(Personal) Changing Patterns Within The Family

Divorce

The legal termination of a marriage

Separation

The physical/geographical separation between two spouses

‘Empty-Shell’ Marriage

• A marriage in name only, where a couple continues to live under the same roof but as a separate individuals

• May occur when divorce is difficult for legal, religious or financial reasons

• A couple may decide to stay together for the benefit of the children

Matrimonial Causes Act 1923

The grounds for divorce was equalised for men and women

Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949

Means-tested legal aid was made available, making divorce more affordable

Divorce Law Reform Act 1969 (Came into effect 1971)

• Established ‘irretrievable breakdown’ of marriage as the sole ground for divorce, established by proving unreasonable behaviour, adultery, desertion or separation with or without consent

• Divorce was available after two years’ agreed separation, or five years if only one spouse wants divorce

Civil Partnership Act 2004

Allowed for a legal dissolution of a civil partnership on the same grounds as for a marriage- irretrievable breakdown

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2014

Same-sex marriages become law, with the same grounds for divorce applying to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples

Divorce Statistics- 1969

In 1969 the number of divorces was double that of the number of divorces in 1961

Divorce Statistics- 2012

In 2012 the number of divorces stood at 118,000, about six times higher than in 1961

Explanations For The Increase In Divorce- Changes In The Law

• Divorce has become easier to obtain because changes in the law have widened the grounds for divorce and made the process cheaper

• When the grounds were equalised for men and women in 1923, this was followed by a sharp rise in the number of divorce petitions from women

• The Divorce Law Reform Act (1969) which came into effect in 1971, significantly increased the rate of divorces- there were 74,000 divorces in 1971 but this climbed to 119,000 in 1972 when the Act became law.

Explanations For The Increase In Divorce- Mitchell & Goody And Declining Stigma & Changing Attitudes

• There is less stigma attached to divorce, and divorce has instead become more socially acceptable

• More people are willing to resort to it as a solution to end marital problems

• The fact that divorce is now more common begins to ‘normalise’ it and reduces the stigma attached to it

• Rather than being seen as shameful, today it is more likely to be regarded simply as a misfortune.

Explanations For The Increase In Divorce- Secularisation

• In early 20th century UK, Christianity was the dominant religion and it shaped and influenced behaviour, including the sanctity of marriage and the stigma of divorce

• However, as science started to dominate, religion started to lose its authoritya

• In 2021 less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011

Goode (1971) and Gibson (1994)- Secularisation & Increasing Divorce Rates

• Marriage has become less of a sacred, spiritual union and more of a personal and practical commitment that can be abandoned if it fails

• The developments of technology have led people to believe in ‘scientific fact’ rather than religious texts which can be difficult to prove

Explanations For The Increase In Divorce- Fletcher & Rising Expectations Of Marriage

• Rising expectations of marriage is to blame for the rising divorce rates

• People are marrying based on the idea of ‘romantic love’, rather than for economic reasons and family duty, so therefore would be less likely to be dissatisfied by the absence of love, or if a relationship does not meet the standards they expect

Allan & Crow- Rising Expectations Of Marriage

Intrinsic satisfaction is now the cornerstone of marriage

Explanations For The Increase In Divorce- Women’s Increased Financial Independence

Changes in society have meant, today, women are less financially dependent and are not constrained to staying in a marriage for financial security

Allan & Crow- Increase In Divorce & Women’s Increased Financial Independence

• Marriage is less embedded within the economic system

• This is a result of anti-discrimination laws that have helped narrow the pay gap, and girls’ greater success in education meaning they have higher chances of better paid jobs

Feminist Explanations For The Increase In Divorce

• Married women today bear a dual burden: they are required to take on paid work in addition to performing domestic labour (housework and childcare)

• This has created a new source of conflict between husbands and wives, and this is leading to a higher divorce rate than in the past

• Despite improvements in women’s position in the public sphere of politics, employment, etc., change has been limited and slow in the private sphere of family and personal relationships

