AQA A Level Sociology - Families and Households (Changing Family Pat

terns)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_4jiatp
The legal termination of a marriage. It is the main reason for
Divorce
increasing family diversity.
• The number of divorces have doubled between 1961 and 1969
• Now, there has been a slight decrease but not a big drop
compared to the number of marriages where it massively dropped.
• This shows that 40% of all marriage will end in divorce
• The reason behind the fall in divorce is because not many people
cohabit rather than marry.
Facts about divorce • About 65% of applications are made by women and this is
because of their husband's unusual behaviour.
• There are some groups of people who are at a greater risk of
divorce than others:
- Young couples
- Couples with an 'illegitimate child'
- Those where one or both are divorcees and have got remarried.
• It was really difficult to obtain a divorce in the past especially for
women and only rich men could get one for their 'unfaithful wives'.
• Now, there are changes in legislations which equalises grounds,
widened the ground and made it more cheaper
• When ground were equalised in 1923, it followed by a sharp
increase in divorce petitions made by women.
• When grounds were widened in 1971, there was an 'irretrievable
breakdown' in making it more easy to obtain which doubled the
rate.
• The introduction of legal aid in 1949 meant that it made it cheaper
to have a divorce causing it to rise even more.
Reasons for the increased divorce rates 1: Changes in legislations
• With the increase in divorce rate, some couples find alternatives
such as:
Ë Desertion - this is when one partner leaves but the couple remains
legally married
Ë Legal separation - when courts separate financial and legal affair
of couple but they are still
legally married.
Ë Empty shell marriage - when couple still lives together but remain
married in name only.
• Changes in legislations have gave people more freedom but it
does not alone explain the increase.
• There has been a change on the stigma on divorce. In the past,
people and churches used to stigmatize divorcee and churches
Reasons for the increased divorce rates 2: Declining stigma and often refused marriage with a divorcee.
changing attitudes • Now, it is less stigmatized and it has become more acceptable
to have a divorce.
• It is now seen as a misfortune rather than shameful.
• Refers to the decline in the influence of religion in society.
• Religious institutions and ideas are losing grip and control over
individuals for example, church attendance rate have been low and
it continues to decline.
Reasons for the increasing divorce rates 3: Secularisation • As a result, the traditional oppression of churches are now
carrying less weight and people are less likely to be influenced
by religious teachings.
• Many churches have now soften their views on divorces and
allowed marriages with a divorcee to happen.

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 AQA A Level Sociology - Families and Households (Changing Family Pat
terns)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_4jiatp
• Functionalist, Fletcher (1966) argue that higher expectations of
marriage are the major cause of the increasing divorce rates and
it makes couples less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage.
• Linked to the ideology of 'romantic love' (developed by Giddens)
which is an idea that has been dominant over last centuries and
that it is the idea that the relationship is solely based on love.
• In the past, individuals had little choice on who to marry and so
were unlikely to have high expectations on marriage in a romantic
level that couples have in today's modern society.
Reasons for the increasing divorce rates 4: Rising expectations of
• On the other hand, marriage is increasingly viewed as a relation-
marriage
ship where individuals seek personal fulfilment which encourage
divorce if not found.
• Despite the increased divorce rate, functionalists take an opti-
mistic view as most adults remarry. They argue that individuals are
not rejecting marriage, but their partners.
• Feminists argue that this is too rosy and see that the oppres-
sion of women is the main cause of marital conflict and divorce
which the functionalist ignores. They fail to understand that mainly
women petition for divorce.
• Women have now became economically independent to provide
for herself.
• This means that she doesn't need to depend on her husband or
partner and so are more free to end an unsatisfying or unhappy
relationship
Ë Much more likely to be at work as it rose from 53% to 67%.
Ë Equal pay and anti-discrimination laws helped narrow the pay gap
between men and women.
Ë Greater educational outcomes in women have helped get better
Reasons for the increasing divorce rates 5: Women's financial paid job and career opportunities.
independence Ë Availability of the welfare state means women does not need to
be financially dependent on their husbands/partners
• This means that women are more likely to support themselves
and so creates the lone parent family.
• Allan and Crow argue that there are fewer family firms and
that the family is no longer an unit of production so they are not
dependent on each other.
• Women now have separate source of income via paid work and
so does not need to tolerate conflict or absence of love so are
more likely to divorce.
• They argue that married women carry a 'dual burden' and so
are required to do paid work and housework/childcare. This has
created a new source of conflict between couples.
• There may have been improvements, feminists argue that
change has been limited and slow and argue that marriage re-
mains patriarchal as men benefits from women's triple shift.
• Hochschild (1997) argue that home compares unfavourably to
paid work. And the fact that both partners go to work means there
are less work and energy for emotional work which contributes to
Reasons for the increasing divorce rates 6: Feminists explanations
higher divorce rates.
• Rushton (2007) argue that mother who carries a dual burden are
more likely to divorce but where the husband is actively involved
in domestic work, the divorce rate is the same.
• Cooke and Gash (2010) found no evidence of this and argue that
working is now the accepted norm.
• Bernard (1976) saw that many women feels growing dissatis-
faction with patriarchal marriage and sees the increasing divorce
rates as evidence of growing acceptance of feminist ideas.

