changes in demography

• What is one universal reason for marriage, divorce, singlehood and cohabitation?

  Changes in attitudes/norms and values
• changing attitudes: tamara heaven argued that the quality of a couples relationship is more important than legal status.
• changing attitudes: Durkheim argued the cult of individual needs.
• Changing attitudes: Wilson argued that the influence formal religion has declined. The belief of the church has therefore become irrelevant.
• Changing attitudes: Fletcher argues that people expect more of a marriage than they did in the past.
• Changing attitudes: Sue sharpe found that girls had changed their expectations from marriage to a career.
• Changes in attitudes: Cornell argued due to the genderquake social expectations between men and women have changed
• Changes in norms and values: Social attitudes towards sex has changed; their is a decline in stigma, where 62% of people viewed sex outside of marriage as okay.( British social attitudes)
• Changes in attitudes: Coast suggested that evidence suggests that cohabitation is normal for couples.( British panel survey)
• Changes in attitudes: teenagers expect a period of cohabitation, even when marriage and long term partnerships is not the goal(social trends 2004)
• Government policy and marriage: The new right argue that the government does not support marriage and the welfare state encourages people to not marry.
• Government policy and marriage: Sheila Lawler argued that maternity leave should be scrapped as it encourages woman to work part time, allowing them to earn work credit therefore young women depend on the state.
• Government policy and marriage: Muarry links the welfare payment to unmarried women, illegitimate births and refusal of young people to get jobs because there is no longer need to be responsible for children.
• Legal changes and divorce: divorce almost used to be impossible for legal, cost and social reasons but through the 1940's-1970's this begun to change.
• Legal changes and divorce: legal aid (1949) where state funded legal aid for divorce, allowing people to afford divorce
• Legal changes and divorce: the divorce reform act (1971) meant that it was easier for people to obtain divorce.
• Economic reasons + cohabitation: a survey by law firm (sedons) found that 16% of people don't want to marry until they buy a house ... 40% thought they couldn't afford a wedding. And 25% thought marriage was necessary.
• Economic reasons + cohabitation: people where scared of spending money and then getting divorced (morgan nr)