Changing Family Patterns Flashcards
1
Q
Changing family patterns
A
- in the past 40 or 50 tears there have been some major changes ib the family and household patterns. E.g,:
- the number of traditional nuclear family households has fallen
- divorce rates have increased
- there are fewer first marriages, bur mire re remarriages
- people are marrying later in life
- more couples and cohabiting
- same sex relationships can be legally recognised through civil partnerships or marriages
- women are having fewer children and having them later
- there are more births outside marriage
- there are more lone parent families
- more people live alone
- there are more stepfamilies, and more couples without children
2
Q
Changing patterns of divorce
A
- since the 1960s, there has been a great increase in the number of divorces in the uk. The number of divorces doubled between 1961 and 1969, and doubled again by 1972. The upward trend continued, peaking in 1933 at 165,000
- since then, numbers have fallen somewhat, but still stood at 118,000 in 2012 - about 6 times higher than 1961. This rates means that bout 40% of all marriages will end in divorce
- one reason for the fall in the number of divorces since the 1990s is that fewer people are marrying in the first place and are choosing to cohabit instead
- about 65% of petitions for divorce now come from women. This is sharp contrast to the situation in the past. E.g, in 1946 only 37% of pensions came from women.
- some couples are more likely than others to divorce. Couples who’s marriages are at great risk include those who marry young, have a child before they marry or cohabit before marriage, and those where one or both partners have been married before
3
Q
Explanations for the increase in divorce
A
- Changes in the law
- De lining stigma and changing attitudes
- Secularisation
- Rising expectations of marriage
- Women’s increased financial independence
- Feminist explanations
- Modernity and individualisation
4
Q
- Changes in the law
A
- divorce was very difficult to obtain in the 19th century Britain, especially for women. Gradually, changes in the law have made divorce easier. There have been three kinds of changes in the law:
- equalising the grounds (the legal reasons) for divorce between sexes
- widening the grounds for divorce
- making divorce cheaper
- when the grounds were equalised for men and women in 1923, this was followed by a sharp rise in the number of divorce petitions from women. Similarly, the widening of the grounds in 1971 to ‘irretrievable breakdown’ made divorce easier to obtain and produced a doubling of the divorce rate almost overnight. The introduction of legal aid for divorce cases in 1949 lowered the cost of divorcing rates. Divorce rates have risen with each change in the law
- although divorce is the legal termination of marriage, couples can and do find other solutions to the problem of an unhappy marriage. Such as:
- desertion - where one partner leaves but couple remain legally marriage
- legal separation - where a court separates the financial and legal affairs of the couple but where thru remain married and not free to re marry
- ‘empty shell’ marriage - where the couple continue to live under the same roof bur remain married in name only.
5
Q
What has changes in the law led to for divorce
A
- yet although changes in the law have given people the freedom to divorce more easily, this does not in itself explain why more people should choose to take advantage of this freedom. To fully explain the rise in divorce rates we must therefore look at other changes too. These include changes in public attitudes towards divorce
6
Q
- Declining stigma and changing attitudes
A
- stigma refers to the negative label, social disapproval or shame attached to a person, action or relationship. In the past, divorce and divorces have been stigmatised. E.g, churches tended to condemn divorce and often refused to conduct marriage services involving divorces. Mitchel and goody note that an important change since the 1960s has been the rapid decline in the stigma attached to divorce
- as stigma declines and divorces becomes more socially acceptable, couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their marital problems
- in turn, the fact that divorce is now more common begins to ‘normalise’ it and reduces the stigma attached to it. Rather than being seen as shameful, today it is more likely to be regarded simply as a misfortune
7
Q
- Secularisation
A
- secularisation refers to the decline in the influence of religion in society. Many sociologists argue that religious institutions and ideas are losing their influence and society is becoming more secular. E.g, church attendance rates continue to decline.
- as a result of secularisation, the traditional oppositions of the churches to divorce carries less weight in society and people are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions about personal matters such as whether or not to file for divorce
- at the same time, many churches have also begun to soften their view on divorce and divorces, perhaps because they fear losing credibility with large sections of the public and with their own members
8
Q
- Rising expectations of marriage
A
- functionalist sociologists such as fletcher argue that the 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
- this is linked to the ideology of romantic love - an idea that has become dominant over the last couple of centuries. This is the belief that marriage should be based solely on love, and there for each individual there is a mr or miss right out there
- it follows that if love dies, there is no longer any justification for remaining married and every reason to divorce so as to be able to re new the search for one’s true soulmate
- in the past, by contrast, individuals often had little choice in who they married, and at the time when the family was also a unit of production, marriages were often contracted largely for economic reasons or out of duty to one’s family
- under these circumstances, individuals were unlikely to have the high expectations about marriage as a romantic union of two souls that many couples have today. Entering marriage with lower expectations, there were therefore less likely to be dissatisfied by the absence of romance and intimacy
- today, on the other hand, marriage is increasingly viewed not a a binding contract, but as a relationship in which individuals seek personal fulfilment, and this encourages couples to divorce if they do not find it.
