4.4 - Family and Diversity

• What is marriage?

  • marriage is the union between two people
  • sociological studies show that marriage is a universal institution practiced by most societies
  • UK is based on monogamy
  • going against this is bigamy
  • in 1900's - 480,000 couples were married
  • in 2000's - 200,000 couples were married
• What is polygamy and what are the two types?

  • polygamy is when you have multiple partners
  • 1 - Polygny - when a religion or culture allows a man to have multiple partners
  • 2 - Polylandry - when a religion or culture allows a woman to have mutliple partners
• What are the New Right views on marriage?

  • morgan - has expressed concerns about the decline in marriage.
  • say that marriage is important to society, morality and regulates people's behaviour
  • marriage also contributes to social stability and makes you a better person
  • morgan argues married men are more likely to be employed then cohabitating men (Ford 1980)
• Why is marriage in decline?

  1 - the welfare state

  2 - secularisation
• How does the welfare state affect marriage?

  • Rector and Morgan argue that these benefits encourage single parenthood and reduces the financial aspect of marriage
  • less educated mothers become married to the tax payer rather then the partner
• How does secularisation affect marriage?

  • since there is a decline in religious attitudes, people do not make a promise before god so do not feel the need to stay married
  • traditional ideas such as a lifelong commitment are now considered old
• What are the feminist views on marriage?

  • feminists believe there is a decline in marriage due to 3 facors
  • 1 - Changes in attitudes
  • 2 - Changes in significance
  • 3 - Changes in the cost of marriage
• How does changes in attitudes affect marriage?

  • the 1970's saw a shift in womens attitudes. The rise in feminist attitudes meant that women put off marriage and decided to be more career orientated
  • led to the change in nature of marriage to a more egalitarian form of marriage
• How does the change in significance affect marriage?

  • seen marriage is seen as a lifelong commitment rather than a duty, men and women take time when choosing a partner
  • willing to delay marriage - in order to spend time choosing the perfect partner
  • demonstrates that people are more carefree and marriage is not the first thing on their mind
• How does the change in the cost of marriage affect marriage?

  • getting married is highly expensive, some people do not have the expenses for it so put off marriage
• What is an arranged marriage?

  • an arranged marriage is a union normally organised by both partners' parents
  • typically done by asian cultures
  • cannot be done without both partners consent
• Who was Epstein?

  • explored arranged marriages
  • conducted 100 interviews with indian, pakistani and orthodox jews and asked about their arranged marriage life
  • findings - arranged marriages tend to grow more stable over time whereas love marriages tend to deteriorate
  • Epstein claims that arrange marriages can be more successful over time as people are more compatible with the same goals
  • believes those in a love marriage are blinded by lust and have issues of compatiblity
• What is a forced marriage?

  • marriage conducted without the valid consent of one or both partners
  • UK - 8000 forced marriages a year
  • normally do not speak up as people are afraid of ruining their family's honour
• What does Sardar believe?

  • arranged marriages are popular among young people because:
  • 1 - Avoids the humiliation and dating game for the family. Family will pick someone who is looking for a life long commitment
  • 2 - Tremendous family support - extended family can provide support if there are troubles within the family and help with the wedding
• What are the three types of marital breakdown?

  1 - Divorce

  2 - Empty shell marriages

  3 - Seperation
• What is divorce?

  • the legal ending of a marriage
  • 1969 Divorce Reform Act - made divorce easier and cheaper to obtain
• What is an empty shell marriage?

  • living together but not in love but stay together for kids
• What is seperation?

  • couples are not legally DIVORCED but live seperately
• Why did divorce increase between 1972 and 1993?

  1 - Changes in the law

  2 - Changes in attitude

  3 - Secularisation of society

  4 - Declining influence of extended families
• How did the changes in the law affect divorce?

  1969 Divorce Reform Act - made divorce easier and cheaper to obtain

  those who were in empty shell marriages took advantage of the act
• How did changes in attitudes affect divorce?

  • functionalists - people see marriage as more valuable and people have higher standards
  • if the standards are not met, then it would lead to a divorce
  • Feminists - believe that the increase in job opportunities for women and changes in womens attitudes led to women escaping from marriages where domestic abuse was frequent
• How did the secularisation of society affect divorce?

  • decline in religious attitudes meant that divorce was no longer seen as shameful
• How does the decline in the extended family affect divorce?

  • less influential pressure from family to stay in an unhappy marriage
• What is a same sex marriage?

  • a homosexual marriage
  • legalised in 2013
  • gave gays rights to get married
• What do Civil Rights and Equal Opportunists believe about same sex marriage?

  -believe that anybody should have the right to get married regardless of who they are marrying

  • the church and religion normally object gay marriages
• What does Morgan believe about same sex marriages?

  • believes that same sex marriages lead to a decline in christian values
  • says it creates a western ideology
• What is cohabitation?

  • a couple living together but not married
  • 5.9 million cohabitating couples - fastest growing family type in UK
  • dependent children - children of cohabitating couples
  • 39% of cohabitating couples have children
• What is the New Right view on cohabitation?

  • Morgan believes that cohabitation is responsible for the decline in marriage
  • cohabitation is 'marriage lite' - mimics a married couple life
  • ONS states - dependent children are more likely to drop out schools and commit anti social behaviour
• What are the practical reasons for rise in cohabitation?

  1 - Waiting for a divorce from previous couple

  2 - Cost of marriage is too expensive
• What is the postmodernist world characterised by?

  1 - Individualism - people are less pressured to conform to traditional values

  2 - Conflict - more conflict between men and women (chaos of love)

  3 - Choice - people have greater choices over lifestyle
• Why is there a decline in divorce in the years 2000+?

  this is according to postmodernists

  1- the increase in older marriages results in lower levels of divorce

  2 - Increase in cohabitation means if couples split up it is not counted as a divorce
• Do the New Right exaggerate?

  • 40% marriages end in divorce but 60% are still married
  • 75% of children live with married parents
• Lone Parent Families -

  • 2 million lone parent families
  • mainly black ethnic group
  • 91% - mother headed
  • 650,000 rely on gov benefits
• What are the New Right views towards lone parents?

  • seen as broken, fractured and imperfect families
  • say that the mothers put their selfish needs before their children resulting in anti social behaviour
  • anti social behaviour is also a result of paternal deprivation
• What did the Centre for social justice do a report on?

  • fractured families
  • those who were brought up in a matrifocal lone parent family were more likely to:
  • perform worse in school
  • behaviour problems
  • anti social behaviour
  • drink, drugs, smoke
  • poorer relationships when older
• What did Flouri and Buchanan find?

  • study of 17,000 children where the father had remained in contact
  • performed well in school
  • pro social behaviour
  • stable relationships
• What are the criticisms of the NR view towards lone parents?

  • Ford and Miller argue that the NR were wrong about assuming mothers are selfish. Lone parents tend to reduce on spending in order to protect themselves and their children
  • feminists argue that NR sociologists give the lone parents a negative label. This creates a self fulfilling prophecy and they start to live up to it. This results in bad grades, anti social behaviour
  • NR sociologists ignore the fact that mothers may have escaped from domestic violence
• What is a reconstitued family?

  •  when two families join together after one or both partners have divorced their previous partners
  • also contains child/children from previous partner
  • ONS - 540,000 reconstituted families
• What did Death and Slater find about reconstituted families?

  1. Children may find themselves torn between natural parents and step parents
  2. The children may not get along with their new step siblings or step parent
• What is a blended family?

  • step siblings and half siblings