 Know the main changes in partnerships including marriage, divorce, cohabitation and civil partnerships as well as one-person and extended family households  Know the main changes in childbearing and childrearing, including births outside of marriage, lone-parent families and stepfamilies  Understand how these changes have contributed to greater family diversity  Be able to analyse and evaluate the reasons for these changes in families and households

 Marriage  Separation  Divorce  Empty shell marriage  Irretrievable breakdown  Monogamy  Serial monogamy  Social stigma  Re-marriage  Cohabitation  Trial marriage  Single-hood  Divorce rate  Marriage rate  secularisation

 What changes do you think have occurred to the family in recent times, if any?

 In the past 30 or 40 years there have been some major changes in family and household patterns: ◦ Number of nuclear family households has fallen ◦ Divorce rates have increased ◦ Fewer first marriages, more re-marriages and people are marrying later in life ◦ More couples cohabiting ◦ Same-sex relationships legally recognised ◦ Women having fewer children/having them later ◦ More births outside of marriage ◦ More lone-parent families ◦ More people live alone ◦ More stepfamilies ◦ More couples without children

 Since 1960s  increase in the number of divorces  Doubled between 1961 and 1969, doubled again 1972  Peaked in 1993 at 180,000  Since then numbers have fallen – 2001  157,000 (6x times higher than in 1961)  At this rate 40% of all marriages will end in divorce

 7/10 petitions for divorce come from: ◦ females  1946  37% came from: ◦ women  Most common reason is ‘unreasonable behaviour’ of the: ◦ husband  However, more recently divorce rates have started declining:  Divorce Rate Lowest for 29 Years Divorce Rate Lowest for 29 Years

 Those that marry young  Have a child before they marry  Cohabit before marriage  Those where one or both partners were married before

 Sociologists have stated the following reasons: ◦ Changes in the law ◦ Declining stigma and changing attitudes ◦ Secularisation ◦ Rising expectations of marriage ◦ Changes in the position of women

 19 th C Britain  divorce difficult (especially for women)  Now: ◦ Equalising the legal reasons for divorce between the sexes (1923) ◦ Widening the grounds for divorce ◦ Making divorce cheaper ◦ Tiger Woods Case Tiger Woods Case

 1923  sharp increase in the number of divorce petitions from women  1949  legal aid for divorce cases lowered the cost  Divorce rates have risen with every change in the law

 Desertion ◦ One partner leaves the other but the couple remains legally married  Legal Separation ◦ Court separates the financial and legal affairs ◦ Stay married, not free to remarry  Empty Shell Marriage ◦ Married in name only and live under the same roof ◦ As divorce has become more easily accessible this has become less popular

 Stigma  negative label  Mitchell and Goody (1997) ◦ An important change since the 1960s is the declining stigma attached to divorce  ‘normalises’ divorce  Misfortune rather than shameful

 Decline in the influence of religion in society  Church attendance rates continue to decline  Traditional opposition of divorce by the church has less weight  2001 Census data ◦ 43% of young people with no religion were cohabiting ◦ 34% of Christians ◦ 17% of Muslims ◦ 10% of Sikhs

 Functionalist Ronald Fletcher (1966) ◦ Higher expectations placed on marriage ◦ Less willing to tolerate an unhappy marriage  Ideology of romance (Mr and Mrs Right)  if love dies there is no point in marriage  In the past families were constructed mainly for economic reasons or of duty to one’s family

 Allan and Crow (2001) ◦ ‘Love, personal commitment and intrinsic satisfaction are now seen as the cornerstones of marriage. The absence of these feelings is itself justification for ending the relationship.’  Functionalists take an optimistic view ◦ Point to the continuing popularity of marriage ◦ It has not been rejected as an institution ◦ Too ‘rosy’ a view?  Feminists ◦ The oppression of women in marriage is the main factor ◦ Functionalists fail to explain why it is mainly women rather than men that seek divorce.

