Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Families and Households: Changing Family Patterns - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Equalising the legal reasons for divorce between sexes
      - Divorce is cheaper
      - Widening the grounds for divorce
    - - Divorce becomes more normalised and seen as less shameful, meaning couples are more willing to resort in divorce.
    - - The traditional opposition of churches to divorce is less influential and would be less likely to sway people on making decisions such as divorce.
      - Many churches have begun softening their views on divorce, perhaps due to fear of losing credibility
    - - Fletcher - Functionalists think the expectations people place on marriage lead to more divorce if they don't meet their expectations as they would be less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage
      - Allan and Crow - Linked to the ideology of love - a dominant idea in marriage over the last couple of centuries. If love dies, there is no longer any justification for remaining married.
      - Functionalists such as Fletcher take an optimistic view despite the rising divorce rates. People remarry and this shows that people have not rejected marriage as an institution.
        
        However, feminists disagree. They saw that the oppression of women in the family is the main cause for marital conflict and divorce. Functionalists fail to explain why it is mainly women who file for divorce.
    - - Women today are much more likely to be in paid work
      - Equal pay and anti-discrimination laws have helped narrow the pay gap.
      - Female success in education helps them achieve better paid jobs in the future
      - The availability of welfare benefits means women no longer have to remain trapped and be financially dependent with their husband
      - Allan and Crow - 'Marriage is less embedded within the economic system'. The family is no longer a unit of production and so spouses are not so dependent on each other.
    - - Women today have a dual burden and according to feminists, this causes conflict between spouses.
      - Despite improvements in many factors of a women's life in the public sphere of employment, education, politics (etc.), there has been limited improvements in the private sphere of family and personal relationships.
        
        Marriage remains patriarchal, with men benefitting from the women's triple shift.
      - Bernard - Radical feminists see the rising divorce rate, and the fact that many petitions come from women, as evidence of the growing acceptance of feminist ideas: becoming conscious of patriarchal oppression and more confident in rejecting it.
    - - Beck and Giddens - Traditional values and norms are losing their hold on individuals
      - Each individual is free to pursue their own interest (known as the individualisation thesis). Relationships thus become more fragile as people are more unwilling to stay with their partner if the relationship is failing.
        
        They seek what Giddens calls a 'pure relationship'. It exists only to satisfy each partner's needs and not out of a sense of duty, tradition or for the sake of the children.
  - - - They see the high divorce rate as undesirable as it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family, which they see as vital to social stability.
      - It creates a growing underclass of welfare-dependent female lone parents who burden the state and it leaves young boys without the adult male role model.
      - They believe it results in poorer health and educational outcomes for children.
    - - They see the high divorce rate as positive as it shows women are breaking free from the patriarchal oppression of the nuclear family.
    - - They see the high divorce rate as showing individuals have freedom and can choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs.
      - They see it as a major cause to greater family diversity.
    - - They argue that the high divorce rate is not a threat to the social institution of marriage.
      - Divorce is a result of people's higher expectations of marriage and the higher rate of remarriage is evidence of people continuing to commit to the idea of marriage.
    - - They aim to understand what divorce means to the individual.
      - Views on divorce depends on the people and the circumstances and the reasons behind it.
    - - They accept that divorce can cause problems (i.e financial difficulties) and a lack of daily contact between parents and non-resident parents, which may cause a discourse or a lack of relationship between them.
      - However, they also think that as divorce has become normalised, the family can adapt to it without falling apart.
      - Rather than seeing it as a major social problem, we should see it as a transition in life, basically a part of life and how people's lives change.
- - - - Less pressure is put on people to marry. People are now free to choose what relationship they want.
      - Widespread belief that the quality of the couple's relationship is more important than the legal status.
      - The norm that everyone should marry has gone.
    - - Churches have lost their significance.
      - 2001 Census - 3% of young non-religious people got married as opposed to 17% of young religious people.
    - - Cohabitation, remaining single, and children outside of marriage are now widely regarded as acceptable.
      - Pregnancy no longer leads to a 'shotgun marriage'.
      - 1989 - 70% believed couples who wanted children should get married
        2012 - 42% thought this
    - - With better educational and career prospects, women are now less financially dependent on men.
      - This gives them greater freedom to choose who to marry or to not marry at all.
      - The feminist view of marriage being an oppressive institution may dissuade some women form marrying.
    - - With the rising divorce rates, some may be put of marrying because they see the increased likelihood of marriage ending in divorce.
    - - The main reason for increased remarriages is the increased divorce rates. The two have grown together so that the rising number of divorcees provides a supply of people available to remarry.
    - - The marriage age is rising.
      - This may be due to postponing marriage in order to spend longer in education or to establish a career first.
      - Another reason may be because couples are cohabiting first for a period before marriage.
    - - Couples are now less likely to marry in churches
      - Secularisation - fewer people see the relevance of a religious ceremony
      - Many churches refuse to remarry divorcees and divorcees may have less desire to marry in church.
  - - - 1989 - 44% agreed that premarital sex is not wrong
        2012 - 65% took this view
    - - Young people with no religion are more likely to cohabit than people with a religion
  - - - Weeks - sees homosexuals as creating families based on 'friendship as kinship'
      - Watson - Same-sex cohabitation = 'quasi-marriage'
      - Allen and Crow - same-sex partners had to negotiate their commitment and responsibilities more than married couples until recently because of the absence of a legal framework
  - - - Especially among men under 65
      - Usually, after a divorce, any children will live with the mother and the father leaves the family home
    - - Meaning more people are remaining single
      - The proportion of adults who are single has risen by half since 1971
  - - - Finance
      - Wanted to keep their own home
      - Previous relationship troubles
      - Simply 'too early' to cohabit
- - - - A decline in stigma and a rise in cohabitation
        
