Changing family patterns

Explanations for the increase in divorce

1. Changes in the law - equalisng the grounds, widening the grounds and making divorces cheaper

2. Declining stigma

3. Secularisation - less emphasise is placed on religion, so the opposition of divorce has decreased

4. Rising expectations of marriage - higher expectations make people less tolerate in an unhappy marriage

5. Women’s increased financial independence

Feminist explanations for the increase in divorce

Women today face a dual burden between paid work and domestic labour, this has created a new conflict with their husbands

Hochschild - at work women feel valued, at home men still resist to help with housework

Individualisation thesis

Giddens and Beck - in modern society, people are more free from traditional norms and are able to make their own choices about relationships and family

New Right view on high divorce rates

Undesirable as it undermines marriage and the traditional nuclear family - it creates an underclass of welfare-dependent female lone parents who rely on the state

Feminist view on high divorce rates

Desirable as it shows that women are breaking free from the oppression of the nuclear family

Postmodernist view on high divorce rates

Shows individuals have more freedom to choose to end a relationship when it no longer meets their needs

Functionalist view on high divorce rates

Not a threat to marriage, but a result of higher expectations of marriage

Reasons for changing patterns in marriage

• Less pressure to get married

• Secularisation

• Declining stigma of children before marriage

• Changes in position of women

• Fear of divorce

Reasons for increase in cohabitation

• Decline in stigma attached to sex outside marriage

• Cohabitation is cheaper than marriage

• Secularisation

Trial marriage

Many see cohabitation as a trial marriage and intend to marry if it goes well

Stonewall

5-7% of the adult population is in a same-sex relationship, there is more social acceptance of same-sex couples since it was decriminalised

Weeks

Chosen families - gays create families based on the idea of “friendship as kinship”

LATs

Living apart together - significant relationship but not cohabiting

Childbearing

• 47% of all children are now born outside marriage

• Women are having children later

• Women are remaining childless

Reasons for more lone parent families

• Increase in divorce

• Decline in stigma of births outside marriage

• Single by choice

Murray

Sees the growth of lone-parent families as a result of an over-generous welfare state

Benefits have created perverse incentives and a dependency culture

Ethnic differences in family patterns (black)

Higher proportion of female headed lone-parent households

Ethnic differences in family patterns (asian)

Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger than other ethnic groups —> extended families with 3 generations

Willmott

Dispersed extended family - relatives are geographically seperated but maintain frequent contact through visits and phone calls