Term
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Definition
• There has been a decline in marriage since the 1920s.
2009: record low of just over 200,000 could got married in England and Wales
• People getting married later.
Mean age for first marriage in 1972: 25 for men
2012: around 32
• (Berthoud, 2000): 3/4 of Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are married by age of 25 |
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Term
| REASONS FOR FALL IN NUMBER OF FIRST MARRIAGES |
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Definition
• changing attitudes to marriage (less pressure to marry, now widespread belief that a quality of a couple's relationship is more important than its legal status)
• secularisation (2001 Census: only 3% of young people with no religion were married)
• declining stigma attached to alternatives to marriage (e.g. Cohabitation)
• changes in the position of women (e.g. women less economically dependent on men due to greater career opportunities)
• fear of divorce |
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Term
| NEW RIGHT CONCERNS AROUND FALL IN FIRST MARRIAGE RATES |
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Definition
Morgan (2000):
• marriage contributes to social stability, undermines nuclear family
• argue that rates are in decline because social policies (esp related to welfare state) have put people off marriage
Rector (2014): benefit system has encourage single parenthood
Other NR Thinkers: reason for fall in rates = secularisation (2012: only 30% of weddings were held in places of worship) |
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Term
| CRITIQUE OF NEW RIGHT POSITION ON MARRIAGE |
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Definition
• changes in attitude to marriage in 1970s: feminists = patriarchal marriage has been replaced by a more compassionate and egalitarian form of marriage
• changes in significance: nowadays regarded as the primary rite of passage and requires great emotional commitment. Therefore may appear to be in decline because people are willing to wait
• changes in the cost of marriage: marriage is expensive
• NR has exaggerated (e.g. married couples are still the main type of partnership for men and women in the UK) |
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Term
ARRANGED MARRIAGES
Epstein (2011) |
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Definition
• arranged marriages tend to get stronger as time goes on
• generally more successful because they carefully check for compatibility in terms of beliefs, values and goals
• extended kin are also well placed to advise and guide
• love marriages therefore blinded by passion and lust, whereas arranged marriages are better thought/carried out |
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Term
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Definition
Forced Marriage Unit (FMU): estimates that there are 8000 forced marriages a year in the UK
Difficult to assess real degree of the problem: victims reluctant to come forward (not wanting to bring shame upon themselves for something considered family duty etc) |
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Term
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Responses |
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Definition
• Same-sex marriage legalised in 2014
*Those in favour of the Act: before, thought that gay couples didn't have same marriage rights as heterosexual couples
- argued that it's not right that a couple that loves each other and want to marry should be denied the right
* Those against the Act: New Right, Morgan - rejects Christian values, general moral decline. Undermines moral authority of religious institutions, nuclear family and stigmatises those opposed as narrow-minded, prejudiced bigots |
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Term
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Definition
• 2012: nearly 6 million people cohabiting in the UK (ONS Statistics)
- number of people cohabiting has doubled since 1996 |
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Term
| REASONS FOR THE INCREASE IN COHABITATION |
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Definition
• rates reflect the decline in stigmas attached to sex outside marriage (British Social Attitudes,2000: 62% agreed that 'premarital sex isn't wrong at all')
• young are more likely to accept cohabitation (Social Trends 34,2004: 88% of 18-24 yr olds accept it)
• increased career opps for women = less likely to marry so freer to opt for cohabitation
• secularisation |
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Term
| CHILDBEARING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE |
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Definition
Over 4 in every 10 children now born outside marriage - 5x more than in 1971. In most cases, the parents are cohabiting.
Women remaining childless: predicted that 1/4 of those born in 1973 will be childless at 45
Women have children later in life |
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Term
| NEW RIGHT CONCERNS AROUND RISE IN COHABITATION |
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Definition
• responsible for decline in marriage rates and the traditional nuclear family
• Morgan: cohabiting couples are less happy than married couples, more likely to be abusive/unfaithful/depressed |
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Term
| TYPES OF MARITAL BREAKDOWN |
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Definition
Divorce - the legal ending of a marriage
Separation - where couples agree to live apart after the breakdown of a marriage
Empty-shell marriages - husband and wife stay together in name only |
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Term
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Definition
Before Divorce Reform Act - one partner had to prove the 'fault' of the other (matrimonial 'offences' such as adultery, desertion and cruelty)
Divorce Reform Act 1969 = added a new rule - divorce can be granted on grounds of irretrievable breakdown once the couple have completed legal formality of 2 yrs separation (5 yrs if one spouse objects)
Since 1984: couples have been able to petition for divorce after 1 year of marriage |
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Term
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Definition
Increase in divorce-
1938: 6000 divorces in UK
1993: 165,000 divorces in UK!
