Families: 3. Marriage, Divorce & Family Diversity Flashcards
Three different types of marriage
Monogamy, Serial Monogamy and Polygamy
Monogamy
Having one husband or wife at a time
Serial Monogamy
Marrying more than once in your lifetime because of divorce or death.
Polygamy
Marriage to more than one person at the same time. There are two types:
- Polygyny: when a religion or culture allows a man to take more than one wife
- Polyandry: when a culture allows a woman to take more than one husband.
Key trends in marriage
- General marriage rate is decreasing
- Decreasing at a stable rate
- Starting to curb at the end
- Rise in age of those getting married
- Still older men on average marrying younger women
British-Asian variations to marriage
Richard Berthoud: Most of British-Asian families live in extended nuclear families. Much more likely to live in multi-generational households, due to cultural & religious expectations:
- Less cohabitation before marriage
- Arranged marriage is more common
- Less intermarriage between ethnicities/religion
- Marry at a younger age
- Often have children at a younger age
Black British variations to marriage
- Less likely to be in formal marriages- only 39% of Black British adults compared to 60% of white adults.
- Greater number of lone parent families
Why has marriage rate fallen over the last 50 years?
- Changing attitudes
- Cost
- Secularisation
- Welfare State:
- Increased consumerism
- Modern attitudes to dating
Why do the New Right argue that the decline is a major concern for society?
Patricia Morgan (2000): Marriage is central to society as it involved unique attachments and expectations that regulate people's behaviours. Claims that the Welfare State replaced husbands.
Why do more liberally minded people, particularly feminists, believe that the fall is a step in the right direction?
- Marriage is now seen as a personal, intimate relationship and is more egalitarian.
- Marriage is no longer an obligatory ceremony, women can choose whether to marry.
- Trends indicate that people are just less carefree about marriage. It’s not in decline, just delayed.
- People take more care deciding who to marry.
Why are the New Right critical about the rise in cohabitation over the last 50 years?
- Morgan (2000): It’s responsible for the decline in marriage and the decline in traditional nuclear families.
- Less stable than marriage. Promotes promiscuity
- Murphy: children who’s parents live together but are not married do worse at school.
Why do Beaujouan & Ni Bhrolchain (?) think the increase in cohabitation is a step in the right direction?
(2011)
- Cohabitation has become normalised
- Acts as a pre-marriage test or ‘trial run’
- Screens out weaker relationships. (decline in marriages ending before 5th anniversary)
What are the key trends in the divorce rates over the last 50 years?
- Rose fairly consistently between 1972-93, and peaked at 165,000 divorces.
- From 1993, it has generally been dropping with 91,000 divorces in 2019.
What are some of the reasons behind the increase in divorce rates between 1972-1993?
- 1969 Divorce Reform Act: Divorce was more flexible through ‘irretrievable breakdown’ clause.
- Changes in attitude: Women’s expectations changed. Increasing Secularisation. Declining influence of extended families. Postmodernist view (Individualisation, Conflict, Choice).
What are some of the key reasons for the decrease in divorce from 1993-present day?
- Increasing education: people marrying older
- Increasing secularisation: more cohabitation
