Topic 5 - Changing Family Patterns (Marriage & Divorce)

Question 1

Why is there higher divorce rates due to the home being unfavourable?

Answer 1

Home is unfavourable when comapared to work - women feel valued at work but men’s refusal to do housework is frustrating and leads to conflict, the marriage is unstable, causing higher divorce rates

Question 2

How was women’s increased financial independence caused higher divorce rates?

Answer 2

Women being more likely to seek divorce comes from them no longer being economically dependent on their husband, don’t have to stay in an unhappy marriage - equal pay act, reduce pay gap

Question 3

How has rising expectations of marriage caused more divorces?

Answer 3

Fletcher
People have high expectations about marriage (ideas of romantic love) and when the marriage doesn’t live up to their wishes, people are less tolerable and are more likely to divorce and search for their true soulmate
By contrast, in the past individuals had less choice in who they married and were likely to have lower expectations in who they married - less likely to divorce, marriages were often out of duty to one’s family

Question 4

What feminist say that women are likely to divorce due to dual burden?

Answer 4

• Sigle Rushton
• Mothers who have a dual burden of paid and domestic work are more likely to divorce than non-working mothers in marriages with a traditional division of labour
• Where a husband of a working wife is actively involved in housework, the divorce rate is the same as for couples with a traditional division of labour

Question 5

What feminist says that women feel a growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal marriage?

Answer 5

• Bernard - rad-fem
• Women have a growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal marriage
• She sees the rising divorce rate and the fact that most petitions come from women as their growing acceptance of feminist ideas:
• Women are becoming more conscious of patriarchal oppression & more contifdent about rejecting it

Question 6

Modernity & individualisation as an explanation for increasing divoce rates

Answer 6

• Beck and Giddens
• In modern society, traditional norms such as duty to remain with the same partner for life, lose their hold over individuals
• Meaning individuals become free to pursue his/her/their own interests
• Describes this as the individualisation thesis
• Relationships become more fragile because people beome unwilling to remain with a partner if the relationship fails to deliver personal fulfillment
• Thus modern society encourages individualistion as women are encourged to pursue career ambitions which contributes to conflict between spouses - marital breakdown

Question 7

declining stigma as a cause for higher divorce rates?

Answer 7

• Mitchell & Goody
• Important changes since the 1960s (such as 1969 divorce reform act) has been the reason for the rapid decline in stigma attached to divorce
• As stigma declines, divorce becomes socially acceptable
• Couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their maritial problems

Question 8

How can changing attitudes to marriage explain reasons for marriage pattern change?

Answer 8

• Women are more aware of the patriarchal nature of marriage, taking husbands surname, loss of identity, ownership, less need to marry, women have greater financial independence

Question 9

How does secularisation explain changing marriage rates?

Answer 9

• reducing the influence of religious institutions and norms, making marriage less of a moral or social obligation
• religious authority has declined, so has the expectation to marry within a religious framework, leading to a rise in cohabitation, civil partnerships, and non-traditional relationships. With fewer people viewing marriage as sacred or essential, alternative arrangements like cohabitation have become widely accepted

Question 10

stats to show marriage rates are declining?

Answer 10

ONS - between 1992 & 2022, overall numbers of marriage has decreased by 20.8%

Question 11

Stats for cohabitation?

Answer 11

ONS - proportional of people aged 16 and over who were cohabiting has increased from 19.7% in 2012 to 22.7% in 2022

Question 12

Why are more people cohabiting rather than getting married?

Answer 12

Bejin
Argues that cohabitation represents a conscious effort to create more personal and equal relationships than a conventional patriarchal marriage
Shelton & John - found that women who cohabit did less housework compared to women who were married

Question 13

How is increased social acceptance explain why people are cohabiting?

Answer 13

Weeks
Increased social acceptance explains trend towards more same sex couples cohabiting
Weeks sees gay people as creating families based on the idea of ‘friendship as kinship’ where friendships become a form of kinship network
Describes these as chosen families, which offer same sense of security as heterosexual families

Question 14

Eval for why more same sex couples are cohabiting?

Answer 14

Weston
Describes same sex cohabitation as quasi marriage, and notes that gay couples are now deciding to cohabit as stable partners
This contrasts with the lifestyle of the 70s, which largely rejected monogamy and family life in favour of casual relationships