1994-2012: general trend in divorce has been downwards
(Just under 120,000 in 2012)
ONS (2012): - the younger a couple are when they marry, the more likely they will divorce
- 'silver splitters' - risen by 45% since 2002 |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR THE INCREASE IN DIVORCE
1. Changes in the law |
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Definition
• equalising the grounds for divorce between the sexes (1923)
• widening the grounds for divorce (1969)
• making divorce cheaper (legal aid for divorce in 1949) |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR THE INCREASE IN DIVORCE
2. Declining stigma and changing attitudes |
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Definition
In the past: churches used to condemn divorce and often refused to conduct marriage services involving divorcees
Now: divorce becoming more socially acceptable and see more as a misfortune than shameful |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR THE INCREASE IN DIVORCE
3. Secularisation |
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Definition
Traditional opposition of the churches to divorce carries less weight in society and people are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions
(2001 Census: 43% of young people with no religion were cohabiting) |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR THE INCREASE IN DIVORCE
4. Rising expectations of marriage |
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Definition
| Nowadays: ideology of romantic love - every marriage should be solely based on love and if love dies there is no longer justification to remain married (Crow,2001) |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR THE INCREASE IN DIVORCE
5. Changes in the position of women |
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Definition
• women more likely to be in paid work
WOMEN LESS FINANCIALLY DEPENDENT ON MEN
(Proportion of women working = 70% in 2005)
• laws helping gender equality in work such as equal pay act
• girls' greater success in education
• availability of welfare benefits |
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Term
| MEANING OF HIGH DIVORCE RATES |
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Definition
New Right: undermines nuclear family
(Divorce creates underclass of welfare dependent female lone-parents and leaves boys w/out male role model)
Feminists: women breaking free from patriarchal nuclear family oppression
Postmodernists: giving individuals freedom to choose, cause of greater family diversity
Functionalists: doesn't mean that marriage as social institution is under threat, just result of people's higher expectations of marriage today
Interactionists: Morgan (1996): we cannot generalise meaning of divorce because every individuals interpretation is different |
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Term
| LONE-PARENT FAMILY TRENDS |
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Definition
1961: only 2% UK households were one-parent
ONS 2012: 2 million (approx 1/4 of all families in the UK) |
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Term
| NEW RIGHT AND LONE-PARENT FAMILIES |
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Definition
Lone-parent families = 'broken/fractured' family type
- caused by adults who put their own selfish needs before those of those children, also benefit system
• particularly critical of female lone-parents: lack of firm father figure |
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Term
| CRITIQUE OF THE NEW RIGHT STANCE ON LONE-PARENT FAMILIES |
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Definition
• Mooney et al (2009): parental conflict of more important than parental separation as an influence in producing negative outcomes in children
• Ford and Millar (1998): 'perverse incentive' argument flawed- many experience poverty, debt and material hardship despite receiving state benefits
• feminists: lone-parent families unfairly discriminated against because of familial ideology
• NR ignores possibility that single parenthood may be preferable to the DV that is inflicted by some husbands on their wives and children |
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Term
| RECONSTITUTED FAMILIES STATISTICS |
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Definition
86% of stepfamilies, at least one child is from the woman's previous relationship
(11% for man)
Ferri and Smith (1998): stepfamilies are at greater risk of poverty |
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Term
| REASONS FOR THE PATTERNS IN RECONSTITUTED FAMILIES |
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Definition
• factors such as divorce and separation are responsible for the creation of stepfamilies
• more children in stepfamilies are from the woman's side because when marriages/cohabitation a break up, children more likely to stay with mother
• stepparents at greater risk of poverty because there are often more children (stepfather may also have to support children from previous relationship) |
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Term
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Definition
2013: 13% of the UK population lived alone (nearly 4x higher than it was 40 years ago)
2011: 16% of whites living alone compared with 7% British Indians |
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Term
| SOCIOLOGY OF THE PERSONAL LIFE GENERAL VIEWS |
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Definition
• links interactionism with post-modernism
• "bottom-up"
• "verstehen" - German for understanding -> meanings |
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Term
| 2 CRITICISMS THE PERSONAL LIFE SOCIOLOGISTS MAKE: |
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Definition
• the 3 structural perspectives make certain assumption:
- that the traditional nuclear family is the most dominant type (actually just 26% of all families at any one time)
THEREFORE IGNORE FAMILY DIVERSITY (e.g. Reconstituted)
• disputes the determinism associated with structural theories, arguing that the approaches tend to make us 'passive puppets' |
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Term
| KEY THEORIST FOR PERSONAL LIFE: SMART (2007) |
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Definition
• blood is NOT thicker than water
• prefers term 'personal life' instead of family - more neutral and flexible, avoids ideas of a so-called 'ideal' family model
- post-divorce relationships
- same-sex
- families created by New Reproductive Technologies (e.g. Donor conceived)
- friends
- deceased relatives/loved ones
- pets
- LATs
- social networking websites
- fictive kin
- lone-parent households |
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Term
| KEY THEORIST FOR PERSONAL LIFE: HAREVEN (2000) |
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Definition
Life-course might affect the structure and dynamics of family life in a number of ways
(E.g. Child might experience a settled nuclear family from childhood to adolescence but a lone-parent family after because his parents might separate and divorce) |
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Term
| KEY THEORISTS FOR PERSONAL LIFE: PAHL AND SPENCER (2001) |
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Definition
The concept of 'family' is no longer useful to describe personal relationships in the 21st century
-> 'personal communities' - made up of a combo of those relatives and fictive kin such as friends |
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Term
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN BRITISH FAMILY LIFE
Pakistani and Bangladeshi |
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Definition
• nuclear families
• little divorce and intermarriage w/other religions or culture
• women marry at a younger than white women
• more likely to encourage segregation between males and females
• respect religious and cultural traditions (e.g. Respect for elderly)
• sense of duty and obligation to assist extended kin economically and socially |
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Term
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN BRITISH FAMILY LIFE
East African Asians |
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Definition
• multi-generational families (extended)
• little divorce and intermarriage w/other religions or cultures
• respect religious and cultural traditions (e.g. Respect the elderly)
• sense of duty and obligation to assist extended kin socially and economically |
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Term
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN BRITISH FAMILY LIFE
African Caribbean |
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Definition
• 39% of British-born are in a formal marriage
• higher proportion of lone-parent families than white community
(Inc. trend of mothers choosing to live independently from father)
• more mothers remain single (66%) than whites
• women more likely to be employed than men. Men potential financial burden and unreliable source of income
• single mothers often supported by an extended kinship network when raising children. Extends to fictive kin also
• more likely to intermarry w/members of another ethnic group, especially white people |
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