• Marriage remains patriarchal, with men benefiting from their wives’ ‘triple shift’ of paid work, domestic work and emotion work

Arlie Hochschild (1997)- Explanations For The Increase In Divorce

• Home compares unfavourably with work for many women- at work, women feel valued

• At home, men’s continuing resistance to doing housework is a source of frustration and makes marriage less stable

• The fact that both partners now go out to work leaves less time and energy for the emotional work needed to address marital problems that arise

Wendy Sigle-Rushton (ESRC, 2007)- Explanations For The Increase In Divorce

• Mothers who have a dual burden of paid work and domestic work are more likely to divorce than non-working mothers in marriages with a traditional division of labour

• Where the husband of a working wife is actively involved in housework, the divorce rate is the same as for couples with a traditional division of labour

Jessie Bernard (1976)- Radical Feminist Explanation For The Increase In Divorce

• Many women feel a growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal marriage

• Rising divorce rates, alongside the fact that most petitions come from women, are evidence of women’s growing acceptance of feminist ideas

• Women are becoming conscious of patriarchal oppression and more confident about rejecting it

Beck (1992)- Individualisation And The Impact On Divorce

• Divorce is increasing because traditional norms have lost their hold over individuals

• People are pursuing their own interests rather than staying with their partner out of duty

Giddens (1992)- Individualisation And The Impact On Divorce

• There is the growing notion of a ‘pure relationship’, a bond that exists solely to satisfy each partner’s needs

• Modern society has also encouraged individualism, which can put added pressure on couples and contribute to a marital breakdown

Bauman (2003)- Individualisation And The Impact On Divorce

In this world of growing individualisation, uncertainty and constant change, kinship networks are frail and human bonds are weak, and people are constantly searching for security

Beck-Gernscheim (2002)- Individualisation And The Impact On Divorce

The underlying causes of growing individualisation lie in the developments in modern medicine, such as contraception and artificial insemination

These enable sexuality and reproduction to be separated from each other, and sexuality becomes less confined the bounds of a committed relationship and marriage

New Right Perspective On Divorce

• A high divorce rate and easy access to divorce as undesirable because it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family, which they regard as vital to social stability

• A high divorce rate creates a serious crisis in the family, developing an underclass of welfare-dependent female lone parents who are a burden on the state, and leaving boys without the adult male role model they need

• A high divorce rate also results in poorer health and educational outcomes for children, alongside a rise in anti-social behaviour, crime and unemployment

‘Fractured Families’ Report (2013)- Impact Of Separation

Separation led to behaviour problems e.g. drink & drugs, underachievement at school, teenage pregnancy and poverty

Flouri & Buchanan (2002)- Impact Of Lack Of Father Figure

Children who lack a father figure are less likely to be successful at school and more likely to get in trouble with the police or become homeless

Feminist Perspective On Divorce

• A high divorce rate as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from the oppression of the patriarchal nuclear family

• In 2012, 65% of divorce petitions were initiated by wives. Of this 65%, 54% of women-initiated divorces were on the grounds of the husband’s unreasonable behaviour

Postmodernist Perspective On Divorce

Rising divorce rates demonstrate that individuals now have the freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs

Beck & Beck-Gernsheim (1995)- Postmodernist Perspective On Divorce

• Rising divorce rates are the product of a rapidly changing world where traditional rules no longer apply

• Divorce is a major cause of greater family diversity, in a more diverse world now characterised by individualisation, choice & conflict, where personal relationships have become a battleground or ‘chaos of love’

• People still want to find love to help them cope with an uncertain and rapidly changing world- however, monogamy is replaced with serial monogamy

• The New Right panic over divorce is exaggerated, and there is evidence that there is a significant decline in divorce rates in contemporary society, for which cohabitation is probably the reason

Functionalist Perspective On Divorce

• A high divorce rate is not necessarily a threat to marriage as a social institution, and is instead simply the result of people’s higher expectations of marriage today

