Changing family patterns

Question 1

What is divorce?

Answer 1

• legal termination of marriage
• number of divorces doubles between 1961-69 and again in 1972- peaking in 1993 at 165,000- since then numbers fallen however still remain high
• approx. 101-102,000 divorces of opposite sex couples in England and Wales 2017

Question 2

What is the brief history of Divorce law- how changes law have inc divorce rate?

Answer 2

• 1857- divorce costly
• 1923 grounds for divorce equalised for men and women
• 1949- legal aid avail- divorce more affordable
• 1969 (effect came into 1971) - Divorce Law Act passed - allowed ‘irretrievable breakdown’ of marriage the sole grounds for divorce, established by proving unreasonable behaviour, adultery, desertion or separation either with or without consent
  -2004- Civil Partnership Act- allows for legal dissolution of a civil partnership on same grounds as for marriage

Question 3

How did declining stigma and changing attitudes lead to inc divorce?

Answer 3

• as stigma declines and divorce becomes more socially acceptable, couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their materials
• regarded today as simply a misfortune rather than it being shameful

Question 4

How did rising expectations of marriage lead to inc divorce?

Answer 4

• entering a marriage with lower expectations, therefore less likely to be dissatisfied by absence of romance and intimacy - today however, marriage seen not as binding control- encourages divorce if don’t find personal fulfilment

Question 5

How did women’s inc Financial Independence lead to inc divorce?

Answer 5

• women are more likely to be in paid work- proportion of women rose from 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013
• although women generally still earn less than men, equal pay narrowed gap
• Allan and Crow- fewer firms and the family no longer a unit of production

Question 6

How has secularisation lead to inc divorces?

Answer 6

• trad opposition of the churches to divorce carries less weight in society and ppl are less likely to be influenced by religion
• many churches began to soften views on divorce, maybe of fear of losing credibility of public

Question 7

What are the theoretical reasons for inc divorce?

Answer 7

Feminists:
- today married women bear dual burden- paid work and perform domestic labour like cooking, childcare and housework, creating partner conflict in turn divorce
- Hochschild- many women feel home compares unfavourably with work- work they feel values and not at home as there may still be male frustrations making a less stable marriage
- dual burden mothers more likely to divorce than non working mothers in trad labour

Modernity/Postmodernity and Individualisation:
- Giddens- in modern society, trad norms like duty to remain with same partner for life, lose their hold as individuals - as a result, each person becomes free to pursue his/her own self-interests
- relationships = fragile if fails to deliver personal fulfilment, instead they seek what Giddens calls ‘pure relationship’ - this results in higher divorce rate
-modern societies encourage this individualisation

Question 8

What were the marriage rates in 2015?

Answer 8

• approx. 239,000 marriages between opposite-sex couples in 2015- decrease of 3.4% 2014

Question 9

What are the reasons for changing patterns in marriage?

Answer 9

Changing attitudes:
- less pressure to marry and more freedom individuals to choose relationship type they want
- quality of relationship is more important that legal status
- norm that everyone to get married has greatly weakened

Secularisation:
- churches favour marriage but influences declines and ppl feel freer to choose not to marry- according to census only 3% of young ppl with no religion use married, as against up to 17% of those with a religion

Declining stigma attached to marriage- similar to divorce- become regarded as acceptable

Changing position of women- better educational prospects- less economic dependant on men

Question 10

How have partnerships changed: patterns of cohabitation?

Answer 10

• unmarried couples in a sexual relationship- rising whilst marriage falls- in Britain 2020 approx. 3.5 million cohabiting
• inc rates are as a result of stigma decline, inc women career opportunities, secularisation, part of process of getting married (suggested by Chester), 75% cohabitants say expect to marry - ‘trial marriage’
• Shelton and John-> women who marry do less housework than marriage counterparts - feminists like cohab as would say don’t need male reliance

Question 11

How have partnerships changed: same-sex relationships?

