Explanations of Changing Patterns of Marriage and Cohabitation

Changing Social Attitudes

Until 1960s, social attitudes were extremely contra version and a strong sense of social pressure because society subscribed to rigid about morality, so religion is still influential

Social pressure due to marry before living together

Cohabitation, sex before marriage and having children outside marriage met by both social and moral disapproval

60 years ago, pregnancy could result in a shotgun wedding, so couples are forced by both sets a parent due to traditional views, so they don’t want to shame or embarrassment

Normal for woman to be sent to live with relatives for a month and have family pressure to give it up for adoption or brought up by grandparents

Largely disappeared today because they are replaced with more liberal attitudes towards

  • Homosexuality
  • Sex before marriage
  • Children before marriage

Sociologists argue it is becoming more socially accepted so supported by British social attitudes survey in 2013 so in 1989 found 71% of people agreed with statement and in 2012 found 42% agreed

Views on sex before marriage were even more liberal believing it was rarely wrong or not wrong at all

The Decline on Family Values

Families are no longer expected to conform to the traditional nuclear family ideal

Cohabitation and family diversity = norm

Liberalisation of attitudes relates to secularisation is in UK experience steep decline in Christian beliefs and practices over the last 50 years

New right thinkers say the declining popularity of marriage is seen as part of a more general weakening of what they refer to as traditional family values

Marriage is the bedrock of stable family life

Cohabitation are more likely to break up than marriages

Practicia Morgan suggest that the popularity of cohabitation, gay marriage and babies born outside marriage, so she sees as a weak institution

Are symptoms of a decline in morality

In recent years, there has been a failure of the government and state polities to safeguard traditional family values

Governments have been given insufficient support to marriage both through public support for marriage as on institution and financial support as through tax and benefits system for married couples bringing up children

Labour governments of 1997-2010 was accused of bias against the nuclear family and marriage so Gordan Brown abolished the marriage couple tax allowance

Individualisation

Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995) argue that these changes reflect the growing tend towards individualisation in late modernity

Individuals are no longer bound by traditional social norms and loyalty to families

Seek a lifestyle and relationship that fulfil their needs as individuals

Put their own needs first and foremost so becomes selfish so driven a desire to avoid personal rick and to put their own interest before the interest of society

Argue that people feel they can break fulfil their needs as individuals by pursing so looser less risky intimate arrangements such as singlehood alternatives and LAT such as cohabitation, LAT and staying single so offering freedom less risk than conventional marriage

Anthony Gidden (1992)

Presents a similar perspective, arguing the UK entered a period of late modernity so based on idea of lifelong commitment to a partner

Growth in confluent love, where individuals enter more temporary and fragile intimate relationships

Cohabitation as an alternative form of commitment

Jamieicon et al (2002)

Couples living together without marrying represent a reduced willingness to create and honour lifelong partnership

Carried out as survey and in-depth interviews with sampling of 20-29-year olds living in urban area of Scotland they found that most of cohabitating couples strongly stressed their commitment

Questioned the idea that they would gain only added value in marriage

Perceived cohabitation as a try and see strategy part way to the perceived full commitment of marriage

Nation that marriages is better for children also continued to support among respondents

Suggested the rise of cohabitation does not represent a turning away from committed relationships rather it offers an alternative to marriage so albeit one that in some cases may precede marriage

Changing Role of Woman

Feminists have often seen traditional marriage as a patriarchal institution

Past centuries a marriage involved a woman passing from control of her father to husband

Radical feminist – Germaine Greer (2000) therefore see the decline in the popularity of marriage as a positive development so resulting from woman’s unwillingness to accept oppression by their husbands

Woman today also have more options than in early 20th century

Better educated and have much better job opportunities

Sue Sharpe carried out 2 studies of working-class girls in 1970s and 1990s in London

First study (1976) girls’ priorities for the future tended to be love, marriage, husbands and children

When repeated 20 years later in same school in 1994 girls were more confident and ambitious such as education, careers and financial independence

Important reason for the changing patterns of marriage and cohabitation is probably changing role in woman

Certainty up to 1980s marriage and starting were regarded as the main goals of woman

Longford (1999)

Found many women fear being alone and that having a loving relationship with a man is still important

Love was seen to alleviate then attention of works and an impersonal world

Dark side to love, marriage and relationships are represented by domestic violence, psychological and emotional manipulation and bulling by men who see control

Love is still seen as the natural basis

Importance of Marriage

Marriage is still healthy today

Survey clearly showed that many people see marriage as the goal

Cohabitation is seen as a rehearsal for marriage rather than alternative

Woman are delaying marriage due to them going to higher education and getting a career, so career orientated

Popularity of marriage can be seen by remarriage

About a third marriages are undertaken by people who present marriage failed in 2012

