Divorce Flashcards
Divorce statistics
40% of marriages end up in divorce
Average divorce age is 44 men and 41 for women
Approx 66% of divorces are petitioned by women
The younger the marriage, the more likely of divorce
45% increase in over 60s divorcing - ‘silver splitters’
Factors that effect divorce - social and cultural
-Secularisation - marriage no longer seen as a binding commitment. Made passage laws easier
-Age - living longer, so more time for couples to decide that divorce is an option
-Functionalist - Edward Shorter - believes that we marry for love and romance and once this disappears the marriage breaks down and results in empty shell marriage
-Postmodernist Gibson - more freedom and choice, expectation of higher level of marital satisfaction
-Feminist Mary Maynard - increase of dual burden of paid employment, childcare and housework has led to women asking for divorce
-Marxist feminist Nicky Hart - made worse by capitalist society
-Supported as 65% of marriages are petitioned for by women
Factors that effect divorce - economic
-More women are now in employment, now financially independent from men and can afford to be single parents
-Supported by benefits system
Factors that effect divorce - legal
1857 - divorce available through court of law, men could claim adultery and women had to claim both adultery and cruelty
-1923 -women could divorce on same terms as men
-Divorce law reform act 1971 - first time that you didn’t have prove one of you was ‘guilty’ but the marriage had just ‘irretrievably broken down’
New right/functionalist view on divorce
-High divorce is evidence that marriage is more valued today
-Want more from marriage, demand for equality in decision making and work
-easier divorce, marriage is more likely to be abandoned, promoting family types that are not as good as the nuclear family so want to make divorce harder
Counterpoint for NR
Recent decline in divorce means divorce is not under threat but attitudes are changing, 40% of marriages are remarriages showing people are not not choosing marriage but not wanting marriage with a specific person
-Increasing rate of divorce shows marriages are becoming stronger, particularly from cohabitation (with NR don’t like)
-Nuclear family is not under threat, 75% of children still living with heterosexual married birth parents
Feminist views on divorce
-Expectations from marriage has increased
-Thornes and Collard (1979) supports view that women expect more than men
-Women are using divorce to escape unfulfilling marriage
-Before 1970s - women would be in ‘empty shell marriage’ if unhappy as they would dependent on male ages. Shift when women entered economy
-Hart (1976) - increasing divorce rates is reaction of women to being seen as responsible for childcare and housework
-See divorce as positive and stops women being trapped and allows them to escape dual burden and domestic abuse
Postmodern views on divorce
Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995) - increased divorce is a result of a postmodern where traditional rules are no longer relevant
-Postmodern world is characterised by:
1. Individualisation- less pressure to conform to expectation from extended family, religion or culture
2. Conflict - more potential for culture between men and women from selfish nature of individualisation and the selflessness nature of marriage. More likely to enter marriage with opposite wants, marriage becomes a battle ground - ‘chaos of love’
3. Choice - people now have greater economic and lifestyle choices, greater diversity meant divorce is a more common option