Answer 11

• Stonewall Est about 5-7% population have same sex relationships - 1967- homosexuality made legal for over 21s- 2014- allowed to marry
• Weekes-> inc social acceptance- sees gays as creating families based on idea of ‘friendship as Kinship’ where friendship becomes a type of kinship network- argues offer same security and stability as straight families
• Weston-> same-sex cohabiting as ‘quasi-marriage’ and notes that many gay couples are deciding to cohabit as stable partners- she contrasts this with gay 70s lifestyle largely rejecting family life
• Anna Einasdottr-> notes while many LGBTQ welcome opportunity to have legal partnership recognised others fear it may limit flexibility and negotiability of relationships rather than adopt as what they see as heterosexual norms, wish theirs to be different
• radical feminist heavily in favour
• New Rights not be in favour as children not brought up by one parent of each sex

Question 12

How have partnerships changed: One person household?

Answer 12

• big rise- 2013: 3 in 10 households contained only 1 person - 3 times number of 1961- most likely to be men under 65
• due to marriage decline and trend to a latter marriage, many choose to be alone and remain single
• Duncan and Phillips-> research for British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) found that 1 in 10 adults are ‘Living Apart Together’ due to divorce rates inc, growing individualisation and choice , modern tech= mobile links and travel faster therefore close contact can be maintained
• Levin suggests LATs enable couples to pursue both intimacy of a couple as well as time preserve their individual autonomy and identity- ppl choose LATs rather than marry and cohab as responsibilities are not in the way, as week as practical distance reasons, and avoiding any risks

Question 13

How have families with parents and children changed: Childbearing?

Answer 13

• 47% children are being born outside of marriage, double amount there was in 86’, women having children later than avg is now 30 years
• inc in births outside marriage bc a decline of stigma and inc in cohabitation
• later age at which women are having children, all reflects fact women now have more options than just motherhood- many seek to establish themselves in career before starting family
• New rights activists would completely disagree as want nuclear

Question 14

How have families with parents and children changed: Lone Parent Families?

Answer 14

-LPFs - 2020 - 2.9 mill
- earlier data suggests 1 in 4 children LPF- 90% headed by women- twice as likely to be in poverty (the child) -as wide belief women more natured to childcare
- risen due to inc in divorce/separation
- greater econ independence of women- via jobs or welfare support
- inc contraception and changing male attitudes- with abortions and condoms etc men may feel less responsibility to marry or cohabit
- reproductive tech is available to women
- changing social attitudes
- New Right thinkers- Murray sees growth of lone parent families as resulting from over-generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children- welfare creates a dependency culture in which ppl assume state will support them and their children- Murray believes in abolishing it

Question 15

How have families with parents and children changed: Step Families (reconstituted)?

Answer 15

• account for over 10% of all families with children
• in 86% of stepfamilies at least one child is from the Woman’s prior relationship
• stepfamilies are formed when lone parents form new partnerships- thus the factors causing an inc in number of lone parent, such as divorce and separation, are also responsible for creation of stepfamilies
• stepfamilies at higher poverty risk as have more children, and may also have to support children from previous relationship

Question 16

Evaluation of New Right in terms of lone parent families?

Answer 16

• benefits are low, they are not generous
• these families are usually poor, bc lack of affordable childcare prevents mothers working and bc fathers do not pay maintence

Question 17

Ethnic patterns of married couples UK 2012?

Answer 17

• white famillies= 61%
• Asian and Asian British= 88%
• Black and Black British= 43%

Question 18

What are the differences in family patterns of Black families?

Answer 18

• Black Caribbean and Black African- higher proportion LPF
• 51% Black Children live in LPF- white = 23%
• may be due to women are trad matrifocal- prefer to be independent or high rates on unemployment amongst Black males may lead some women to decide not to cohabit or marry because not reliable for income
• Black women may be helped by relatives
• Mirza argues higher rates of LPF among Black ppl is not result of disorganisation, but rather reflects high value that Black women place on independence- Reynolds also claims figures r misleading

Question 19

What are the differences in family patterns of Asian Families- evidence for extended family today still exists?