• The high rate of re-marriage shows people’s continuing commitment to the idea of marriage

David Morgan (1996)- Interactionist Perspective On Divorce

We cannot generalise about the meaning and explanation of divorce, because every individual’s interpretation and experience of it is different

Cohabitation

• A couple that lives together in an intimate and committed relationship, who are not married to each other, nor in a civil partnership

• Cohabitation is the fastest growing type of family in the UK, according to the ONS (2014), with cohabiting couple families growing by 29.7% between 2004 and 2014

Different Interpretations Of Cohabitation

• A trial marriage, where a couple seeks to emulate their relationship in the setting of a marriage, to see the success and enjoyment they have within it

• A temporary or informal agreement between two partners for the benefit of themselves or for their children

• An alternative or substitution to a traditional marriage

Explanations For The Increase In Cohabitation

• The changing attitudes of younger generations may mean they’re more likely to cohabit

• The growing secularisation of Britain, as the choice to cohabit is now governed by self-interest rather than spiritual unions, decreasing social stigma

• Rising divorce rates could indicate to couples that marriage isn’t worth it, and many couples may be discouraged from marriage

• The growing financial independence of women means they have less need for the security of marriage, due to the fact that women are more successful than men in education and a growing service-sector market

• Growing feminist movements could explain why women are less likely to take on the demands of associated with the housewife-motion role

Beck (1992)- Explanation For The Increase In Cohabitation

• A growing ‘risk society’ is responsible for the rise in cohabitation

• Individuals are less governed by traditional structures (i.e. the Church), which means the choices and decisions they make about the family are not guaranteed to work out

Same-Sex Couples

• A romantic or sexual relationship between two people of the same sex

• The rate of same-sex couples within the population has historically been difficult to measure, due to previous high levels of stigma and its illegality

• There are now 89,000 same-sex couples living together outside of a civil partnership, compared to 69,000 last year

Explanations For The Increase In Same-Sex Couples

• Legislative changes, including the decriminalisation of homosexuality and laws enabling same-sex couples to seek a civil partnership or marriage

• A reduction in stigma surrounding homosexuality

• The increase in secularisation and reduced dominance of discriminatory religious views on homosexuality

One-Person Households

• A household containing only one person

• Around one in three households today containing only one person, compared to one in twenty in 1901

• There is a growth in the number of young people living alone- under half of one-person households are over pensionable age, compared to two-thirds in 1971

• There is also nearly twice as many men as women living alone in the 25-44 age group

• There are over twice as many women as men aged 65 and over living on there own

Explanations For The Increase In One-Person Households

• Declining rates of marriage, rising rates of divorce and separation, and the fact that people are delaying marriage and choosing a LAT relationship instead, may result in many households being left consisting of only one person

• The increase in one-person households could also reflect job insecurity and the increase in short-term contracts, which makes it difficult to stay in one place

• Less social stigma attached to living alone, as well as less pressure to reject the idea of being ‘left on the shelf’, meaning that many people will no longer feel discouraged to live alone

• A growing sense of geographical mobility in society makes it easier to move and relocate if there is just one person to move, as this results in minimal disruption

• Women also tend to live longer than men, which means there is going to be a higher level of older women living alone

Beck and Beck-Gernscheim- Postmodernist Explanation For The Increase In One-Person Households

The increase in one-person households demonstrates people’s greater autonomy to choose to the lifestyles they want, due to a growing sense of individualisation

Lone-Parent Families

• A household containing where one parent, who takes care of dependent children without a partner

• The rate of lone-parent families has also tripled since 1971, with lone-parent families now making up 22% of all families with children

• Until the early 1990s, divorced women were the biggest group of lone mothers- however, since the early 1990s, single women who had never married became the biggest group of lone-mothers

Explanations For The Increase In Lone-Parent Families

• Women may choose to head lone-parent families, due to having greater economic independence, job opportunities and greater support through the welfare state

