TOPIC 5 - CHANGING FAMILY PATTERNS

• Reasons for fall in Divorce:

  • fewer people marrying in the first place, choosing to cohabit
  • 65% of divorce petitions come from women nowadays
• Explanations for increase in divorce:

  Changes in the law

  • making divorce cheaper
• Alternatives to divorce for unhappy couples:

  1. Desertion - when one partner leaves the other but couple remain legally married.
  2. Legal separation - court separates the financial and legal affairs
  3. Empty shell marriage - couples live in same house but remain married in name only
• Explanation for change in divorce rate:

  2. Declining stigma and changing attitudes:

  decline in negative label, so divorce becomes more acceptable
• Explanation for increase in divorce rate:

  3. SECULARISATION: is the decline in the influence of religion, so the churches view of divorce carries less weight on society
• Explanation for an increase in divorce rate:

  4. Rising expectations of marriage:

  Fletcher argued higher expectations make couples less willing to accept an unhappy marriage.

  Linked to the ideology of romantic love - marriage should be based on solely love

  versus in the past - expectations were much lower ( to financially provide for family)
• Explanation for an increase in divorce rate:

  5. Women's increased financial independence:

  • women working raised from 53% in 1971 to 67% in 2013 - less financially dependent on their husband
  • equal pay and anti-discrimination laws in place
  • girls achieve greater success in education = greater qualifications and well paid jobs
  • welfare benefits = not dependent on husbands
  • Allan and Crow = marriage is less embedded within the economic system now, don't need to rely on husband, so don't have to tolerate conflict
• 6. Feminist explanations:

  argue married women today have to take on paid work and perform domestic labour (housework & childcare) leading to increased divorce rates.

  Hochschild - home compares unfavourably with work, at work women feel valued vs at home mens resistance to housework is a source of frustration
• Explanation for increase in divorce rate:

  7. Modernity and individualisation - Beck and Giddens argue that traditional norms such as staying with the same person forever lose their hold over individuals.

  Relationships become more fragile because individuals are less willing to remain with one individual, instead they seek 'pure relationships' (satisfying needs ) leading to increased divorce rates
• The new right see a high divorce rate as undesirable because it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family, which is vital to social solidarity.

  • creates female lone parents and boys without the adult role they need
• Feminists see high divorce as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from the patriarchal nuclear family
• Postmodernists and the individualisation thesis, see high divorce rate as individuals having freedom to chose to end a relationship, a major cause of greater family diversity
• Functionalists believe that the high divorce rate is due to peoples higher expectations of marriage today
• Interactionists aim to understand what divorce means to the individual - Morgan - we can't generalise the meaning of divorce because everyone's interpretation is different
• The personal life perspective - accepts that divorce can cause problems: financial and lack of contact
• Changing patterns in Marriage:

  • Fewer people marrying
  • more re-marriages
  • people are marrying later - 32 for men, 30 for women
  • couples are less likely to marry in a church
• REASONS FOR CHANGES IN MARRIAGE:

  • Secularisation = church is less influential to marriage
  • Declining stigma of alternatives to marriage = cohabitation, remaining single
  • Changes in the position of women = less economically dependent on men
  • Fear of divorce = with rising divorce rate, may be put off if ended in divorce
• REASONS FOR CHANGES IN MARRIAGE:

  • Remarriages - increased divorce rate means more remarriages
  • Age on marrying - developing career first, spending longer in education
  • Less likely to have Church weddings = 1. secularisation and 2. many churches refuse to marry divorcees
• Cohabitation = unmarried couple in a sexual relationship living together
• Cohabitation has increased:

  • 2.9 million cohabiting heterosexual couples in Britain
  • 69 thousand same sex couples cohabiting
• Increase in cohabitation due to:

  • a decline in stigma attached to sex outside of marriage
  • its more accepted by the youth
  • increased career opportunities for women may mean they don't need to marry
  • secularisation - young people with no religion are more likely to cohabit
• Many see cohabitation as a trial marriage and intend to marry if it goes well or as a permanent alternative to marriage - an attempt to have a more equal relationship - SHELTON and JOHN found that women who cohabit do less housework
• Same sex relationships: Stonewall estimates that 5 - 7% of the population have same sex relationships - increase due to more acceptance
• One person households :

  • in 2013 almost 3 in 10 households
  • 40% are over 65
  • by 2033 over 30% of adult population will be single person
• Reasons for changes in one person households is due to an increase in separation and divorce rates
• LATs = Living apart together - Duncan and phillips found one in 10 couples are LAT
• Childbearing:

  • nearly half are born outside marriage - decline in social stigma
  • women are having children later
  • women are having fewer children
  • women are remaining childless - due to women having more options than just motherhood
• Lone parent families =

  • 90% by lone mothers
  • increased due to divorce & separation
• Lone parenthood and the welfare state:

  • (The New Right) MURRAY - Sees the increase due to the welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and children, creating a 'preserve incentive' by rewarding irresponsible behaviour (having children and not being able to provide for them
  • Murray's solution is to abolish the welfare benefits but benefits are far from generous
  • lack of affordable childcare - 60% unemployed
• Stepfamilies (Reconstituted families)

  • increase due to more divorce and separation
  • more children are from women's previous relationship because children are more likely to stay with the mum
  • Greater risk of poverty because more children
• Black families:

  • high rate of female lone parent black families can be traced back to slavery in which the children stayed with their mothers
• The beanpole family: type of extended family - Brannen states is 'long and thin'

  • its extended vertically ( through three or more generations)
  • not horizontally (not aunts, cousins)
• Beanpole family may be the result of

  • increased life expectancy and smaller family sizes (less siblings = aunts/uncles)