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Family Trends (Divorce (National stats: 40% of marriages end up in divorce…
Family Trends
Divorce
National stats: 40% of marriages end up in divorce, from 1931 = 4000 to 165000 in 2004
Browne (2008): Britain has one highest rates in EU, if it continues 1 in 4 will experience parental divorce.
3 ways of measuring: total petitions, total decrees absolute and divorce rate
Stats dont tell us about separations without divorce, empty shell marriages and number of unhappy marriages prior to change in law
Reasons: changes in law, changes in society
3 laws: matrimonal causes act (1973), Children act 1989, and marriage act 1994
Groups at risk: teenagers, working class, childless couples, partners from different religious backgrounds, working couples
Marriage
Patterns of marriage Webb: lowest since 1990s, re marriage is rising, people marrying at older ages, church based marriages are declining
Webb: in 2005 there were 170,000, half of 1970, and 4 out of 10 marriages were remarriages, average age of marriage has increased by 7 in 30 years. only 35% of marriages are now church based
Reasons for decline: The impact of feminism, fear of divorce, secularisation, changing social attitudes, the expense of marriage
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Changes in pattern: marriage rates now at lowest since 1920s, re marriage is rising however, people are marrying at older ages, 'church based' marriages are declining
Re marriages: Browne 2/5 marriages involve re marriage, 1 in 6 men in 30s are step fathers and there is a quarter of a million step families
Cohabitation
Webb (2008): there are over 2 million cohabiting couples in Britain, figure expected to double by 2021
Changing social attitudes&stigma, Increased independence of women, secularisation and high divorce rates are reasons why
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Robert Chester: cohabitation seen as a trial run - we are seeing the rise of the Neo-conventional nuclear family
Andre Bejin: Cohabitation is a way of negotiating more equal relationships where both partners retain some independence
Reasons: change in social attitudes, change in the position of women, secularisation and high divorce rates
Childbearing
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Women having children later: between 1971 and 2005 average age of having child is 27, now it is argued to be has high as 30
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Decline in stigma and increase of cohab: only 1/3 of children now think marriage should come before children, increasing due to large amount of children born to cohabiting couples
Impact of feminism: The later the age women are having children, smaller family sizes and the fact that women are remaining childless indicate women have more options than just seeking motherhood, many are establishing a career before staring a family link to Sharpe.
Single parent families
Increasing due to: Increase in divorce, Decline in marriage, greater social acceptance and the welfare fstate
Ellis Cashmore (1985) - Found some working class mothers choose to live alone on benefits following abuse
New right thinker Charles Murray believes the growth in SPFs resulting from an overgenerous welfare state,
Percentage of SPFs has almost tripled since the 1970s, about 25% of all families with dependant children are SPFs
Why are SPFs normally headed by women: Custody following divorce, men earn more, masculinity - Social stigma and the female role of motherhood - Socialisation
Same sex partnerships
Stonewall (2008): The campaign for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights estimates that around 5-7% of adult population sex relationships
Changes in social policy&law: Male homosexual acts were decriminalised for consenting adults over 21 y/o. 2002: Cohabiting couples given same rights as married couples to adopt. 2004 Civil Partnership act gives same sex couples similar rights to married couples. 2014: Same sex marriage in England and Wales was passed by Parliament
Jeffrey Weeks (1999) Sees the growing normality of 'fictive families' as a reason for the increase in same sex families ie families can be based on friendship rather than blood ties
Kath Weston views support them suggesting 'quasi-marriages' are becoming recognised by society as an alternative form of partnership
The 3cs
Changes, then causes and then consequences
Rising divorce + decline in first marriages = More cohab, more same sex households and lone person households
(2006) - 3 out of 10 households contain only 1 person, 3x more than 1961
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