Changing patterns of marriage- Families and households

Question 1

Smart and Stephens

Answer 1

Today, many females don’t consider many potential partners to be marriage worthy

Question 2

Morgan 2012

Answer 2

Many couples choose to cohabit due to fear of divorce

Question 3

Sue Sharpe 1970-1990

Answer 3

The attitudes of young women have to changed from focusing on family and marriage to their career and independence

Question 4

Wilkinson 1994

Answer 4

Females attitudes towards marriage have undergone a ‘gender-quake’

Question 5

Drew 1998

Answer 5

women look for companionship and emotional support. They are expecting more from a relationship compared to in the past.

Question 6

Allan and Crow 2001

Answer 6

Marriage is more of a relationship than an agreement in today’s society . Contraception removes the need to marry in order to have a sexual relationship

Question 7

Changing attitudes to marriage

Answer 7

• less pressured to marry and more individual freedom for people to choose what type of relationship that they want

Question 8

David Cheal- postmodernist

Answer 8

This greater choice over the type of family we create has lead to an increase in family diversity

Question 9

Fear of divorce

Answer 9

• The fear of divorce and the experience of seeing or going through divorce has lead to women rejecting marriage

Question 10

Decline of religious influence

Answer 10

• since society is becoming more secular, there has been a decline in the influence of the church on peoples decisions. Therefore, people feel less obliged to get married for religious reasons
• People are also freer to choose what type of relationship they enter into

Question 11

Changes in the position of women

Answer 11

• Many women are now financially independent and don’t need to rely on men for their income due to better career prospects and education
• This gives them more freedom not to marry
• The growing impact of the feminist view that marriage is an oppressive patriarchal institution may also dissuade women from marrying

Question 12

Declining stigma attached to marriage alternatives

Answer 12

• cohabitation, remaining single and having children outside of marriage are all now regarded as acceptable
• In 1989, 70% of respondents to the British social attitudes survey believed that couples should get married. By 2000, this figure had dropped to 54%