Marriage and Cohabitation

Question 1

What was marriage traditionally in the UK

Answer 1

It was monogamous and for life

Question 2

What has the UK society been moving towards

Answer 2

A social trend know as serial monogamy. Over the course of their lives, people are now more likely to establish a series of monogamous long-term relationships

Question 3

What was marriage like prior to the 1970s

Answer 3

Most weddings were religious ceremonies conducted in church

Question 4

What was marriage like in 2012

Answer 4

Church ceremonies were a minority due to secularisation. Most weddings in 2012 were civil ceremonies carried out in approved buildings such as hotels or stately homes. Even register office weddings are in decline.

Question 5

Statistics on number of marriages in 1940 and 2012

Answer 5

1940 there was 470,000 marriages

2012 there was 262,000 marriages

Since 1970s marriage has significantly declined

Question 6

Statistics on the age in which people would get married in 1972 and 2012

Answer 6

1972 the age to get married was 28 and 26

2012 the age to get married was 36 and 34

Question 7

Statistics on the year women were born and what age they got married

Answer 7

Women being born in 1940, 91% of those were married by 30

Women born in 1960, 77% were married by 30

Women born in 1980, 37% were married by 30

Question 8

What was the main type of marriage in 2012

Answer 8

Remarriages

Question 9

When did remarriages begin to rise

Answer 9

They were rare until the 1970s, as the 1969 Divorce reform act came into affect early 1971

Question 10

What does cohabitation refer to

Answer 10

Those couples who live together outside of marriage or are in a civil partnership

Question 11

In the past how was cohabitation viewed

Answer 11

It was frowned upon and regarded as sinful and immoral

Question 12

How long to couples cohabit together before they marry

Answer 12

Around four years

Question 13

Statistics on how many couples cohabit before marriage

Answer 13

80% of marrying couples have previously cohabited with each other

Question 14

Statistic on the number of people aged above 16 living together outside of marriage in 1996 and 2012

Answer 14

1996 it was 6.5%

2012 it was 11.7%

Question 15

Statistic on how many cohabiting opposite sex couples in 2014

Answer 15

In 2014 there was 3 million

Question 16

Statistic on childbearing in cohabitation in 2015

Answer 16

In 2015 one in three children were born to cohabiting parents

Question 17

Statistic on the recent increase in cohabitation

Answer 17

It has increased by 30% between 2004 and 2014 - which is becoming the fastest growing family type in the UK

Question 18

Statistic on how much of families in the UK are cohabiting

Answer 18

16.4% of families in the UK

Question 19

Evidence from Beaujouan and Ni Bhrolchain (2011) about cohabitation

Answer 19

They found that cohabitation before marriage may actually strengthen the martial relationship and make it less likely to break down into divorce

Question 20

What is the evidence about poorer couples and cohabitation

Answer 20

For poorer couples, cohabitation may provide a living arrangement that reflects their economic uncertainty. Young couples with low-paid jobs may choose to cohabit because it helps them to leave the parental home, by sharing living costs such as rent.

Question 21

Has there been an increase in elderly people cohabiting

Answer 21

There has been a big increase in elderly people choosing to cohabit

Question 22

What are the four reasons that Marriage has declined and Cohabitation has increased

Answer 22

• Changing social attitudes
• The decline in family values
• Individualisation
• Changes in women’s roles and attitudes

Question 23

Up until 1960s what were the social attitudes

Answer 23

They were extremely conservative because society subscribed to fairly rigid ideas about morality, probably because religion was still influential

Question 24

What were most couples expected to do

Answer 24

To marry before living together and having children

Question 25

What were cohabitation, sex before marriage and having children out of marriage met with

Answer 25

Social and Moral disapproval

Question 26

Sixty years ago what would pregnancy out of marriage result in

Answer 26

‘Shotgun weddings’ were couples were forced by both sets of parents to marry because of the potential social embarrassment or shame to both sets of families.

Question 27

Have the conservative attitudes disappeared and what have they been replaced with

Answer 27

Yes, they have been replaced by with more liberal attitudes towards homosexuality, sex before marriage, and having children outside of marriage

Question 28

What are families no longer expected to conform to

Answer 28

The traditional nuclear family ideal. Cohabitation and family diversity are now considered the norm.

