social policy

• How many marriages end in divorce?

  40%
• petitions for divorce are women

  65% whereas 1946 only 37%
• equalising grounds

  1923
• widening grounds

  1971
• divorce being cheaper

  1949
• desertation

  legally married however one partner left
• legal separations

  A married couple legal separates, lives in separate households, but can't remarry
• Empty shell marriage


  when a couple continues to live together, even though the marriage may be effectively over, for reasons other than love
• secularisation


  Religion is less important in people's lives than it once was
• fletcher functionalist


  higher expectations of marriage leads to divorce

  makes couples less likely to put up with unhappy marriages
• graham crow and graham allen 2001


  most adults marry, popularity of re marriage shows divorce may have dissasatisfied with particular partner they haven't rejected institutions of marriage
• femenisy critic


  female oppression= main cause of oppressions martial conflict
• women in paid work

  rose from 53% in 1971 to 72% in 2020

  girls have better success in education helps achieve better payed jobs

  welfare benefits and not relying on men
• Hoschild


  many women compare home unfavourable work

  at work women feel valued

  at home men's continuous resistance to housework is a source of frustration and makes marriage less stable

  both partners go to work leaving less time and energy for emotion work to address problems
• rushton


  women with dual burdens are more likely to divorce then non working mothers with traditional divisions of labour
• cooke and gash


  No evidence that working women are more likely to divorce
• children outside marriage

  48.5 %