Marriage and Divorce rates

Question 1

Give two reasons why there has been an increase in divorce rates

Answer 1

• Changing position of women
• Declining stigma and changing attitudes

Question 2

Why has the changing position of women increased divorce rates?

Answer 2

• Women no longer have to rely on male income and can have the career of their own meaning they no longer have to depend on their husbands.

Question 3

Why has the declining stigma and changing attitudes increased divorce rates?

Answer 3

• people do not feel the need to get married and it is more socially accepted to not want to get/be married.

Question 4

What did the functionalist Fletcher say about marriages?

Answer 4

• there is much higher expectations on marriage today meaning higher expectations leads to couples less likely to stay married if they are unhappy.

Question 5

What are some reasons for decrease in marriage?

Answer 5

• less pressure to get married (may just cohabit)
• changing role in women
• secularisation
• cost

Question 6

Reasons for delay in marriage?

Answer 6

• women’s careers
• living longer
• secularisation

Question 7

AO3 of marriage trends?

Answer 7

• religion is necessarily a reason for decline in marriage as it is not a religious ceremony anyway

Question 8

What did Berthoud say?

Answer 8

• found that three quarters of pakistani and bangladeshi women married by 25. He also found black british women were least likely to marry

Question 9

What are some changes to increase divorce rates?

Answer 9

• legislative changes (laws)
• secularisation (divorce was stigmatised)
• cheaper
• female emancipation (women do not have to depend on their husbands)
• child support (men will be expected to pay maintenance to their children)

Question 10

AO3 of patterns in divorce

Answer 10

• although divorces were not accessible i did not mean that people didn’t stop living with each other, this means that marriages may have always been declining

Question 11

What is the reason for the decrease in childbearing?

Answer 11

• changing role of women
• securalisation
• women are having children later
• women are having less children
• some women are now choosing to not have children

Question 12

What is the personal life perspective?

Answer 12

• is about the individual experience
• looks at the interactions between people in relationships and the networks that connect individuals
• prioritises bonds between people

Question 13

A03 of personal life perspective

Answer 13

• it takes too broad of a view