Experience has clearly not put them off marriage

Families needed by married couples are the most common type in UK today, constituting 12.5 million so 67% of 18.6 million families exist in 2013

High level of divorce has clearly not deterred many people from trying marriage again

Singlehood

Cohabitation represents one alternative to marriage; an increasing proportion of people are remaining single

Non-family households have considered reasons for the growth in people living alone

One significant change noted by some sociologists is in attitudes to remaining single

Relatively recently because being single was regarded by many people as a negative status compared to being in a couple

Terms such as old maid, spinster and left on the shelf were applied to older woman

In recent years, being single has become glamour so assisted by media representation of young single person leading fulfilling lives on TVV such as friends

Sociologists use the term creative singlehood to describe how some people chose to remain single as a lifestyle option

A study of never married people by Hall et al (1999) suggested that single people found a freedom in being solo so choose to concentrate on their careers rather than establishing a long-term relationship

Not all single people live alone

Health (2004)

Rise of the kippers

Young people who continue to live with parents after they compare education so save money so keeping parents retirement money

In 2011, 1/3 men and 1/6 woman aged 20-34 were still delaying setting up their own home so fully entering adult world remaining in an ambiguous state of adult kids

Martial Breakdown and Divorce

Types pf Material Breakdown

Divorce is a legal ending of marriage

Not all martial breakdown ends in divorce

Impossible to know how many marriages in past broke down so mid-19th century divorce was virtually impossible to obtain such as many unhappy marriages, staying together to maintain outward appearances so remained empty shell

Empty shell marriages so they live together but apart because divorce many be regarded as shameful or sinful by community

May not get divorced due to religion

They may not morally approve

They may stay together for financial reasons

Sake of the children

Maintained outward appearance of respectability

Dramatic increase in the number of divorces

Cautious about if this indicates an increase in the number of martial breakdowns

Divorce rate per thousand married population increased in England and wales from 5.9 in 1974 to a peak of 14.2 in 1994

Between 1995 and 2000 it decreased to 12.7 but began raising again after 2001 to 14 in 2004

In 2013 it decreased to 9.8 which is the lowest level of 40 years

Trends in Divorce

Measured statistically in different ways

Simplest measure is the number of divorces when are based on records from court complied in official statistics

Alternative is to calculate divorce rate

Widely used in UK is the number of divorces per 100 of married population, Eurostat so collects data from EU countries, uses a measure of divorces per 1000 of all adults married or unmarried

Divorce rates are more useful for comparison different countries as they have different populations

In 2011, the UK had a divorce rate of 2.1 per 1000 of all adults, considerable low than Latvia = 4.0 but much higher than Ireland – 0.5 so legalised in 1999

In 1960 there was 23’868 divorces in England and wales

Over next 3 decades the number of devices increase drastically so reaching a peak in 1993 at 165’018

Overall trend has been several divorces decreases and there was 118’140 in 2012

ONS estimated 42% of current marriages will end in marriage

Some sociologists, these changes represent the most significant change in family life of the last 100 year

Divorce Legalisation in England and Wales

1857 Matrimonial Causes Act

Set up civil divorce courts

Identified 3 matrimonial offences or grounds

  • Adultery
  • Cruelty
  • Desertion

Difficult for woman as they did not gain the right to sue for divorce on the grounds of adultery until 1923

To gain a divorce, one partner had to prove the other guilty as often meant buying expensive barristers

1837 Matrimonial Cause

Extended the grounds for divorce but still had to prove the offence

1949 Legal Aid and Advice Act

Financial help was made available to help with high financial costs of divorce

1969 Divorce Reform Act

Effective in 1971

Dramatically changed access to divorce

Reduces the expenses of divorce because it took away the need for one partner to prove the other quality of fault

Awarded divorce if both partners agreed that the marriage had irretraceable broken down after 2 years separating so extended 5 years if one partner objects

1970s, a special procedure was introduced that allowed judges to deal with divorce cases without even attending court

Clear majority are dealt with using the quickies divorce procedure today

1980 Matrimonial Proceedings Act

Become effective in 1985

Reduces the time for which a couple had to be married before they could perform for divorce from 3 years to 1 year

1996 Family Law Act

Legalisation made cosmetic changes such as increased the amount of time a couple had divorce from 1 year to 18 months

Same act introduced a period of reflection in which the couple had to seek marriage counselling, so children involved both parents had to agree all custody and childcare arrangements before divorce

Abandoned because it was deemed too costly

An attempt by government to reduce the number of couples applying for divorce

2011 Practice Direction 3A

Directed divorcing couples to undertake medication before they were permitted to go to court, so solicitor attempts to resolve despite between them

An attempt to reduce the amount of time cases takin the over worked family courts