JKRChanging Family Patterns ✔️

Question 1

How have family households changed in the past 40-50 years? (6)

Answer 1

• people marry later / don’t marry
• increased divorce rates
• number of traditional nuclear families have decreased
• more people live alone
• more births outside of marriage
• more couples without children

Question 2

Why are people not getting married? (3)

Answer 2

• less pressure of women to get married from a young age.
• people want to focus on career.
• people may not actually want the marital status.

Question 3

Why may people not want children? (2)

Answer 3

• women may want to focus on their career, they are not just seen as the ‘baby machines’ like back in the 1900’s.
• babies are expensive, women may want to focus on their career instead and focus on themselves.

Question 4

Divorce is a major cause of…

Answer 4

Changing family patterns and greater family diversity.

Question 5

What is Britain’s divorce rate like?

Answer 5

High compared to others in Europe.

Question 6

Divorce rates in 1938 vs 200:

Answer 6

1938 = 6000 divorces issued

2000 = 154,000

Since then the numbers have fallen though slightly.

Question 7

How many marriages will end in divorce?

Answer 7

40% of all marriages.

Question 8

Why are people divorcing? (3)

Answer 8

• fewer people marrying in the first place, may cohabit instead.
• 65% are from women, higher expectations of marriage & women have rights now. Financial independence mean they don’t need a man.
• people marrying for the wrong reasons e.g. because they had a baby / they marry too young (under 25)

Question 9

How have changes in the law meant that divorces have increased?

Answer 9

• divorce is cheaper (1949 legal aid)
• the grounds have been equalised. (1923, sharp rise from women)
• the grounds for divorce have been widened.
  (1971 - if marriage was just unfixable)

Question 10

Empty shell marriage:

Answer 10

Where a couple continue to live under the same roof but remain married in name only.

Question 11

Desertion:

Answer 11

Where one partner leaves the other but the couple remain legally married.

Question 12

Legal seperation:

Answer 12

Where a court separates the financial and legal affairs of the couple but where they remain married and are not free to re-marry.

Question 13

Why has declining stigma led to increased divorces?

Answer 13

Stigma = negative label.

Lots of stigma with divorce e.g. Christina churches condemn it & refuse to make marriage ceremonies with divorces. Mitchell & Goody note that there has been a decrease in the stigma with divorce.

People resort to it quicker now as it is normalised, seen as a misfortune rather than shameful.

Question 14

Why has Secularisation led to increased divorces?

Answer 14

The decline in influence of religion e.g. less people aren’t church.

The opposition to divorce by religions carry less weight and people will make their deicisions without being impacted / guilted by their religion.

Question 15

Why has rising expectations of marriage led to increased divorces?

Answer 15

Functionalists like Fletcher argue that people have a higher expectations of marriage e.g. want someone to be supportive whereas in 1900’s it was about economic stability.

Question 16

What did Allan and Crow say about the rising expectations of marriage?

Answer 16

“Absence of these feeling is itself justification for ending the relationship”

Marriage is a romantic relationship & people want to be fulfilled.

Question 17

What does Fletcher think about re-marriages?

What do Femenists think?

Answer 17

Optimistic - people are still re-marrying!

It’s too rosy a view & the main cause of divorce is the oppression of women within a family.

Question 18

Why has women’s increased financial stability led to increased divorces?

What does Allan and Crow say?

Answer 18

Women don’t need to rely on men anymore, they have their own careers and can survive on their own & girls tend to do better in education than boys.

Allan and Crow says that families are not units of production anymore, divorce won’t affect the whole family as everyone has their own stuff.

Question 19

What do feminists think about rising divorce rates?

Answer 19

Women carry a dual burden - house work and career work, causing a conflict between couples. Women still don’t have full rights although there is improvement.

Question 20

Hochschild says…

Where are women more valued?

Answer 20

Women are appreciated more at work and school rather than at home which tires them & the two jobs the woman now has leaves less time to work out problems = divorce.

Question 21

Sigle-Rushton says…

Comparison of wives

Answer 21

Mothers who have the dual burden of paid work and domestic work are more likely to divorce than traditional housewives.

Question 22

Cooke and Gash says…

Answer 22

There’s no evidence that women are more likely to divorce if they work because they think working has become the accepted norm for married women.

Question 23

Radical feminists such as Bernard…

Answer 23

• see men as the enemy (radical)

Women are more aware of patriarchal oppression and less willing to put up with it.

Question 24

Why has modernity and individualisation led to increased divorces?

Answer 24

Beck & Giddens say that people have choice now - the duty to remain with the same person for life is losing its value. People are being more picky about what they want & they have the freedom to do this!

Question 25

Who are the New Right?

Answer 25

A right wing party who believe in the private sector & believe the government should stay out of people’s businesses.

Question 26

What do the New Right think about high divorce rates? (2)

Answer 26

• it’s bad because it undermines nuclear family which is the key to social stability.
• leaves welfare dependent lone parents relying on benefits & leaves boys without male role model (could lead to crime life)

Question 27

Children from divorced family are thought to…

Answer 27

Suffer from a range of problems such as crime and unemployment - also more likely to divorce when they are older.