Question 29

What are the liberalisation of attitudes connected to

Answer 29

The secularisation of the UK - a steep decline in Christian beliefs and practices

Question 30

What did New right thinker Patricia Morgan suggest

Answer 30

That the popularity of cohabitation, gay marriage and the number of babies born outside marriage are symptoms of a decline in morality and the failure of the government and state polices to safeguard traditional family values

Question 31

What do Beck and Beck-Gernshiem (1995) argue about individualisation

Answer 31

That the defining feature of late modernity is individualisation. This means that people put their own needs first and foremost.
They argue people now feel they can best fulfil their needs as individuals by pursuing looser, less risky intimate arrangements such as singlehood, cohabitation and living apart together

Question 32

What does Anthony Giddens (1992) argue

Answer 32

That the UK has entered a period of late-modernity in which there has been a transformation of intimacy and love.
He argues that people no longer seek the sort of romantic love traditionally associated with marriage

Question 33

What does Giddens say that romantic love has been replaced by

Answer 33

‘confluent love’ in which individuals only emotionally invest in one another so long as they see a constant return from that love

Question 34

What does Giddens suggest about his new type of love

Answer 34

The increasing dominance of the idea confluent love means that people are less likely to invest in long-term relationships or work at them if they go wrong.

People may therefore be more attracted to short-term relationships or affairs because these contain passion and the return on intimacy.

People may be willing to cohabit which they see as risk-free, but are unwilling to commit to marriage as that is too risky in terms of commitment and investment in making it work

Question 35

What is Jamieson (2002) research on

Answer 35

Why couples cohabit rather than immediately marry

Question 36

What did Jamison’s (2002) research find

Answer 36

She found evidence on individualisation - many of the couples she questioned said they couldn’t see any immediate advantage in getting married, cohabitation allowed them to test if they want to commit to each other.

Question 37

What is the evidence on confluent love in Jamieson’s research

Answer 37

That confluent love is important as cohabitation was a test to see if intimacy could be sustained over a period of time. Cohabitation allowed those who questioned their partners commitment to leave without any legal requirements

Question 38

Consequently what did Jamieson’s research find about traditional ideas

Answer 38

That romantic love and the idea that ‘marriage is the best institution in which to bring up children’ still underpinned peoples motives to set up home with one another

Question 39

What is the most important reason for the changing patterns of marriage

Answer 39

Changing role of women

Question 40

Up to the 1980s what was the main goals of women

Answer 40

Marriage and starting up a family

Question 41

In the 1960s and 1970s what were the feminist theory very critical of and why

Answer 41

Of marriage. They described it as a ‘legalised form of prostitution’ and as a patriarchal institution aimed at the social control of women.

Question 42

What did Sue Sharpe find in her sociological study if teenage girls in the 1980s

Answer 42

She observed that marriage and family life had fallen well behind education and careers as priorities

Question 43

What did Langford (1999) find

Answer 43

That many women fear being alone and that having a loving relationship with a man was still an important goal because love was seen to alleviate the alienation of work and an impersonal world.

Question 44

However what did Langford also note consequently

Answer 44

That there is a ‘dark side’ to love, marriage and relationships represented by domestic violence, psychological and emotional manipulation and the bullying of women by men who seek to control them.

Question 45

Is marriage still healthy to this day

Answer 45

Yes it is

Question 46

What did one survey clearly show about the continuing importance of marriage

Answer 46

People see marriage as the ultimate goal and that cohabitation is seen as a rehearsal for marriage rather than as an alternative to it.

Question 47

Why are most women delaying marriage

Answer 47

Because more of them are entering higher education and because they are more career-orientated

Question 48

Statistic about remarriage

Answer 48

About a third of marriages are undertaken by people whose previous marriage has failed. The experience of one failing marriage has clearly not put them off marriage at all

Question 49

Statistic about married couples and family types

Answer 49

Married couples are the most common family type in the UK, making up 12.5 million of the 18.6 million families that do exist