Marriage has less importance in modern industrial societies than it has in traditional societies.’ Explain and assess this view. [25]

Question 1

introduction

Answer 1

• many social and political commentators in Western societies have expressed concern about the decline of marriage in the modern industrial societies.
• the threats to marriages and family life has mostly resulted into the breakdown of marriages such as empty shell marriages, cohabitation, divorce and so on.

Question 2

FOR;
#1 Divorce
reasons of high divorce rates:
(1) change in divorce laws
(2) demanding high standards from each other
(3) HART ; frustration of working wives
(4) women taking over the breadwinner role

Answer 2

• divorce means the legal ending of a marriage.
  (1) there is an increase in divorce which causes marriage to be less important due to the changes in divorce law that generally made it easier and cheaper to end marriages with the result that people are not committed to marriage and the family as they were in the past.
  (2) functionalists sociologists argue that the high divorce rates are evidence that marriage is increasingly valued and that people are demanding higher standards from their parents
  (3) there are changes in attitudes in women as well ; HART ; divorce may be the reaction to the frustration of that many working wives may feel if they are responsible for the bulk of housework and childcare.
  (4) divorce may be the outcome of the tension produced by women taking over the traditional male role of breadwinner in some households.
• there was a steady increase in divorce rates in Britain ;
  1938 - 6000 2001-04 - 167 100
  1970 - increase in a tenfold
  1993 - 180 000
  2000 - fallen to 154 600

Question 3

2 declining in marriage

Answer 3

-There has been an observable decline in the number of marriages in contemporary societies. For
instance, according to ONS, marriage rate has seen a decline of 19% from 1991 to 2006. This decline
has been attributed to two socio-behavioral shift: namely individuals choosing to delay or not marry at all,
and many would rather choose cohabitation as an alternative form to marriage.

Question 4

3 cohabitation

• has risen sharply in the last 20 years
• 2007, ONS

Answer 4

• a constant source of concern to the new right has been significant rise in the number of couples cohabiting
• the proportion of unmarried couples has risen sharply in the last 20 years whereby from 11% of men and 13% of women in 1986 to 24% and 25% respectively.
• in 2007, ONS suggested that cohabiting couples are the fastest growing family type in the UK,
• around 2.2 million families are cohabiting couples with or w/o children. this family type has grown 65% in 1997.

Question 5

#4 single person household ;
-

Answer 5

• one of the most dramatic post-war changes in Britain has been the increase in single person households
• more than 6.5 million people now live on their own
• 29% of all households compromised just one person in 2005.
• This is most probably due to the increase in elderly households because of longer life expectancy
• however, there is also an corresponding increase in young, single person households.
• for example ; in 1971, only 6 % of household were made up of single person households under state pension age
• this had increased in 15% by 2005
• this increase due to the increase in female employment and career opportunities ; more women are gaining financial independence and choosing single hood as a creative option for themselves before they settle down
• the expansion of higher education - more people are going to university and this delays the start of their careers and delay settling down tendencies.

Question 6

AGAINST ;
#1 increasing rates of marriage ;
- ONS 
- PARSONS
FLETCHER

Answer 6

Although there has been evidence which supports the idea of declining status of marriage, there is
evidence which suggests otherwise. For instance, the increasing rate of marriages.
- According to ONS, 2 out 5 marriages include one or both parent remarrying which suggests that people still value marriage as they are looking for happiness in their new partners.
- Parsons believe that women do not marry for
economic reasons but really for the prospect of love and compatibility.
- Hence, the high divorce rates are
simply a reflection of marriages which have failed to reach their standards.
- Fletcher argues that the high divorce rates is an indication of higher standard of marriage rather than lower, pointing out that this higher standard is reflected in the number of people choosing to remarry.
- Hence, the status of marriage remains high in modern societies due to the value people still place on it.

Question 7

2 cohabitation are temporary as it turn into marriages eventually

Answer 7

• 60% of first-time cohabitations turn into marriages according to ONS. This could imply that
  rather than cohabitation being seen as an alternative choice to marriage, it really is just a precursor to
  marriage instead.
• individuals may choose to delay marriage but they still do marry eventually.
• According to ONS, the mean age to marry among men increased from 24 in 1970 to 33 in 2005 and
  among women, 22 in 1920 to 31 in 2005.
• This again shows that the status of marriage is not in decline but rather people are keeping it on hold due to individual preferences and circumstances.

Question 8

3 same sex marriage

Answer 8

Another point which shows that rather than a decline in the status of marriage, there is actually an
increase is the legalization of same-sex marriages in some countries.
- For instance, there are about
250,000 legal same-sex marriage in the US in 2013 according to the Consensus Bureau’s American
Community Survey.
- almost 72% of all people live in the States where same-sex is legal in the US.
This shows that marriage is so valuable that the state has acknowledge the need for it to be accessible to
other forms of relationships aside from the union between a man and woman.

Question 9

conclusion

Answer 9

All in all, the increase in divorce rates, the decline in number of marriages, the increase in cohabitations
and lone-parent families and many other factors may suggest a decline in the status of marriage.
However, all these changes are open to interpretation, #1 Robert Chester (1985) says, ‘on the evidence,
most people will continue not only to spend most of their lives in a family environment, but also to place a
high value on it’. Furthermore, high rates of remarriage after divorce suggest that it is particular marriages
that many people rejecting rather than the idea of marriage itself.
#2 Jennifer Somerville (2000) points out
that the vast majority of people in Britain still get married, most people live in a household headed by a
married couple and extended kinship networks remain strong.
- She therefore concludes that rather than a
simple decline in the institution of marriage, there has been a diversification of family forms and
relationships.