trends of marriage

• marriage

  reasons to marry

  • in love
  • religion
  • to have children

  reasons not to

  • expensive
  • divorce costs
  • doing more housework
• trend

  • couples are less likely to marry in a church compared to 30 years ago - religious ceremonies fell by 35% in 2005 

  reason

  • rise of secularisation - church has less influence, meaning less pressure to marry
• trend

  • fewer people are marrying - marriage rates are at their lowest since 1920

  reason

  • there is less pressure to marry, it's now a widespread belief that the quality of a relationship is more important than legal status
• trend

  • people are marrying later in life ( male average = 32, female average = 30)

  reason

  • more people are declining stigma attached to marriages like cohabiting, being single, having children out of wedlock became more socially acceptable
• trend

  • there are more remarriages (4 out of 10 marriages are remarriages) leading to serial monogamy 

  reason

  • Stacey says women level up from divorces, women become aware of mistreatment - changes in the position of women means they are no longer financially dependant on men and have greater choice + freedom not to marry.