        Only 28% of 25-34 year olds think marriage should come before parenthood
      - Women are not pressured to have children nowadays
      - Some may wish to focus on their education or careers first
      - Women now have more options than just motherhood
  - - - The increase of divorce and separation
      - The increase of never married women having children
      - The decline in the stigma of having children outside of marriages.
        In the past, the death of one parent was a common cause, but this is no longer significant
      - Lone parent families tend to be headed by mothers
        
        Widespread belief that women as naturally suited to an 'expressive' or nurturing roles
        
        Divorce courts usually give custody of children to mothers
        
        Men may be less willing than women to give up work to care for children
        
        Single by choice. They do not wish to marry or cohabit,or they may wish to limit the father's involvement.
  - - - Creating a 'perverse incentive' by rewarding irresponsible behaviour (i.e having children without being able to provide for them).
      - Creating a 'dependency culture', where people assume that the state will support them and their children
      - The solution is to abolish welfare benefits to discourage births outside of marriages
    - - Lack of affordable childcare prevents them from working: 60% are unemployed, twice as high than mothers with partners
      - Inadequate welfare benefits
      - 90% are headed by women, who earn less than men
      - Failure from fathers to pay maintenance (child support), especially if they have a second family to support or is intentionally kept away from the child
  - - - The factors increasing lone parent, like divorce and separation and single mothers, cause more parents to be available
      - More children from the woman's side because children are more likely to remain with the mother (see lone parents)
      - At a greater risk of poverty because there are more children and the father may have to support children from a previous relationship
      - Some tensions may be caused by a lack of social norms about how individuals should behave in such families
- - - - Middle class - There was more financial help from father to son.
      - Working class - There was more frequent contact (lived closer) and more domestic help from mothers to daughters.
- - - - Under slavery, when couples were sold separately, children stayed with their mother. It is argued that this reinforced a pattern of family life that continues today
      - Male unemployment and poverty means that black men are less able to provide for thee family, resulting in higher results of desertion or marital breakdown
  - - - But practical considerations are also important (i.e help migrating to Britain)
      - Ballard - Extended family ties gave an important source of support among Asian migrants during the 1950s and 1960s
    - - Visiting was frequent and kinship networks continued to be a source of support.