Topic 5 - Changing Family Patterns

    Cards (63)

    • 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.