Answer 19

• Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger those of other ethnic groups
  -such households contain 3 gens- Nuclear-> extended
• larger household sizes partly a result of younger age profile of British Asians- more ppl in childbearing age group
• high value placed on extended family in Asian cultures
• due to immigration ppl needed to help each other out
• family= important source of support and financial help
• today religious Muslims, Sikhs and Hindu are still more likely to live in extended family

Question 20

How does traditional working class families today prove extended family continues to exist?

Answer 20

• found in all cities where there is deprivation
• long-established communities dominated by one industry, perhaps fishing in traditional w/c industrial northern UK areas
• little geog and soc mobility and children usually remain same area when get married
• live close together and meet frequently - constant exchange of services such as washing or shoppung et

Question 21

How is the ‘modified extended family’ suggesting extended family continues today?

Answer 21

• kin beyond nuclear family still play important part in family lives, especially in homes that are purchased or rented and children arrive
• in modernisation the closeness and mutual support between kin typical of classic extended family life are retained via email communication, social networking websites such as Facebook, letter writing, visiting despite geog separation
• therefore most common is this modified form of extended family

Question 22

How has the beanpole family made a return of the extended family?

Answer 22

• ageing population and couples having fewer children and nuclear families getting smaller
• means there is an inc of number of extended 3,4,5 gen families
• more of them growing up in extended families alongside several grandparents and even great-grandparents
• Brennen calls this new shape ‘beanpole’- bc the family tree is ‘thinner’ and less ‘bushy’- fewer siblings mean fewer cousins and fewer aunts and uncles in next gen

Question 23

What do Young and Willmott say upon the symmetrical family?

Answer 23

• argue main forms of family used to be classic extended family, but the beginnings of the transition to the priv symmetrical nuclear family of today began around 1900- argue a modern symmetrical family has strong bonds between married and cohabiting partners with equal on each side
• both parents share household chores, childcare, decision-making and bot partners more likely involved in paid employment

Question 24

What are the geographic mobility needs as well as higher social mobility rate in contemporary societies in relation to decline to modern family life?

Answer 24

• new societies have specialised division of labour- with a wide range of differing occupations with different incomes and lifestyles- means that the labour force needs to be geographically mobile- to improve and gain promotion- involves leaving relatives behind thus weakening and breaking up the traditional family
• social mobility: ppl can move up or down social scale compared to the family they were born into- higher levels mean that different members of the extended family may find themselves in different jobs with different education, income, lifestyle and values between kin- weaken relations as have less in common

Question 25

How has the growth in welfare state and growth in meritocracy in contemporary society allowed for a decline in family life?

Answer 25

• ppl much better off today and welfare state taken over a number functions performed prior by family- such as education, health care and welfare- reduced kin dependency in distressful times- further weakens the extended family
• Meritocracy: contemporary societies require more skill and education for jobs, and more meritocratic in the past- it is what you know rather than who you know, that is the most important factor in getting jobs- extended kin have now less to offer for family members

Question 26

How does economic differences as well as protecting family stability given way for decline in nuclear family?

Answer 26

• different occupations, incomes, lifestyles and statuses of extended family members who live together might be a source of family conflict and instability, with conflicts over where to live when different job opportunities arise, and over different incomes and lifestyles in the same family unit - adult children generally moving away from home to establish own lives avoids problems
• protecting family stability: there is a lack f support from kin in the isolated nuclear family, and Parsons argues that this helps to cement family relationship by inc mutual dependency of partners in a married or cohabiting relationship - inc stabilisation of adult personalities which are under particular stress in the face of the impersonal competition relations of contemporary society as ppl fight for higher status, more money and work promotion to support consumer led lifestyles of contemporary