changing family patterns Flashcards
Divorce
The number of divorces in the Uk have doubled between 1961 and 1969 and have doubled again by 1972. The upward trend continued, peaking in 1993 at 165,00.
Number of divorces in 2012
In 2012 there has been 118,000 which is about six times higher than in 1961 which means that about 40% of all marriages will end in divorce
Why has there been a decrease in the number of divorces since 1990s ?
Fewer people are getting married and more people are choosing to cohabit.
What percentage of petitions for divorce now come from women?
Now 65%
In 1946 only 37%
What type of couples are most likely to divorce ?
- those who marry young
-those that have a child before they marry
-those who cohabit before marriage
-those who were one or both parents have been married before
Finish the statement
equalising the ground…
the legal reasons for divorce between the sexes
1923
widening the grounds…
for divorce (1971)
make divorce…
cheaper (1949)
what is desertion?
when one couple leaves the other but they remain married
What is legal separation ?
where a court separates the financial and legal affairs of the couple but they remain married and are not free to re-marry
What is ‘empty shell’ marriage
Where the couple continues to live under the same roof but remain married in name only
Decline in stigma and changing attitudes
stigma refers to the negative label, social disapproval and shame attached to a person, action or relationship.
church opinion on divorce
Churches tend to condemn divorce and often refuse to conduct marriage services involving divorcees.
What did Mitchell and Goody say?
Note an important change since the 1960s has been the rapid decline of stigma attached to divorce.
Fletcher 1966
Argue that the higher expectations people place on marriage today are a major cause of rising divorce rates. It makes couples less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage
Romantic love
Marriage should be based solely on love and that for each individual there is a Miss or Mr Right out there.
What is the justification?
If love dies there is no longer any justification for remaining married and to find your true soulmate.
What was the last view ?
Individuals often had little choice in who they married and at a time when the family was also a unit production and marriages were conducted for economic reasons
What is Fletchers optimistic view ?
Most adults marry and the high rate of re-marriage after divorce shows that although divorvees may have become dissatisfied with a particular partner they haven’t rejected marriage as an institution.
What’s the feminist view ?
The oppression of women within the family is the main cause of martial conflict and divorce m
Women’s increased financial independence
- women today are much more likely to be in paid work. 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013
- girls greater success in education now helps them achieve better- paid jobs than previous generations
-welfare and benefits
-Anti-discrimination laws
Allan and crow
“marriage is less embedded within the economic system “ now.
Feminist explanation - dual burden
Married women bear a dual burden: paid woke in addition to perform domestic labour.
This causes conflict
Feminist explanation- marriage is patriarchal
Marriage remind patriarchal and men bring it from their wives. ‘Triple shift’ of paid work, domestic work and emotional work
Hoshchild argument
Home compares unfavourablely compared to work
Work women are valued.
Wendy Single-Rushron 2007
Mothers who have a dual burden of paid work and domestic work are more likely to divorce than non-working mothers in marriages with a traditional division
Cooke and Gash 2010
No evidence that working women are more likely to divorce.
Radical feminist - Bernard 1976
Many married women feel a growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal marriage and women are becoming more confident rejecting it
Beck and Giddens
Traditional norms such as the duty to remain with the same partner for life lose their hold over individuals.
Individualisation thesis
Individual becomes free to pursue his or her own self- interest
Pure relationship
One that exists solely to satisfy each partner’s and not out of a sense of duty, tradition or for the sake of the children.
What does modernity encourage
People to adopt a neoliberal, consumerist identity based on the idea of freedom to follow one’s self interest.
The meaning of a high divorce - The New Right
Sees a higher divorce rates as undesirable because it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family which they regard as social stability leads to high divorce rate creates a growing underclass of welfare dependent female lone parents
Feminists
See high divorce rates as desirable it shows women are breaking free from oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family.
Postmodernists and the individualisation thesis.
See it as showing that individuals now have the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs.
Functionalist
Argue that a high divorce rate is not necessarily a threat to marriage as a social institution. It’s simply the result of people’s higher expectations of marriage today.
Interactionists
Aim to understand what divorce means to individuals. Morgan argues that we cannot generalise about the meaning of divorce because every individuals interpretation of it is different.
The personal life perspective
Divorce can cause problems such as financial difficulties and lack of daily contact between children and non resident parents
Smart family life can adapt to divorce without disintegrating.
2012
175,000 people got married
Half the number from 1970
What are the percentage of re marriages
2012 one third of marriages were re marriages for one or both partners
Serial monogamy
Average age of marriage
Rose 7 years from 1971 and 2012
It stands at 32 for men and 30 for women l
How many couples got married in churches
1981, 60% of weddings were conducted with religious ceremonies and it’s 30% in 2012
What did the 2001 census state
Only 3% of young people with no religion were married compared to 17% of young people with a religion
Attitudes to children
1989, 70% believed that couples who want children should get married but by 2012 only 42%.
What are the figures for cohabitation
-2.9 million cohabiting heterosexual
-69,000 same-sex cohabiting couples
Attitudes to sex before marriage
In 1989 only 44% of people agreed that ‘premarital sex is not wrong at all compared to 65% took this view by 2012
Coast 2006
Relationship between cohabitation and marriage
75% of cohabiting couples say that they except to marry each other.
Shelton and John
Women who cohabit do less housework than their married counterparts parts
Same sec relationships
Stonewall 2012
5 to 7% of couples are in same sex relationships
Male homosexual
Was decriminalised in 1967 for consenting adults over 21.
Policy changes
- 2002 cohabitating couples have had the same right to adopt as married couples
- 2004 civil partnerships act have same sex couples similar legal rights
- 2014 same sex couples could marry
Weeks 1999
Increased social acceptance may explain a trend towards same sex cohabitation and stable relationships that resemble those found among heterosexual
Chosen families - Weeks
Friendship is a kingship
Offer the same security and stability as heterosexual families
One person households
In 2013 almost three in ten households contained one person. Near three times the figure for 1961
40% of one person households are over 65
2033 over 30% of adult population will be single
Reasons (men)
Children are more likely to live with their mothers and fathers are more likely to leave the house
Living alone
Porpotion of adults who are single has risen by half since 1971 and many of these are living alone. Opting for a ‘creative singlehood’ deliberate choice
British social attitudes survey 2013
One in 10 adults are living apart together or LATS.
In a significant relationship but not married or cohabiting
Half of the people officially classed single
Duncan and Phillips
Both choice and constraint play a part for when couples live together.
- money problems
-want to keep their own home
-to early to cohabit
Child bearing
47% of children are now born outside of marriage over twice as many in 1986
Women are having children layer
Women are having fewer children
More women remain childless
Reasons for change
28% of 25-34 year olds now think marriage should come before parenthood
Changes to attitude
Lone parent families
22% of all families with children so one in four lives in a lone-parent family
90% of these families are headed by lone mothers
A child living in a lone parent household is twice more likely to live in poverty
Renvoize
Professional women were able to support their child without the fathers involvement
Cashmere 1985
Some working class mothers with less earning power chose to live on welfare benefits without a partner
Preserve incentives
Dependency culture in which people assume the state would support them
