SOCIOLOGY PAPER 2 - changing family patterns

reasons for increase in divorce rates

• Legal changes - divorce has become easier to access; equalising the grounds between both genders;

• Women’s financial independence - more women are now in paid employment, and lone parent welfare benefits are available. Women are less economically dependent on a man, and can afford divorce.

• Secularisation - decline in religious influence on society.

reasons for decrease in marriage rates

• Alternatives to marriage (such as cohabitation) are less stigmatised

• women’s economic dependence

• impact of feminism - some women now see marriage as a patriarchal institution

partnerships

• More people are living together without being married (secularisation, stigma and cost)

​

• Increase in same-sex partnerships (secularisation and stigma)

​

• More people living alone (life expectancy and stigma)

childbearing and childrearing

• More children are born outside marriage

​

• Women are having children later

​

• Radical feminists are still unhappy with women being the main caregivers