespread belief that the quality of a couple's relationship is more important than its legal status.
secularisation: the churches are in favour o marriage but as their influence declines people feel freer o choose not to marry. for example the 2001 census only 3% of young people with no religion were married as against to 17% of those with a religion
Declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage: cohabitation remaining single and having children outside marriage are all now widely regarded as acceptable so that pregnancy no longer automatically leads to a shotgun wedding.
Fear of divorce: with rising divorce rate some may be put off marrying because they see the increased likelihood of marriage ending in divorce.
Cohabitation
Involves unmarried couples living together for a long period of time as marriages fall, cohabitation increases. They have to be in a sexual relationship. there are 2.9 million cohabiting heterosexual couples in Britain about 1/8th of adults are now cohabiting.
increased rates are a result of the decline in stigma attached to sex outside in 1989 only 44% of people agreed that premarital sex is not wrong at all but 65% viewed this in 2012.