Marriage, divorce and cohabitation

Marriage

A universal institution practiced by most societies, although form and function differs between societies.
In UK they practice monogamy- legally men and women can only be married to one person at a time.
Serial monogamy is becoming more prominent in UK, this is when people are marrying more than one person in their lifetime because of divorce/death but still only marry them one at a time.

Polygamy- term for when religion/culture allows a man to have more than one wife.
Khan argues may be 20,000 polygynous Muslim marriages in the UK.
Polyandry- term for when women can have more than one husband because of culture. Less common but Hames claims more than 80 cultural groups worldwide which practice it.

Marriage rate- number of men and women (above age 16) who get married per year per 1000.

Decline in marriage rate and changes

Overall decline in number of marriages in the last 30 years. Greatest decline in number of first marriages, more are remarriages.

15% of marriages in 1971 were remarriages however were 40% in 2005.

Remarriage- second or subsequent marriage in which at least one partner has been married before.

In 2015 average age for first time marriages was 32 for men and 29 for women.

Divorce

Divorce rate- the number of divorces per thousand marriages.

3 major trends in the divorce rate since 1938

In 1938 there were 6000 divorces granted in the UK.

In 1950 this had increased to 58,239

In 1993 the number of divorces in UK was 165,000

Explanations of increased divorce

  1. Changes in the law.
  1. Secularisation
  1. Changes in attitudes
  1. Changing position of women

Changes in the law

Divorce reform act made divorce a lot easier and cheaper. It is highly likely a lot of 'empty shell marriages' or those couldn't afford get divorced took the opportunity to escape from their unhappy marriages as a result of the law. Laws allowing equal rights for women impacted the divorce rate in terms of job opportunities.

Changing in attitudes

Secularisation- decline in the influence of religion within society

Marriage traditionally viewed as a religious ceremony, sacred vows made and couldn't be broken but no longer the case.
Civil marriages (non religious) has increased significantly.

There is a lot less stigma around divorce today, it's a lot more common so not frowned upon like it was.

People are lot less likely to put with an unhappy marriage.

Changing position of women

Women gained equal rights to men in last 50 years. Resulting in women feeling a lot more independent and confident. Changing position of women means a lot of women feels they're able to raise a child without a husband and don't have to remain in an unhappy marriage.