 Improvements in economic position ◦ Women today much more likely to be in paid work  47% in 1959  70% in 2005 ◦ Equal pay act & anti- discrimination law ◦ Girls’ greater success in education ◦ Availability of welfare benefits – women no longer have to be financially dependent on men

 Arlie Hochschild (1997) argues that for many women, the home compares unfavourably with work ◦ At work the woman feels valued ◦ Men’s resistance to housework at home makes marriage less stable ◦ Both going to work leaves less time and energy to talk about issues together

 Wendy Sigle-Rushton (2007) ◦ Working mothers more likely to divorce than traditional bread winning families ◦ However, where the husband is involved with chores, the likelyhood of divorce falls to the same levels as traditional bread winning families  Jessie Bernard (1976) ◦ Many women feel a growing dissatisfaction with patriarchal marriage ◦ Rising divorce rate + most petitions coming from women = feminist ideas – more confident about rejecting patriarchal oppression

 Which religions now allow divorce and re-marriage and under which circumstances?  Try to find out about a range of churches ◦ Church of England ◦ Catholic ◦ Baptist ◦ Jehovas Witnesses ◦ Pentecostalism ◦ Non-Christian religions  Create a poster in publisher that can then be saved and put on the VLE

 Fewer people are getting married  Lowest rate since 1920s  2005  170,800 first marriages  1970  double this figure!

 More re-marriages  2005  4/10  ‘Serial-monogamy’ People are marrying later – 2005  32 and 30! Couples less likely to marry in Church

 See Sunday Times article –  Here comes the bride – she’s 30 now Over-exaggeration

Changes Attitudes to marriage Link to ‘secularisation’ Declining stigma for alternatives Changes in the position of women Fear that they may get divorced!

 Number of people cohabiting has increased!  Over 2million at the moment – expected to double by 2021

Decline in stigma attached to sex outside of marriage – 1989 – 44% admitted premarital sex is not wrong – 2000 – 62% took this view – (British Social Attitudes, 2000) Young men are more likely to accept cohabitation – 88% of year olds – ok to live together without intending to get married – 40% of those over 65 agreed – (Social Trends 32, 2004)

 Increase in career opportunities for women – ◦ less need for the financial security of marriage – freer to opt for cohabitation  Secularisation ◦ 2001 census – young people with no religion more likely to cohabit than those with

Chester (1985) – Cohabitation is part of the process to getting married Ernestina Coast (2006) – 75% of cohabiting couples say they expect to marry each other – Many see cohabitation as a ‘trial’ – Marry when have children – Temporary phase before marriage because one or both partners are awaiting a divorce

Andre Bejin (1985) – Cohabitation amongst some young people represent a conscious attempt to make an equal attempt at a relationship than conventional marriage Shelton and John (1993) – Women who cohabit do less housework than their married counterparts Macklin (1980) – The term covers a diverse range of partnerships, and that the relationship between marriage and cohabitation is a complex and variable one

 Stonewall (2008) ◦ 5-7% of the adult population today have same-sex relationships ◦ Why is it difficult to judge the difference between this and the past?

 Since 2002 cohabiting couples have had the same right to adopt as married couples  Since 2004 the Civil Partnership Act has given same sex couples similar legal rights to married couples in respect of pensions, inheritance, tenancies and property

Jeffrey Weeks (1999) – Increased social acceptance of same sex relationships – Sees gays as creating families based on the idea of ‘friendship and kinship’ Kath Weston (1992) – Describes same sex cohabitation as ‘quasi- marriage’ – Contrasts with the gay lifestyle of the 1970s which rejected monogamy in favour of casual relationships

 David Cheal (2002) ◦ While many gays and lesbians welcome the opportunity to have their partnerships legally recognised, others fear it may limit the flexibility and negotiability of relationships ◦ Rather than adopt what they see as heterosexual relationship norms, they wish to retain a status of ‘difference’.

 Big rise  2006  almost three in ten households (6.8 million people)  Three times the figure for 1961  Men under 65 most likely to live alone

 Father is more likely to leave the family home after divorce  Decline in numbers marrying  Stein (1976) ◦ Growing number of people opting for ‘creative singlehood’ – deliberate choice to live alone

Duncan and Phillips (British Social Attitudes Survey, 2008) – 1 in 10 adults are ‘living apart together’ or ‘LATs’ – Some cannot afford to – Do couples need to live together to have a strong relationship – 20% saw LATs as their ‘ideal relationship’