- however, despite todays high divorce rates, functionalists such as fletcher take an optimistic view. They point to the continuing popularity of marriage. Most adults marry, and the high rate of re marriage after divorces shoes that although divorces may have become dissatisfied with s particular partner, they have not rejected marriage as an institution
- however, feminist critics argue that this is too rosey a view. They argue that the oppression of women within the family is the main cause of marital conflict and divorce, but functionalists ignore this. Although functionalist offer an explanation of rising divorce rates, they fail to explain why it is mainly women rather than men who seek divorce
9
Q
- Women’s increased financial independence
A
- one reason from women’s increased willingness to seek divorce is that improvements in their economic position have made them less financially dependent on their husband and therefore freer to end an unsatisfactory marriage
- women today are much more likely to be in paid work. The proportion of women working rose from 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013
- although women are generally still earn less than men, equal pay and anti and anti discrimination laws have helped to narrow the pay gap
- girls greater success in education now helps them achieve better paid jobs than previous generations
- the availability of welfare benefits means that women no longer have remain financially dependent on their husbands
- these developments mean that women are more likely to be able to support themselves in the event of divorce
- Allan and crow put forward a similar view. They argue that ‘marriage is less embedded within the economic system’ now. There are fewer family firms and the family is no longer a unit of production, so spouses are not so dependent on each other economically
- in particular, women now have their own separate source of income from paid work. Not having to rely on their husbands financially, women therefore do not have to tolerate conflict or the absence of love, and in such circumstances they are more willing to seek divorce
10
Q
- feminist explanations
A
- feminists argue that married women today bear a dual burden: the are required to take on a paid work in addition to performing domestic Labour. in this view of feminists, they has created a new source of conflict between husbands and wives, and this is leading to a higher divorce rate than in the past
- while there may have been big improvemenst in women positions in the public sphere of employment, in education, politics and so on, feminists argue that in the private sphere of family and personal relationships, change has been limited and slow. they argue that marriage remains patriarchal, with mens benefiting from their wives ‘trial shift’ of domestic work and emotion work
- similarly, Hochschild argues that for many women, the home compares unfavourably with wolk. at work, women feel valued. at home, mens continuing resistance to doing housework is a source of filtration and makes marriage less stable. in addition, the fact that both partners now go out to work leaves less time and energy for the emotion work needed to address the problems that arise. both these factors may contribute to a higher divorce rate
- however, cooke and gash found no evidence that working women are more likely to divorce. they argue that this is because working has now become the accepted norm for married women
11
Q
- modernity and individualism
A
- sociologists such as beck and giddens argue that in modern society, traditional norms, such as the duty to remain with the same partner for life, lose their hold over individuals
- as a result, each individual becomes free to pursue his or her own self interests. this sure has become know as the individualisation thesis
- relationships thus become more fragile, because individuals become unwilling to remain with a partner if the relationship fails to deliver personal fulfilment. instead, they seek what gidden calls the ‘pure relationship’ - one that exists solely to satisfy each partners needs and not out of a sense of duty, tradition or for the sake of the children. this results in high divorce rates
- at the same time, the rising divorce rate ‘normalises’ divorce and further strengthens the belief that marriage exist solely to provide personal fulfilment
- modern society also encouraged individualism in other ways. e.g, women as well as men are now expected to work and are encouraged to pursue their own individual career ambitions. this can cause conflicts of interest between spouses and contribute to maritial breakdown
- some sociologist also argue that modernist encourages people to adopt a neoliberal, consumerist identify based on the idea of freedom to follow ones self interest. this pursit of self intrest is likely to pull spouses apart
12
Q
the meaning of high divorce rate - the new right
A
- sociologists disagree about the effects of todays high divorce rate on society and on individual family members
- the new right see a high divorce rate as undesirable because it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family, which they regarded as vital to social stability
- in their view, a high divorce rate creates a growing underclass of welfare dependant female lone parents who are a burden on the state and it leaves boys without the adult male role model they need. they believe it also results ib poorer health and educational outcomes for children
12
Q
The meaning of high divorce rates - feminism
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- feminist see a high divorce rate as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from the oppression of the patriarchal family
13
Q
The meaning of a high divorce rate - postmodernist and individualism
A
- see a high divorce rate a showing that individuals now have the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs. They see it as a major cause of greater family diversity
14
Q
The meaning of a high divorce rate - functionalists
A
- argue that a high divorce rate is not necessarily a threat to marriage as a social institution. It is simply the result of people’s higher expectation’s of marriage today. The high rate of re marriage shows people’s continuing commitment to the idea of marriage
15
Q
The meaning of high divorce rates - interactionists
A
- aim to understand what divorce means to the individual. Morgan argues that we cannot generalise about the meaning of divorce, because every individuals interpretation of it is different
- mitchel and goody provide a good example of this. One of their interviewees described the day her father left as one of the best days of her life, whereas another said that she had never recovered from her father deserting the family
16
Q
The meaning of a high divorce rate - the personal life perspective
A
- aspects that divorce can cause problems, such as financial difficulties and lack of daily contact between children and non resident parents
- however, writers from this perspective, such as smart, argue that divorce has become ‘normalised’ and that family life can adapt to it without disintegrating. Rather than seeing divorce as a major social problem, we should see it as just ‘one transaction amongst others in the life course’
17
Q
Marriage
A
- there have been a number of important changes in the pattern of marriage in recent years:
- fewer people are marrying: marriage rates are at their lowest since the 1920s. In 2012, there were 175,000 first marriages for both partners - less than half the number for 1970
- however, there are more re marriages. In 2012, one third of all marriages were re marriages for on or both patenters. For many people, this is leading to ‘serial monogamy’: a pattern of marriage - divorce - re marriage
- people are marrying later: the average age of first marriage rose by seven years between 1971 and 2012, when it stood at 32 years for men and 30 for women
Couples are less Likely to marry in church. In 1981, 60% of weddings were conducted with religious ceremonies, buy by 2012 this had fallen to 30%
18
Q
Reasons for changing patterns of marriage
A
- first marriages
- changing attitudes to marriage
- secularisation
- declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage
- changes in the position of women
- fear of divorce
19
Q
Reasons for the changing patterns of marriage
A
- many of the reasons for a fall in the number of first marriages are similar to the reasons for the increase in divorce examined earlier. They include:
- changing attitudes to marriage
- secularisation
- declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage
- changes in the position of women
- fear of divorce