• Improved reproductive technology allows women to have children without a male partner, through surrogate motherhood and fertility treatments such as IVF

• There have been a change in social attitudes towards lone-parent families, with a decline attached to lone parenthood today making it so women are less afraid of the social consequences of becoming lone-parents

• There is the widespread patriarchal belief that women are by nature suited to an ‘expressive’ or nurturing role, so divorce courts usually give custody to mothers

• Due to secularisation, there is less pressure to have ‘shot-gun’ weddings- a wedding arranged frantically in response to pregnancy resulting from premarital sex, so that the sanctity and religious value of the relationship and of child-rearing within a marriage can remain

Living Apart Together

Couples who are in a intimate relationship but choose to live separately

Haskey (2003)- Living Apart Together

• In 2003, there were 2 million couples in Britain in LATs

• Around 30% of all men and women aged from 16-59 who were not married or cohabitating were in LATs

Explanations For The Increase In Living Apart Together

• Living apart together has become a socially acceptable way of dealing with the fall-out from previous broken relationships

• With a growing sense of individualisation and pursuing self-interest, people can keep their options open and choose to live like LATs

• It is often difficult to move and keep the job/career that has already been established- therefore, living apart together is often more financially viable

• Improved technology has meant that couples can stay in contact with each other more easily

• Video links such as Skype and FaceTime and social media like Facebook and WhatsApp allow couples to create ‘virtual relationships’, which can encourage LATs forming and especially make long-distance relationships easier

Levin- Explanation For The Increase In Living Apart Together

• The growth in the number of couples living apart together is due to the desire of couples to pursue intimacy, whilst preserving their individual autonomy and identity

• Couples living apart together reduce the threat to existing relationships, especially if there are existing responsibilities to deal with, such as children

Reconstituted Families/Stepfamilies

• When two families join together after one or both partners have divorced their previous partners

• Reconstituted families account for over 10% of all families with dependent children in Britain

• In 85% of stepfamilies, at least one child is from the woman’s previous relationship, while in 11% there is at least one child from the man’s previous relationship

• Reconstituted families are also more at risk of poverty, as parents may suddenly have to provide for children from a previous relationship

• Reconstituted families are more likely to experience tension, as knowing who has the authority might not be as obvious, and respect/trust might need time to develop

Explanation For The Increase In Stepfamilies

Growing numbers of divorces and creation of lone-parent families means that stepfamilies are going to become more common

New Right Perspective On Declining Marriage Rates

• The New Right views the decline in marriage very negatively

• They view the cause for decline are social policies that have put people off marriage

• Secularisation is also blamed, as a decline in religious belief means people aren’t marrying ‘before God’ and are not taking their wedding vows seriously, and the view that divorce is shameful is now also redundant in a secular society

Patricia Morgan (2000)- New Right Perspective On Declining Marriage Rates

It threatens social stability because marriage is the best institution to reinforce and promote social duties as lovers, parents and workers

Rector (2014)- New Right Perspective On Declining Marriage Rates

The welfare state encourages single parenthood and for people to be married to the welfare state instead, substituting the husband

Feminist Perspective On Declining Marriage Rates

• Feminists view the decline in marriage as positive

• It demonstrates that patriarchal marriage has been replaced by a more companionate and egalitarian form of marriage

Helen Wilkinson (2000)- Feminist Perspective On Declining Marriage Rates

• There has been a ‘genderquake’ in the view that traditional gender identities have shifted due to women’s success in paid work, and profound change in the distribution of power

• Women are now becoming more independent and don’t need to marry to secure financial security

• Marriage and family is no longer the defining feature in young women’s lives

• The decline in marriage also indicates that women are taking advantage of deindustrialisation and the rise in the service-sector economy

Ethnic Differences In Changing Family Patterns- Black Caribbean Families

• Black Caribbean families have a much higher rate of lone-parent families

• In 2012, just over half of families with dependent children headed by a black person were lone-parent families, in comparison with one in ten white mothers

