Patterns in the Family

Question 1

Why have divorce rates increased?

Changes to the law

Answer 1

1. Equalising the foundation of divorce between the sexes.
2. Expanding the grounds for divorce.
3. Making the process cheaper.

Grounds for Divorce equalised 1923 - sharp rise in female divorce petitions increased.

1949 Legal aid for divorces lowered the cost of divorce significantly,

Question 2

What other ways can couples separate without having to do it legally?

Answer 2

Desertion

Legal separation - financial + legal affairs sorted by the court but they remain married.

Empty shell - couple lives together but are only married in name.

Question 3

Why have divorce rates increased?
Stigma
Mitchell + Goody

Answer 3

Previously, divorce has been heavily stigmatised.
M + G - important changes since the 60s was the rapid decline in stigma.
Stigma declines? Divorce becomes acceptable, couples’ resort to it as a solution for marital issues.
No more shame.

Question 4

Why have divorce rates increased?

Secularisation

Answer 4

Religious institutions and ideas are losing their significance in society - we are more secular. Church attendance figures are continually declining.
Religious institutions avoid being too strict/began relaxing their approach towards secularisation in order to prevent losing their credibility.

Question 5

Why have divorce rates increased?

Rising expectations of marriage

Fletcher

Allan and Crowe

Answer 5

Functionalist Fletcher - couples no longer tolerate unhappy marriages.
Emphasis on love - if you are unhappy, there is someone out there for you.

Previously, marriages were economic propositions, now according to A + C, ‘love… seen as cornerstones of marriage’.

Functionalists believe that higher remarrying rates = people are not rejecting marriage so it is a positive thing.

Question 6

Why have divorce rates increased?

Women’s financial independence

Allan and Crowe - ‘embedded’

Answer 6

Being in a job and earning an income = women can leave unsatisfactory relationships.
Welfare benefits, paid work, anti-discrimination laws, success in education.

Marriage is less embedded within the economic system.

Question 7

Feminist perspective of divorce

Hochschild

Cooke + Gash

Jessie Bernard

Answer 7

Dual burden - conflict between spouses - higher divorce rates.
Triple shift benefits men and exploits women.

H - women feel valued in the workplace but feel under-appreciated in the home as men are unwilling to contribute domestically. Lack of time to address emotional issues creates marital issues.

C + G - no evidence that working women are more likely to divorce because working is the norm

J.B - women are dissatisfied with marriage because they are conscious of the patriarchy.

Question 8

Divorce and:
Modernity
Individualisation (Beck + Giddens)

Answer 8

B + G - traditional norms are being lost e.g. same partners for life???
Individuals pursue their personal interests = pulls spouses in different directions.
Relationships in modern society become fragile because if personal fulfilment is not reached they leave to seek a ‘pure relationship’, where the entire relationship is centred on fulfilling the needs/desires of the partner.
Modern society is encouraging of individualism and pursuing self interest.

Question 9

What about the increase in cohabitation?

1/8 of couples cohabiting, which is double that of the people cohabiting in 1996.

Answer 9

1. Stigma attached to pre marital sex reduced.
2. Younger generations accept it.
3. Increased career opportunities for women so marriage is not required for financial security.
4. Atheism, secularisation.

Question 10

Homosexual marriages
What Is the Chosen Family?
Weeks

Answer 10

2004 - Civil Partnership Act gave same sex couples similar legal rights to married couples e.g. inheritance.

W - increased social acceptance is the reason why gay relationships act the same way as heterosexual ones. Friendship becomes kinship - chosen families.

Question 11

What about One person households?

Answer 11

Men under 65 are more likely to live alone because divorce laws favour mother’s custody over children.

March 2020 - 1.5 million lone mothers

Older widows - near 40% of all one person households are over 65.

Not marrying at all rates are higher than ever before.

Question 12

Fewer people want to get married! Why?

Answer 12

Changing attitudes = less pressure, quality > legal status.
Secularisation = Church’s influence declines.
Declining stigma = cohabiting/remaining single.
Women’s position = economic independence, patriarchal oppression, dissuades marriage.
Fear of divorce.

Question 13

What do the New Right and Feminists think high divorce rates mean?

Answer 13

N.R - high divorce rates undermine the nuclear family, create a growing underclass of welfare dependent women, children do not have a father figure.

Feminists: high divorce rates - women break free from the patriarchy + oppression.