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 AQA A Level Sociology - Families and Households (Changing Family Pat
terns)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_4jiatp
• Beck and Giddens (1992) argue in modern society, traditional
norms have lose hold over individuals and as a result, individuals
have become free to pursue their own self-interest. This is called
the individualisation thesis.
• Relationships have become more fragile as individuals are un-
willing to remain with partner and seeks a pure relationship. The
Reasons for the increasing divorce rates 7: Modernity and individ- rising divorce rates normalises divorce and strengthen belief that
ualisation marriage exists of personal fulfilment.
• It also encourages individualism as individuals pursue their ca-
reer which causes conflict and so contributes to marital break-
downs.
• Some sociologists argue that modernity encourages people to
adopt neoliberal identity which is based on the idea of freedom
which is likely to pull spouses apart.
• Sees the divorce rate as undesirable as it undermines marriage
and traditional nuclear family.
• High divorce rates causes a growing underclass of welfare-de-
New Right on Divorce pendent female lone parent which leaves boys without an adult
made role model.
• They believe that it results in poorer health and educational
outcome for children
Sees high divorce rates as desirable as it frees women from
Feminists on Divorce patriarchal marriage and the oppression of the traditional nuclear
family.
• Sees high divorce rates as encouraging individuals to have
Postmodernists on Divorce freedom to choose to end a relationship.
Sees it as a major cause of greater family diversity
• Argue that high divorce rates is not a threat to marriage as a
social institution.
Functionalists on Divorce • Simply the result of high expectations of marriage and the high
rate of remarriage shows the continuing commitment of the idea
to marriage.
• They aim to understand what divorce means to individual.
Interactionists on Divorce • Morgan (1996) argue that we cannot generalise about meaning
of divorce as people have different interpretations.
• Accepts that divorce causes problems such as: financial difficul-
ties and lack of daily contact
• Smart (2011) argue that divorce has become normalised in which
Personal life perspective on Divorce
family life can adapt to
• Rather seeing that divorce is a problem, we should see it as a
'transition to one to another life course'.
a legal relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, sex-
Marriage
ual activity, and childbearing
• There has been fewer people getting married and it is at its lowest
since the 1920s.
• There are more re-marriages and in 2012, one third of all mar-
riages were remarriages which is leading to 'serial monogamy'.
Facts about Marriage
• There are more people marrying later on and the average age
has rose by 7 years.
• They are now less likely to marry in a church as in 2012, the
number has halved to 30% compared to 60% in 1981.
ËLess pressure to many and individuals have more freedom to
choose the type of relationship they want.
Reasons for the declining marriage rate 1: Changing attitudes to
Ë There is now a widespread belief that quality of a couple's rela-
marriage
tionship is more important than their legal status.
Ë The norm that marriage is necessary has gradually weakened.
ËChurches are in favour of marriage but their influences is declining
Reasons for the declining marriage rate 2: Secularisation
meaning that people feel freer to not get married.
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 AQA A Level Sociology - Families and Households (Changing Family Pat
terns)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_4jiatp
ËCohabitation, being single and 'illegitimate' children is now widely
regarded as acceptable to the society.