Berthoud (2001)- Black Caribbean Rates Of Lone-Parent Families

• This is the result of ‘modern individualism’, the idea that emphasises choice and independence rather than commitment based on duty or a marriage certificate

• African Caribbean women probably rationally weigh up the costs and benefits of living with the fathers of the children, and conclude that African Caribbean men are unreliable as a source of family income and are potentially a financial burden

• African Caribbean men are more likely to be unemployed and in poverty, as a result of racial discrimination and stereotypes, and are consequently unable to provide for a family, resulting in higher rates of desertion or marital breakdown

• This could also be due to ‘family disorganisation’- during slavery, men were separated from their female partners and children.

Ethnic Differences In Changing Family Patterns- Asian Families

• Extended families are more common in South-Asian and East-African Asian communities, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India

• Asian families tend to be larger, with South Asian families having 4.4 persons per household respectively, compared with 2.4 for both Black Caribbean and White British

• Asian families are the most likely to be married- around three-quarters of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are married by age 25

Ballard (1982)- Extended Family In Asian Families

• Extended family ties provided additional support among Asian migrants in the 1950s and 1960s, as a financial benefit and to strengthen their cultural identity and defence against racism

• There is greater value placed on extended family ties

• Although families are more nuclear, relatives lived nearby for frequent visiting, kinship networks and for a source of support

Charles (2008)- The Extended Family Today

The extended family is “all but extinct” in modern industrial society

Willmott (1988)- The Extended Family Today

• The extended family still continues to exist as a ‘dispersed extended family’

• This is known as the Modified Extended Family, where family members are geographically separate, but maintain ties through modern communication technology, such as social networking websites like Facebook

• The Modified Extended Family, rather than the isolated nuclear family, is probably the most common type of family arrangement in Britain today

Beanpole Families

A family structure that sees an increase in the generations of the family but has declining numbers of children in the family, resulting in the family tree becoming thinner and less extensive

Explanations For The Increase In Beanpole Families

• The amount of older people in society is gradually becoming bigger with increases in life expectancy and quality of healthcare and life

• Couples are having fewer children- in the 1960s, families were having 2.69 children on average, in comparison to 1.74 in 2001

• Rising costs of looking after and raising children, or the huge costs of childcare, may deter families from having children, or may mean that grandparents are called upon to look after children

Childbearing

• Nearly half (47%) of all children are now born outside marriage: over twice as many as in 1986

• However, in most cases, the parents are cohabiting, with nearly all these births are jointly registered by both parents

Childbearing Rates- Later Age Of Childbearing

Between 1971 and 2012, the average age of a woman at the birth of their first child rose by four years to 28.1 years

Childbearing Rates- Smaller Family Sizes

• Women are having fewer children than in the 20th century, though the number increased slightly in the early 21st century

• The average number of children per woman fell from a peak of 2.95 in 1964 to a record low of 1.63 in 2001, rising somewhat to a peak of 1.94 in 2010

Childbearing Rates- Childless Women

It is predicted that a quarter of those born in 1973 will be childless when they reach the age of 45

Explanations For Increases In Births Outside Marriage

• A decline in stigma and increase in cohabitation

• For example, only 28% of 25-34 year olds now think marriage should come before parenthood

Explanations For Changing Rates Of Childbearing

• The later age at which women are having children, smaller family sizes and the fact that more women are remaining childless, all reflect the fact that women now have more options than just motherhood

• Many are seeking to establish themselves in a career before starting a family, or instead of having children at all

Charles Murray (1984)- Lone Parenthood, The Welfare State And Poverty

• The growth of lone-parent families as resulting from an over-generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children.

• This has created a ‘perverse incentive’; rewarding irresponsible behaviour, such as having children without being able to provide for them

• The welfare state creates a ‘dependency culture’ in which people assume that the state will support them and their children.

• For Murray, the solution is to abolish welfare benefits. This would reduce the dependency culture that encourages births outside marriage