(According to New Right)

Question 28

Rodgers and Prior found…

About separates families

Answer 28

That children from separated to families are more likely to suffer from behavioural problems. - smoke, drink, have sex too young etc.

Question 29

What did Flourish & Buchanan do and find when studying ‘broken homes’?

Answer 29

Studied 17,000 kids from ‘broken homes.

Saw that when Dad was still involved, life for the kids was still ok e.g. went to a good school / less likely to be in trouble.

But if conflict occurred after divorce, children likely to have mental health issues.

Question 30

Overall, how do femenists see divorce rates?

Answer 30

Desirable as it shows that women are breaking free from their oppression in the nuclear family.

Question 31

Overall, how do postmodernist and the individualisation thesis see divorce rates?

Answer 31

It’s a good thing as it shows individuals have the freedom to end relationships when it no longer meets their needs.

Question 32

What did Thornes & Collard say?

(Who do they blame for increased divorce?

Answer 32

Commented that most divorces are instigated by women - think women expect far too much from men.

Question 33

What did Hart say is the reason why most women file for divorce?

Answer 33

Thought that divorce may be a reaction to the frustrations of working wives having to do housework and childcare. Women have too much pressure!

Question 34

Postmodernism approaches to divorce

Beck and Beck Gernsheim argue…

Answer 34

Divorce is the result of a fast changing world where traditional roles and values are no longer applied.

Question 35

Postmodernism approaches to divorce

Cultural and economic changes means…

Answer 35

We have a greater range of choices available to us in terms of lifestyle and living arrangements.

Question 36

Postmodernism approaches to divorce

Conflict occurs because…

Answer 36

There is an open choice that is available, this is selfish.

Question 37

Postmodernism approaches to divorce

Beck and Beck Gernsheim say that these features of a modern world have made love become…

Answer 37

A battleground - people need to compromise or they can’t survive it.

Question 38

According to Beck and Beck Gersheim, divorce and re-marriages are a sign that…

Answer 38

People one day do still want to marry and find a long term forever partner.

Divorce surggests that monogamy is going to be replaced by serial monogamy.

Question 39

Interactionism:

Answer 39

Aims to understand what it means to be the individual. Morgan argues that we can’t generalise the meaning of divorce as everyone is different.

Mitchell and Goody said about a daughter who said the desertion of her father was the best day of her life while someone else said she never recovered from it = different.

Question 40

What did Smart say about not letting divorce affect families?

Answer 40

Divorce can be normalised and people can adapt without disintegrating rather than divorce being a social problem.

Question 41

What is Immigration?

What does it mean to emigrate?

Answer 41

People coming into the country.

Emigrate = to leave the country.

Question 42

How are ethnicities separated?

Answer 42

White
Asian & Asian-British
Black & Black-British

Question 43

How did the first immigrants come to Britain?

Answer 43

After the war, the population went down and there wasn’t a big enough labour force. People game from Asia as temporary workers but as they had good values, they were asked to stay.

Question 44

What ethnic group have a higher proportion of lone parent households?
Which is lower?

Answer 44

Afro-Caribbean - usually lone parent mothers.

1 in 9 Asian families - there are less divorce and breakups in these families.

Question 45

Why is it that Afro-Caribbean groups have larger rates of lone parenthood? And why is it the mother that stays to look after the kids?

Answer 45

It can be traced back to slavery where slaves were split up from the mother&children and this family organisation persists today.
Also, it is argued that black men at less willing to provide for the family = desertion.

Question 46

What did Mirza find in his study about the reason for lone parent families among black communities?

Answer 46

He said it’s because of the high value that black women place on independence - women have too high expectations and are more confident to get rid of the man.

Question 47

What are Bengali, Pakistani and Indian households like?

Answer 47

There is more chance of extended family living with them and also they see their outer family more often than a white family would.

Question 48

Why would Asians have larger households?

Answer 48

Practically reasons : cheaper for example.

Ballard also found that extended family ties provided an important source of support amount Asian immigrants in the 1900’s. Moral support if locals were racist.

Childcare cheaper.

Question 49

What did Charles study of extended families show?

Answer 49

That it is basically extinct apart from Bangladeshi communities.

Wilmington argues that families are now geographically separated but maintain frequent contact trough visits and phone calls etc.

Question 50

What did Bell say about the different classes in Swansea?

Answer 50

The middle class there was financial help from father to son while the working class there was more frequent contact and more domestic help between mothers and daughters.

Question 51

What is the Bean Pole family?

Answer 51

It is an extended family model - grandparents, parents & children.
Brannen describes it as ‘long and thin’

Question 52

Why is there an increase of Beanpole families? (2)

Answer 52

• grandparents live longer.

a smaller family sized mean people have less siblings so there’s space to live with extended family.

Question 53

What did Finch and Mason find?

Answer 53

That over 90% of people had given or received financial help from relatives. However, more is escorted of women than males. There is obligations between relatives.

Men expected to loan money & girls expected to give help & care.