Question 14

What do Postmodernists and Functionalists think high divorce rates mean?

Answer 14

P.M - individuals now have freedom over their lives and can end relationships that do not benefit them.

Functionalists - not a bad thing, people still remarry.

Question 15

What do Interactionists (Morgan) and Personal life perspective sociologists (Smart) think high divorce rates mean?

Answer 15

Interactionists - M: we cannot generalise the meaning of divorce because everyone’s interpretation of divorce is different.

P.L.P: divorce can create issues e.g. financial issues and loyalty/conflict. Smart says that the family can adapt to divorce because it is normalised. We should view it as a transition

Question 16

Lone Parent families - why are they female headed, why do they exist?

Answer 16

1/4 children live in lone parent families, over 90% are headed by women.

Why? Increases in divorce, breakdown of having kids but not marrying broken etc.

Female headed? Women take on the expressive role. divorce courts favour women custody, men are less willing to give up work for their children.

Question 17

What does single by choice mean?

Renvoize

Cashmore

Answer 17

R - Professional women can support their child without having the involvement of the father.

C - working class women who claim benefits may choose to be independent because of prior abuse + unsuccessful relationships.

Question 18

Parents and Children pattern.

Answer 18

Near 50% of children are born outside of marriage.

Women are having children later.
30.7 years in 2019

Women are remaining childless and having less children - 1/5 of 45-year old women in 2012 were childless

Question 19

Why is this the pattern for parents and children?

Answer 19

Decline in stigma = more births outside of marriage, increase in cohabitation.

Women have opportunities other than motherhood etc.

Question 20

Lone Parenthood, Welfare State, Poverty.

New Right Sociologist Charles Murray.

Answer 20

C.M - the generous welfare state provides a perverse incentive and provides benefits for unmarried mums and their children - this creates a dependency culture. This creates an underclass.

Question 21

Why Charles Murray is wrong about welfare benefits:

Answer 21

1. Childcare is so expensive - 60% of lone parents are unemployed to look after their children.
2. Welfare benefits are inadequate.
3. Women earn less than men - more likely to be a struggling lone parent.
4. Fathers may fail to pay maintenance etc.

Question 22

Step Families Patterns
Ferri and Smith
Allan and Crowe

Answer 22

They represent over 10% of all UK families.

F + S - involvement of stepparents in child care - bringing children from previous marriages means that step families are more likely to be in poverty.

A + C - contact with non biological parents may cause tension and awkwardness.

Question 23

Why is this the pattern for Step Families?

Answer 23

Divorce and separation = reconstituted families.

Children are more likely to remain with their mothers.

Stepparents are more likely to suffer from poverty because they have to prove for more children.

Question 24

Ethnic differences in families.

Black families.

Answer 24

Black Caribbean families, and African Families have a higher proportion of lone parent households.

2012 - over half of families headed by black people were lone parent.

Traces back to slavery - couples separated, children with their mothers.

Unemployment - desertion or marital breakdowns because men may struggle to provide financially.

Question 25

Ethnic differences in families.
Asian families.
Ballard

Answer 25

South Asian households tend to have nuclear and three-generational families.
B - extended families provided sources of support for migrants throughout 50s and 60s.
Nowadays, despite not physically living together, they live nearby.

Question 26

The extended family

Willmott

Answer 26

Emphasis is placed on nuclear families, not extended in our modern society.
W - extended families live as a dispersed extended family because of geographical separation.

Middle classes - more financial support between father and son.

Working classes - more domestic support between mother and daughter.

Question 27

What is the Bean Pole family?

Brannen

Answer 27

Brannen says the bean pole family is long and thin as it is extended vertically but not horizontally.
Support between siblings is less than contact between parents in the 60s.

Question 28

Why do we have the bean pole family?

Answer 28

1. Increased life expectancy.
2. Smaller family so we have less horizontal ties.
3. Declining birth rate

Question 29

What about obligations to relatives - Finch and Mason

Answer 29

F + M - over 90% had given financial help, over half had cared for a sick relative.

The expectation is higher than males.

Question 30

Cheal - sons and daughters

Does Parson’s extended family still exist?

Answer 30

Sons are rarely chosen as care givers, women are rarely chosen as money providers.

Balance still applies, people often helped back to not feel indebted.

Parson’s extended family does not exist: we all still play a significant role BUT we don’t work and live together.