Changing Family Relationships

1
Changing Family Relationships
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Marriage

• Apart from a few ups and downs, the number of
  marriages per year in the UK increased steadily
  from 1838 (when they were first recorded) until
  the 1970s.
• Since then there has been a significant decline
  from 480,000 marriages in 1972 to 306,000 in 2000
  (1st marriages and remarriage)
• Remarriage has increased but 1st marriages have
  significantly decreased.

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• Over the past 30 years people have tended to
  marry later.
• In 1971 average age for 1st marriage was 24 for
  men and 22 for women.
• By 2000 it was 30 for men and 28 for women.

4
Singlehood

• A large number of people never marry. Instead
  they either choose to remain single or they never
  fail to find somebody they want to marry.
• The number of people who do not get married
  increased over the 20th Century.
• Many people today cohabit with their partner and
  never marry.

5

• More and more people are also choosing to live
  alone.
• In 1971 6 of professional people aged between
  25-29 lived alone.
• In 1991 nearly 20 of professional people aged
  25-29 lived alone.
• In the past being single women were seen as a bad
  thing, they had failed to find a husband. Today
  being single can be seen as a positive thing.

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Cohabitation

• Definition
• Living together as a couple without being
  married. Love is the most common reason for
  cohabiting
• Between 1976 and 1998 the proportion of women
  under 50 cohabiting more than trebled from 9 to
  27
• Young people tend to cohabit more than older
  people.
• It is normal to live together before getting
  married today.

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Reasons people give for cohabitation

• 1) Some people see cohabitation is part of the
  process of getting married. It is usually seen as
  a prelude to marriage and NOT an alternative.
• 2) Some people see cohabitation as a trial
  marriage, it gives the couple an opportunity to
  test the relationship before making it legally
  binding.
• 3) Some people see cohabitation as a alternative
  to marriage.
• 4) Some people prefer to cohabit rather than
  marry because it means it is easier to end the
  relationship if they want to.

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Reasons sociologists give for cohabitation

• Changing attitudes
• Its no longer unacceptable to live together
  before marriage.
• Effective contraception
• In 1967 reliable contraception was made
  available to unmarried women on the NHS. So
  couple could live together ad have sexual
  relations because they love each other not just
  to reproduce.
• Changes in parental control, education and
  housing
• Theres evidence that parental control over
  children has decreased over the past 50 years.
  More people go to university today and so leave
  home at a younger age and can do what they like.
• Divorce Rate
• Divorce rate has increased rapidly in the past 50
  years. If your divorce hasnt yet gone through
  you may have no other choice but to cohabit. You
  may not want to get married again if it went
  wrong the 1st time

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Divorce

• Before 1857 a private Act of Parliament was
  needed to get a divorce. It was expensive and
  complicated.
• 1949 Legal aid and Advice act set up to provide
  free advice and paid solicitors fees for those
  who couldnt afford them.
• In 1969 you no longer had to prove a partner
  guilty of adultery you just had to show that the
  marriage was beyond repair to get a divorce.
• In 1984 the time a couple needed to be married
  before they got a divorce was cut from 3 years to
  1 year.

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Reasons for rising divorce rate

• Giddens says we marry for CONFLUENT love ( love
  which focuses on intimacy, closeness and emotion)
  today and so if this stops we are likely to get a
  divorce.
• Divorce is now more socially acceptable.
• Women are more economically independent and so
  can divorce their husband if they want to.
• Feminists say that rising divorce proves that
  women are unhappy with the inequality of marriage
  i.e. women still do most of the housework.

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Who divorces?

• In general the earlier the age of marriage, the
  more likely it is to end in divorce because
• 1) Bride likely to be pregnant which places
  strain on marriage
• 2)Money problems
• 3) Lack of experience in choosing a suitable
  partner
• 4)More likely to grow apart as they are still
  developing.
• 5) The lower the social class position of the
  husband the more likely you are to divorce

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Family Diversity

• Most people as children or adults live part of
  their lives in a nuclear family.
• But there has still be a significant decline in
• 1) the proportion of households made up of a
  couple with dependant children
• 2) The proportion of people in such households
• 3) and the proportion of dependant children
  living in couple families.
• The rise in lone-parent families has been coupled
  with a decline in the nuclear family, which means
  there is more family diversity.

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• The terms nuclear family and couple hide
  further diversity.
• For example the couple may be
• 1) Married for the first time
• 2) Remarried
• 3) Cohabiting
• 4) Opposite sex
• 5) Same sex

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Lone-Parent families

• There is only one parent present as well as his
  or her dependant children.
• In Britain it is most commonly it is the mother
  who is a lone-parent.
• There has been a huge increase in lone parents
  over the last 25 years.
• Why do you think this is? Discuss

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Reasons for rise in Lone-Parent families

• Rise in divorce rate
• Pregnancy outside marriage is now more accepted
  in society
• Women have become more independent and sometimes
  choose to have children without having a
  relationship with a male.

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Reconstituted Families

• Being part of a lone-parent family is normally
  only temporary.
• 75 of men and 70 of women who get divorced get
  re-married within 5 years.
• They form reconstituted families, where children
  live with one blood related parent and one
  step-parent.

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Gay and Lesbian Families

• In recent years growing numbers of gays and
  lesbians have built homes and families together.
• Some have artificial insemination from anonymous
  donors.
• In the UK in 2002 an Act of Parliament was passed
  to allow gays and lesbians to adopt children

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What do we call the era we live in?

• Giddens says we live in late modernity. This is
  an era of choice and change. You can choose your
  own i.d. and lifestyle. People can construct
  their own domestic arrangements and tailor their
  family to meet their own needs and identity.
• Relationships are just based on CONFLUENT love
  and so break up when this type of love no longer
  exists.