Family Patterns- Divorce

Question 1

Overall trend in divorces and since when

Answer 1

since 1960s, there has been a great increase in the number of divorces in UK

Question 2

Statistics

Answer 2

number of divorces doubled between 961 and 1969 and doubled again by 1972

continued to peak upwards in 1993 at 180k

Question 3

Divorce numbers since 1993

Answer 3

somewhat fallen
but still stood at 157,000 in 2001
-about 6 x higher than 1961

-this rate means that about 40% of all marriages will end in divorce

Question 4

Statistics for who files for divorces

Answer 4

7/10 petitions for divorce come from women

-this is in sharp contrast to the situation in the past
-e.g
1946 only 37% of petitions came from women, barely half today’s figure

Question 5

Most common reason for a women to be granted divorce is …

Answer 5

Unreasonable behaviour of her husband

Question 6

Some couples are more likely to divorce than others, those couples that:

Answer 6

-marry young
-have a child before marriage
-where one or both partners have been married before

Question 7

New Rights views on divorce

Answer 7

-see high divorce rate as undesirable because it determines the traditional nuclear family

-divorce creates an under class of welfare-dependent lone mothers and leaves both without the adult role model they need

Question 8

Feminists views on divorce

Answer 8

see a high divorce rate as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from the oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family

Question 9

Postmodernists views on divorce

Answer 9

see high divorce rate as giving individuals the freedom to choose to end a RS when it no longer meets their needs. They see it as a cause of greater FD

Question 10

Functionalists views on divorce

Answer 10

argue that a high divorce rate doe snot necessarily prove that marriage as a social institution is under threat

-it is simply the result of people’s higher expectations of marriage today

-the high rate or re-marriage demonstrates people’s continuing commitment to the idea of marriage

Question 11

Explanations is the increase in divorce

Answer 11

Changes in the law
Declining stigmas and changing attitudes
Secularisation
Rising expectations of marriage
Changes in the position of women

Question 12

Changes in the law

Answer 12

-divorce was very difficult to obtain in the 19th century Britain, especially for women
-gradually changes in the law have made divorce easier

Question 13

There have been 3 kinds of changes in the law:

Answer 13

• equalising the grounds (legal reasons) for divorce between the sexes
  -widening grounds for divorce
  -make divorce cheaper

Question 14

Widening of the grounds in 1971 to ‘irretrievable breakdown’

Answer 14

made divorce easier to obtain and produced a doubling of the divirce rate almost oveernight.

Question 15

Which legal contribution added to the rise in divorces rates ?

Answer 15

Introduction of legal aid for divorce cases in 1949 lowered cost of divorcing

Question 16

Evaluation for changes in the law

Answer 16

Yet although changes in the law have given people the freedom to divorce more easily , this itself does not explain why more people divorce and take advantage of this freedom

-to explain the rise in divorce rates we must therefore look at other changes too

-these include changes in public attitudes towards divorce

Question 17

Declining stigma and changing attitudes
+ which sociologists can you talk about?

Answer 17

Mitchell and Goody (1997)
note that an important change since the 1960s has been the rapid decline in the stigma attached to divorce

-as stigma declines and divorce becomes more socially acceptable, couples become more socially acceptable, couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their marital problems

Question 18

Declining stigma and changing attitudes
‘normalise’

Answer 18

the fact that divorce is now more common begins to ‘normalise’ it and reduces the stigma attached to it

-rather than being seen as shameful, today it is more likely to be regarded simply as a misfortune

Question 19

Evaluation for declining stigma and changing attitudes

Answer 19

-despite these changing attitudes, family patterns tend to be fairly traditional

-most people still live in a family; most children are brought up by couples; most couples marry and many divorcees re-marry

Question 20

Evaluation for declining stigma and changing attitudes
Sociologists view?

Answer 20

some sociologists have suggested that these changes have led to a ‘crisis of masculinity’ in which some men experience anxiety about their role

as such, the result of this could be an increase in DV in an attempt to reassert their traditional masculinity

Question 21

Secularisation

Answer 21

decline in the influence of religion

Question 22

What is the result of secularisation?

Answer 22

the traditional opposition of the Church to divorce carries less weight in society and people are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions

Question 23

Statistics for secularisation

Answer 23

2001 Census data

43% of young people with no religion were cohabiting

34% of Christians
17% Muslims
11% Hindus
10% Sikhs

Question 24

Branching point of secularisation

Answer 24

many churches have also begun to soften their views on divorce and divorcees, perhaps because they fear losing credibility with large sections of the public and with their own members

Question 25

Evaluation for secularisation

Answer 25

-some sociologists challenge whether secularisation is occurring and point to the number of first-time marriages taking place in a religious context

-and the changes made by the Church Of England to allow divorced people to remarry in Church

-this suggests that there is still a demand for religious wedding, even amongst those who have been divorced before

Question 26

Rising expectations of marriage
which sociologist argues this ?

Answer 26

Functionalists sociologist
Ronald Fletcher (1966)
-argue that the higher expectations people place on marriage today are a major cause of rising divorce rates

-higher expectations make couples nowadays less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage

Question 27

Evaluation for rising expectations of marriage

Answer 27

despite the high divorce rates functionalists such as Fletcher take an optimistic view
-they point to the continuing popularity of marriage

-most adults marry and the high rate of remarriage after divorce shows that although divorces may have become disstatisdied with a particular person, they have not rejected marriage as an institution

Question 28

Evaluation for rising expectations of marriage
Feminists

Answer 28

-argue that the oppression of women within the family is the main cause of marital conflict and divorce, but functionalists ignore this

-although functionalists offer an explanation of rising divorce rates, they fail to explain why it is mainly women rather than men who seek divorce

Question 29

Changes in the positon of women

Answer 29

-women’s increased willingness to seek divorce is that improvements in their economic position have made them less financially dependent on their husband and therefore freer to end an unsatisfactory marriage

-availability of welfare benefits means that women no longer have to remain financially dependent on their husbands.These developments mean that women are more likely to be able to support themselves in the event of divorce

Question 30

Changes in the position of women
Which sociologist could you to refrain to?

Answer 30

Sue Sharpe (1991)
-found that women’s priorities had changed from marriage and children being their top priority to now valuing their career equally

-so may escape marriages to succeed and thrive in their career

Question 31

Evaluation for Changes in the position of women

Answer 31

-feminists argue that is not the reason because women have been wage earners

-women being wage-earners is the problem and source of conflict

-argue that marriage remains patriarchal with men benefiting from their wives’ ‘triple shift