LIVING APART TOGETHER

• Levin -Couples have a household each, although maintain a close partnership. Levin argues - it can follow cohabitation, when people become financially secure and choose to live in separate homes.  uk one in 10 adults are 'living apart together' or 'LATs' that is, in a significant relationship, but not married or cohabiting. It has been suggested that this may reflect a trend towards less formalised relationships and 'families of choice'-postmodernism.
• Women


  • Better career opportunities
  • More financial and social independence
• Women having better career opportunities and independence

  Enables them to keep their own households separate from their partners
• Feminists point out that having independent households eliminates conflict over the unequal division of household labour
• Changes in social attitudes

  • The nuclear family is no longer the only acceptable and respectable family form
  • Diverse forms of relationships have been de-stigmatised and legitimised as intimate partnerships
  • LAT relationships are one of the many examples
• Individualisation


  People no longer feel the need to conform to societal norms
• Postmodern times


  Rise in individualism
• Individualism


  People happily enter relationship arrangements that are more suitable for them personally, even if this is not a 'traditional marriage'
• People in LAT relationships

  • Choose to live under separate addresses from their partners
  • To have an individualised space
  • To spend their spare time in a more personal manner
• Women now have better career opportunities-enables them enjoy more financial and social independence- more can choose keep own households separate from partners. Feminists - having independent households eliminates conflict over the unequal division of household labour; an issue they have repeatedly been bringing attention to since the 1980s. 
• • Changes in social attitudes towards diverse family forms: the nuclear family is no longer the only acceptable and respectable family form in the eyes of wider society. Diverse forms of relationships have been de-stigmatised and legitimised as intimate partnerships. LAT relationships are one of the many examples. 
• The impact of growing individualisation on LAT relationships: in postmodern times we have seen a rise in individualism, which means that people no longer feel the need to conform to societal norms. They happily enter relationship arrangements that are more suitable for them personally, even if this is not a 'traditional marriage'. 

  People might also choose to be living under separate addresses from their partners to have an individualised space, and to spend their spare time in a more personal manner.