Reasons for the declining marriage rates 3: Declining stigma
Ë Pregnancies outside marriage is now accepted meaning that
there is not a 'shotgun wedding' anymore.
ËBetter educational outcomes and career prospects, women are
now less economically dependent on their partner.
Reasons for the declining marriage rates 4: Changes in women's
Ë Gives them more freedom on who to marry and the feminist view
position
is that marriage is an oppressive patriarchal institution which can
put women off to marriage.
With rising divorce rates, some people can be put off marriage as
Reasons for the declining marriage rates 5: Fear of divorce
they see the increased likelihood of marriage ending in divorce.
ËMain reason for rising remarriages is the rise in divorce rates.
Reasons for the declining marriage rates 6: Remarriages Ë Have grown together so that the rising numbers of divorces will
lead to increasing remarriages.
ËThe age of marriage is increasing as young people are postponing
marriage to spend longer to full-time education and have a career.
Reasons for the declining marriage rates 7: Age
Ë Another reason is that the couple may be cohabiting for a period
of time before marriage.
ËLess likely to marry in church for two reasons:
§ Fewer people sees relevance of religious ceremonies.
Reasons for the declining marriage rates 8: Church weddings
§ Churches refuses to marry divorcee or have less desire to marry
In church.
an arrangement where two people who are not married live to-
Cohabitation
gether.
• The number of cohabitation has increased while the number of
marriages have declined.
• Cohabiting couple with children born outside marriage are one
of the fast-growing family type in society.
Facts about Cohabitation • 2.9m cohabiting heterosexual couples are in the UK and one in
eight adults are cohabiting.
• Estimate 69,000 homosexual cohabiting couple are in the UK.
A fifth are 'serial cohabitants' who have one or more previous
cohabitation.
• Are a result of the decline in stigma attached to cohabitation and
sex before marriage.
• In 1989, 44% of people said 'premarital sex is alright' but now
65% have said this.
• The young are more likely to accept cohabitation.
Reasons for the increase in cohabitation
• Increased career opportunities means there is less need for fi-
nancial security of marriage and more free to choose cohabitation
over marriage.
Secularisation means that people with no faith are more likely to
cohabit than those with a faith.
• Marriage is declining while cohabitation is increasing and so they
are not 'clear-cut'.
• Some couples argue that cohabitation is a temporary phrase and
is a step towards marriage and for others, it is a permanent phrase
The relationship between marriage and cohabitation
and will never get married.
- Chester argues that most people get married if they cohabit
and Coast (2006) found that 75% (3/4) of cohabiting couple do
eventually get married.

• Many see it as a trial marriage where they see if it goes well and
most couples decides to get married if they have children.
• It could be that it is a temporary phrase as they are waiting for a
Is cohabitation a trial marriage?
divorce.
• On the other hand, some sees it as a permanent arrangement
to marriage. Bejin (1985) argues that cohabitation represents a
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AQA A Level Sociology - Families and Households (Changing Family Pat
terns)
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_4jiatp
conscious attempt to create a more personally negotiated and
equal relationship than a conventional patriarchal marriage.
• Shelton and John (1993) found women who cohabit are less
likely to do the housework as the roles are negotiated.
• The term covers a diverse range of partnership and the relation-
ship between marriage and cohabitation is complex and variable.

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