Partnerships Flashcards
What important changes in the pattern of marriage have taken place in recent years?
Fewer people are marrying
There are more people remarrying
People are marrying later
Couples are less likely to marry in church
What are the reasons for the changing pattern of marriage?
Fear of divorce Changes in the position of women Changing attitudes to women Secularisation Less social stigma attached to alternative couples/ways of living
How have attitudes changed to marriage?
- less pressure to marry
- more freedom to choose type
- the quality of a couple’s relationship is more important than legal status
How has stigma changed?
- more acceptable to cohabitate, remain single and having children outside marriage
How has women’s position changed?
- less economically dependent on men which gives them greater freedom not to marry
- growing feminist view that marriage is an oppressive patriarchal institution that dissuades women from marrying
What is cohabitation?
Living together without being married
Why has cohabitation increased?
- decline in stigma attached to sex outside marriage
- the young are more likely to accept cohabitation
- increased career opportunities for women
- secularisation
Why are couples nowadays less likely to marry in a church?
Secularisation
Many churches refuse to marry divorcees
What is the relationship between cohabitation and marriage?
Cohabitation is increasing as marriage decreases
What does Chester argue?
For most people, cohabitation is part of the process of getting married. According to Coast, 75% of cohabiting couples say they expect to marry each other.
- many see cohabitation as a trial marriage and tend to marry if it goes well
- most cohabiting couples decide to marry if they have children
- in some cases cohabitation is a temporary phase before marriage because one or both partners are awaiting divorce.
How do others see cohabitation?
As a permanent alternative to marriage
Bejin - argues cohabitation among young people represents a conscious attempt to create a more equal relationship than conventional marriage.
What did Shelton and John find?
Found that women who cohabit do less housework than their married counterparts.
Why have the number of open same sex relationships increased?
Increased social acceptance
Social policy treating people more equally
How has Increased social acceptance lead to the increase of open same sex relationships?
- male homosexual acts were decriminalised in 1967 for consenting adults over 21
- more recently the age of consent has been equalised with heterosexuals
- opinion polls show more tolerance of homosexuality
How has social policy treated people more equally?
- since 2002, cohabitating couples have had the same right to adopt as married couples
- since 2004, the civil partnership act has given same-sex couples similar legal rights to married couples in respect of pensions, inheritance, tenancies and property
What does Jeffrey Weeks say?
He describes gay families as ‘chosen families’ and argues they offer the same security and stability as heterosexual families.
Why have the number of one-person households (singletons) increased?
- increase in separation and divorce
- more people are remaining single
- ‘creative singlehood’
- too few partners available in age group
How has the increase in separation and divorce lead to more one-person households?
Following divorce, any children are more likely to live with their mother; their father is more likely to leave the family home
Who talks about ‘creative singlehood’ and what is it?
Peter Stein - it is the deliberate choice to live alone
Who is more likely to experience few partners available in their age group?
Mainly older widows
What is LAT?
Living apart together - in a significant relationship, but not married or cohabitating
What did Duncan and Phillips find for the British Social Attitudes Survey?
1 in 10 adults are living apart together. They found that both choice and constraint play a part in whether couples live together. For example, some said they couldn’t afford to. However a minority chose to live apart because they wanted to keep their own home.
