Topic 5 - Changing Family Patterns

• divorce - legal process of ending a marriage
• Changing Patterns of Divorce:

  Since 1960s, great increase in number of divorce

  • 65% applications for divorce come from women - most common reason women granted divorce = unreasonable behaviours from spouse
• The New Right argues that a high divorce rate undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family, which is vital to social stability.
• The New Right also suggests that a high divorce rate creates a growing underclass of welfare-dependent female lone parents, who are a burden on the state and leave boys with no male role models.
• The New Right argues that a high divorce rate leads to poorer health and educational outcomes for children.
• Feminists view a high divorce rate as desirable, as it allows women to break free from the oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family.
• Functionalists view a high divorce rate as a threat to marriage as a social institution, a result of people's higher expectations of marriage.
• Postmodernists and the individualisation thesis view a high divorce rate as a sign of individuals having the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs.
• Morgan argues that it's impossible to generalise the meaning of divorce as individuals interpret it differently.
• Changes in law: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  When grounds equalised for men and women, sharp rise in divorce petitions from women

  • "irretrievable breakdown" - made divorce easier to obtain + rate doubled overnight
  • doesn't explain why people take advantage of this freedom
  • couples find other solutions than divorce - e.g. empty shell marriage
• Declining stigma / Changing Attitudes: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  stigma - negative label, social disapproval attached to person, action or relationship

  Mitchel + Goody: important changes in 60s, led to rapid decline in stigma attached to divorce

  • more socially acceptable = more willing to resort to divorce to solve marital problems
• Secularisation: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  • decline in influence of religion + society becoming more secular - e.g. church attending rates are declining
  • less likely influenced by religious teaching to make decisions on personal matters
  • church softening views due to fear of losing credibility
• Rising expectations of marriage: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  • higher expectations on marriage = less willing to tolerate unhappy marriages
  • ideology of romantic love - that marriage should be based solely on love, divorce able to renew search for true soulmate
  • marriage not viewed as binding contract but relationship individuals seek personal fulfilment
• Women's increased financial independence: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  Improvements in economic position = less financially dependent on husband and freer end to unsatisfactory marriage

  • girls' greater success in education
  • availability of welfare benefits
  • proportion of women working rose - 53% in 1971, 72% in 2020

  Allan + Crow: marriage less embedded into economic system, no longer unit of production + spouses not dependent on each other
• Feminist Explanation: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  Women bear dual burden, which created new source of conflict + high rates of divorce

  Hochschild: home compares unfavourably with work,

  • work = women feel more valued
  • home = men's resistance in doing housework is source of frustration + makes marriage less stable
  • could mention Oakley's study
• Individualisation: Explanation for increase in Divorce

  Beck + Giddens: in modern society traditional norms (duty to remain with partner for life) has lost hold over individuals

  individual thesis - individuals becomes free to pursue self-interests

  • rate "normalises" divorce + strengthens belief that marriage exists solely for personal fulfilment

  e.g. women expected to work + encouraged to pursue individual ambitions - can cause conflict of interests
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  First Marriages - fall in number of first marriages, similar to reasons for increase in divorce
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  changing attitudes to marriage - less pressure to marry + freedom for individuals to choose relationships

  • people value quality of couple's relationship over legal status
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  Secularisation - influence declines, people feel free to choose not to marry
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage - cohabitation, remaining single, having children outside of marriage widely regarded as acceptable

  • pregnancy doesn't automatically lead to marriage
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  changes in position of women - better educational + career prospects = women less economically dependent on men

  • gives them greater freedom not to marry
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  fear of divorce - rising divorce rate, people may put off marriage due to increased likelihood of marriage ending in divorce
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  remarriages - rise in number of divorces provides a supply of people available to re-marry
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  age on marrying - young people postponing marriage to spend longer time in full-time education + establish career first
• Reasons for changing marriage patterns:

  religious weddings - less likely to be married within the church

  • secularisation
  • many religions refuse to marry divorcees
• relationship between cohabitation + marriage: some couples see cohabitation as a step to getting married, others = permanent alternative

  Coast: 75% of cohabiting couples say they expect marriage
• trial marriages: see cohabitation as a trial marriage, most couples decide to marry if they have children

  • can be temporary phase while partners wait for divorce

  Bejin: cohabitation is conscious attempt to create more personally negotiated + equal relationship, than conventional patriarchal marriage
• Same sex relationships:

  Stonewall: 5-7% of adult population have same sex relationships

  • increased social acceptance + opinion polls show more tolerance to homosexuality

  Civil Partnership Act (2004) - gave same sex couples similar legal rights to married couples
• Chosen families:

  Weeks: lesbians and gay men creating families based on idea "friendship as kin" (links to personal life perspective of the family)

  • offers same security + stability as heterosexual families

  Allan + Crow: absence of legal framework = negotiate commitments and responsibilities more than married couple

  • more flexible + less stable than heterosexual relationships
• cohabitation - unmarried couple in a sexual relationship living together
• Reasons for increase in cohabitation:

  • more accepted among young people
  • secularisation
  • decline in stigma "premarital sex is not wrong"
  • increased career opportunities for women, less need for financial security of marriage
• One-person households:

  • In 2019, almost 3 in 10 households contained only one person
  • By 2033, over 30% of the adult population will be single (unpartnered/never married)

  Reasons for changes

  • increase in divorce created more one-person households - children are more likely to live with their mother
  • growing number of opting for "creative singlehood" = deliberate choice to live alone
  • too few partners available in age group - mainly older widows
• Living apart together:

  Duncan + Phillips: British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) - 1 in 10 LATs are in significant relationships, but not married/cohabitating

  • half of those people officially classified as single

  found both choice + constraint in whether couples live together

  • expensive
  • wanted to keep own home
  • previous troubles relationship
  • "too early" to cohabit
• Childbearing: the process of giving birth to children

  47% of children born outside of marriage, double amount there was in 1986

  Women having children later - average age is 28.1 years

  Reasons for changes:

  • increase in births outside of marriages, decline in stigma and increase in cohabitation

  e.g. only 28% of 25-34 year old's think marriage should come before parenthood

  • women having children at later age, smaller families, childless women - reflect women having more options than just motherhood +establishing career before starting a family
• 1 in 4 children live in lone-parent families.
• 90% of these are headed by women.
• The increase in the number of never married women having children is a factor in the patterns of lone-parent families.
• Lone parents are usually female headed.
• There is a widespread belief that women are more suited to expressive roles.
• Divorce courts usually give custody to mothers.