Divorce Flashcards
What does divorce refer to
The legal ending of marriage
Do all martial end in divorce, what are alternatives to it
No they don’t
Some couples prefer to just merely separate from each other. Some may continue to live in a ‘empty shell marriage’ - which is where the couple are together but don’t engage in intimacy
Or they stay together for financial reasons or the children
Why might couples resort to an ‘empty shell marriage’
Divorce or separation might be regarded as extremely shameful or sinful by the community or because they are followers of religion that doesn’t morally approve of divorce
Statistic on the number of divorces per thousand married population
It has been increasing
From 5.9 in 1974 to 14.2 in 1994 (its peak)
Between 1995 and 2000 it fell to 12.7, but rose to 14 in 2004
However in 2013 it fell back to 9.8
What year was age Matrimonial Causes Act identified
1857
What did the Matrimonial Causes Act do
Identified three matrimonial offences or grounds for divorce: adultery, cruelty and desertion.
In order to gain a divorce one partner had to prove the other guilty of one of these offences, which often meant employing expensive barristers
When did women gain the right to sue for divorce
1923 in the grounds of only adultery
What year was the Legal Aid and Advice Act
1949
What did the Legal Aid and Advice Act do
It meant that financial help was made available to help with the high financial costs of divorce
What year was the Divorce Reform Act and when did it become effective
1969 and became effective in 1971
What did the Divorce Reform Act do
Dramatically changes access to divorce. It reduced the expense of divorce as it took away the need for one partner to prove the other partner guilty.
The act awarded divorce is both partners agreed that the marriage had ‘irretrievably broken down’ after a two year separation.
What did some sociologists speculate the rise in divorces that occurred after the Divorce reform act was linked to
The decline of the working-class extended family
What do Parsons and Bale (1995) argue
That the nuclear family became ‘privatised’ and isolated from extended kin during the 1950s, which meant couples were less likely to be under pressure from their kin to stay together.
Extended kin acted as a social control agency and helped prevent martial breakdown
What does Leach (1967) claim
That nuclear families were like ‘over-loaded electrical circuits’ and that there was too much pressure on couples to fulfil all of each others emotional needs.
This pressure led to conflict and divorce
How did secularisation become a reason for divorce
The rapid decline in religious attendance and beliefs between the 1960s and 1990s led to divorce being viewed as a ‘necessary evil’ rather than as a source of shame and social stigma
What is a major influence on divorce
The changing role of women in society
How did the Divorce Reform Act help women
Prior to the act, men started divorce petitions. But now 65% of divorces are initiated by wives who are unhappy with some aspect of their marriage
What is the difference between wives in the 1960s and wives now
Wives now are more likely to go out to work and are less likely to be financially dependent on their husbands
What is some evidence that the attitudes of women towards marriage has rapidly changed
Wives in the past probably tolerated domestic violence, mens emotional incompetence and inequalities in the domestic division of labour as martial ‘norms’.
Evidence suggests that women today see such male behaviour as justifiable grounds for initiating divorce
Define division of labour
The way work is divided up among members of a social group
What does evidence suggest about expectations of marriage
That society’s attitude towards divorce have shifted because both men and women now have higher expectations of marriage
What does Fletcher (1996) argue
That both sexes now expect marriage to be based on companionship, underpinned by mutual love and support and couples are no longer prepared to tolerate loveless marriage
Are marriages more likely to survive now than thirty years ago, and why
Yes
Because people are marrying at a much more mature age and usually after a period of cohabitation - these strengthen the marriage and allows couples to iron out any difficulties before marriage
What do Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995) argue
That divorce rates increased because of the growing trend towards individualisation which means people have become more self orientated. They suggest that marriage often leads to chaos as the selflessness expected in love and marriage clashes with the self-interest of individualisation
What does Giddens (1992) suggest
That divorce has resulted from the transformation of intimacy which resulted from the gradual replacement of romantic love with confluent love
