Divorce, marriage and cohabitation

• The provisional number of marriages in England and Wales in 2010 increased by 3.7 per cent to 241,100
• In 2010 the provisional marriage rate increased to 8.7 people marrying per thousand unmarried population aged 16 and over, from 8.5 in 2009
• Civil ceremonies accounted for 68 per cent of all marriages which took place in 2010, an increase from 64 per cent in 2000
• The highest number of marriages were for men and women aged 25 to 29
• The largest percentage increase in numbers from 2009 to 2010 were for men aged 45 to 49 and women aged 30 to 34, both rising by 6 per cent
• Office for national statistics concluded in 2007 that marriage is a good for health of couples and that married people live longer than single or divorced people
• People are delaying marriage rather than rejecting it

  Average age of brides has risen from 22 in 1971 to 29 in 2003
• British social attitudes surveys indicate that most people still see marriage as desirable life goal and generally believe having children is best done in the context of marriage
• 2/5 of marriages are re-marriages. People are obviously still committed to the institution. Serial monogamy
• Married couples are still main type of partnership for men and women in UK. In 7/10 families were headed by a married couple
• 3/4 Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are married by 25 (2000), compared with just over half of white women
• African-Caribbean are the group less likely to marry - only 39% of Caribbean adults under the age of 60 are in a formal marriage, compared to 60% of white adults
• Marriage involves unique 'attachments and obligations' that regulate people's behaviour e.g. married men are more likely to be employed than unmarried or cohabitating men and earn more because they work harder
• Female attitudes to marriage and family life have undergone radical change or 'genderquake. Young females no longer prioritise marriage and children like their mothers and grandmothers did
• Educational opportunities and feminisation of the economy have resulted in young women weighing up the costs of marriage and having children against the benefits of a career and economic independence
• Births to women aged 35-39 dramatically increasing in last 20 years
• Marriage creates unrealistic expectations about monogamy and faithfulness in a world that is characterised by sexual freedom
• Marriage benefits men more than it does women. Their for marriage is patriarchal institution in our society
• Decrease in marriages
• People, especially women, choosing to wait before they get married
• Less marriages because of secularization, changing social attitudes, declining stigma to alternative structures, changing position of women, fear of divorce
• Adds to family diversity with different family types
• New Right are very concerned - crisis in family and result in moral breakdown and antisocial behaviour
• Feminists - more choice for women, indication of greater choice and equality
• Family diversity: There is a range of different family types in Britain, rather than a single dominant one. It is associated with the postmodernist idea that in today's society, increasing choice about relationships is creating greater family diversity
• Divorce


  The legal ending of a marriage
• Divorce reform act 1969


  Could divorce because of irretrievable breakdown
• Separation


  Couples agree to live apart after a breakdown of marriage
• Empty-shell marriage


  Husband and wife stay together in name only, no longer any love or intimacy between them, often ends in separation or divorce although may persist for the sake of the children
• Divorce


  • The number of divorces doubled between 1961 and 1969 and doubled again by 1972, this trend continued to 1993 peaking at 180,000
  • 1 in 4 marriages divorce
  • Number fell to 157,000 in 2001 - six times higher than in 1961, this mean that 40% of marriages would end in divorce
  • 7/10 divorce petition comes from women, most commonest reason was due to unreasonable behaviour by the husband
  • Some women are more likely to divorce- those who marry young, have children before they marry or cohabit before marriage or where one or more parents has been married before
• Sharp rise in numbers of women petitioning for divorce

  1923
• Widening the grounds for divorce

  In 1971 irretrievable breakdown made divorce earlier to obtain, doubled divorce rate
• Making divorce cheaper


  Legal aid introduced for divorce cases
• Alternative solutions to divorce have become less popular and divorce became easier
• In the past divorce has a negative label e.g churches have condemned divorce
• No longer the case, it is more socially acceptable, no longer shameful instead it is a misfortune
• Secularisation


  Decline in the influence of religion on society, society is becoming more secular e.g. church attendance rates continue to decline
• 2001 census - 43% of young people with no religions were cohabitating as 34% Christians
• Functionalist Ronald Fletcher (1966)


  Higher expectations people place on marriage are major cause of rising divorce rates, higher expectations mean that couple are less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage
• Romantic love


  Belief that marriage should be based solely on love, if love dies there is no reason to stay married and divorce allows for us to renew our search for our true soulmate