Changing patterns of divorce- Families and households Flashcards
What are the 5 reasons for increase of divorce?
- changing roles of women
- declining stigma
- secularization
- changes in the law
- increasing expectations
Juliet Mitchell and jack goody
identified the rapid decline in stigma towards divorce since the 1960s.
3 changes in the law for divorce
- cheaper
- equal for sexes
- widening the grounds
year for made cheaper
1949
year for equalising for the sexes
1969
year for widening the grounds
1971
what was introduced for making it cheaper
the introduction for legal aid for divorce
what was introduced for making it equal for sexes
divorce reform act
what was introduced for widening the grounds
irreducible breakdown
Roland Fletcher
identified the rising expectations of marriage and considered it as one of the main reasons for divorce, people are less likely to tolerate an unhappy marriage
smart and stephens
many women don’t consider men today as marriage worthy
allan and crow 2001
marriage seen as more of a relationship than a commitment or arrangement
morgan
lots of people choose to cohabit rather than marry
smart and Neil
mother child relationships more appealing
drew 1998
it is particularly women who have rising expectations of marriage
the new right
- divorce is undesirable
- it creates an underclass filled with lone mothers who rely on benefits
- leaves boys growing up without a male role model
Feminists
- divorce is desirable
- shows that women are breaking away from the oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family
Postmodernists
- provides individual freedom
- choose to end a relationship which no longer meets their needs
- cause of greater family diversity
functionalists
- Does not necessarily prove that marriage as a social institution is under threat
- people have higher expectations of marriage today
- the high rates of re-marriage demonstrates peoples continuing commitment to the idea of marriage
