Family Patterns- Marriage Flashcards

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1
Q

Marriage trends

First-marriages statistics

A

-number of first marriages has significantly declined since 1970s: from 480000 in 1972 to 306000 in 2000

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2
Q

Marriage trends

Re-marriages statistics

A

re-marriages increased form 57000 in 1961 to 126000 (46% of all marriages) in 2000

-most remarriages involved divorce persons rather tan widows and widowers

the largest increase occurred between 1971 and 1872 following the introduction of the Divorce Reform Act of 1969

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3
Q

Marriage trends
when people are marrying statistics

A

people are marrying later

-average of first marriage rose by 7 years between 1971 and 2005
when it was 32 years for men and 30 for women

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4
Q

Reasons for changing patterns of marriage

A

-Changing attitudes to marriage
-Changing positions of women
-Decline of religious influence
-Declining stigmas attached to alternatives to marriage
-Fear of divorce

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5
Q

Changing attitudes to marriage

A

less pressure to marry and more freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship they want

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6
Q

Who can you talk about for changing attitudes to marriage ?

A

Postmodernist
David Cheal
argues that this greater choice over the type of family we create has led to an increased in FD

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7
Q

Evaluation
Changing attitudes to marriage

A

some sociologists point out that greater freedom of choice in RS means a greater risk of instability, since these RS are more likely to break up

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8
Q

The decline of religious influence

A

Secularisation
decline in influence of Church means people no longer feel they should fulfil one of the crucial sacraments and get married for religious reasons

-people are freer to choose what type of rs they enter

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9
Q

Evaluation The decline of religious influence

A

-the majority of first-time marriages take place within a religious context, which suggests that religion still has some influence over the decision to get married

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10
Q

The declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage

A

cohabitation
-remaining single and having children outside marriage are all now regarded as acceptable

-in 1989, 70% of respondents to the British Social Attitudes Survey believed that couples who wanted children should get married

-by 2000 this had dropped to 54%

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11
Q

Evaluation for the declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage

A

-most couple who cohabit do tend to get married
-it is just that the average age of getting married has risen

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12
Q

Change in women’s position

A

-many women are now financially independent from men because of better education and better career prospects

-this gives them greater freedom not to marry

-the growing impact of the feminist view that marriage is an oppressive institution may also dissuade women from marrying

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13
Q

Who can you talk about for changes in women’s position?

A

Sue Sharpe (1991)
-found that women’s priorities had changed from marriage and children being their top priority to now valuing their career equally and -therefore are less interested in marriage and more likely to cohabitate as it is more flexible which fits in with the demands of their career

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14
Q

Evaluation of change in women’s position

A

changes to the position of women in society does not necessarily mean that they don’t get married, they merely put off marriage until their careers are established

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15
Q

Evaluation of change in women’s position
Feminists

A

Many feminists also argue that the fact that women are now wage earners as well as homemakers had itself created a new source of conflict between husbands and wives and this is leading to more divorces

argue that marriage remains patriarchal, w/ men benefiting from their wives ‘triple-shift’ of paid work, domestic work and emotion work

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16
Q

Who can you refer to when talking about the declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage?

A

Postmodernists
-argue that we are now focused on ourselves and therefore do not feel the need to get married as we are interested in self-gratification, not trying to please others

17
Q

Fear of divorce

A

Fear of divorce and the experience of seeing or going through a divorce has led to some women rejecting marriage