This emphasized the idea of a matrimonial offence, and avoided the need for a guilty party. It also defined divorce as the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. In 1971, William J. Goode said that ‘the family carries a heavier emotional burden so the unit is relatively fragile.’ I think that Goode was trying to say that the increase in divorce, and the change in family size, is due to that fact that the family accepts more different things than they did previously, therefore with the pressure on it, the family is more likely to breakdown and decreasing the size of the
With Reference to Item A assess the view that the nuclear family remains the norm and the ideal (24 marks) Item A; In recent years, sociologists have drawn attention to the growth of family and household diversity in Britain and elsewhere, arguing that we have moved away from the previous norm od a conventional nuclear family composed of a heterosexual married couple and their children, with a gender division of labour. They point, for example, to the fact about one household in 10 is now headed by a lone parent as evidence of the declining popularity of the conventional nuclear family. However some sociologists argue that despite recent changes, the conventional nuclear family remains the norm in Britain today. Writing in 1985, Chester claimed that the basic patterns of family life had remained largely unchanged for most people since the 1940’s. He argued that most adults still marry and have children.
Another sociologist, Michael Anderson found evidence that extended families developed more during industrialisation because while parents were away at work, grandparents or uncles and aunts were there to look after the children so in return the extended kin get looked after too. Peter Laslett, an English historian disagreed and found that after industrialisation, nuclear families was more dominated than the extended family and single parent families became popular
From here in 1984 the law allowed couples to petition for a divorce after one year of marriage instead of three, meaning that couples no longer had to endure an empty shell marriage over a long period of time. These main laws made it easier for couples to divorce so nothing was holding them back from divorcing making it less lengthy to divorce a partner because of the new laws removing some lengthy processes e.g. proving fault. Another reason for high divorce rates in the contemporary UK is family changes. Functionalists like Fletcher believed that divorce was rising because people were raising their expectations in marriage, this suggests that higher divorce rates means higher value of marriage.
It was assumed that the nuclear families members should be biologically related and it should be based upon heterosexual love and marriage. Additionally there should be a sexual division of labour based on natural differences. This implies Parson’s expressive role, (a functionalist perspective) that women should be primarily responsible for childcare and domestic responsibilities within the home. It also implies whilst women take upon this role, men take upon Parson’s instrumental role to be the breadwinner (the economic function) and head of home. The nuclear family is presented as being the most acceptable way of being and it is the nuclear family that has been prevalent in the mass media.
* Laws such as Child support agency, reinforce nuclear families; men paying for child. * No stigma attached to women divorcing, hence more women likely to get divorced, and marry again, producing reconstituted families. * Secularisation (Stacey); people less likely to get married. 3. Examine the reasons for changes in birth rates and family size since 1900.
There are many types of family nowadays due to the evolving modern times and the increased social acceptance of society allows for greater diversity of family types and lifestyles. The New Right hold the view that there is only one correct or normal family type. This is the traditional or conventional patriarchal nuclear family consisting of a married couple and their dependent children, with a clear-cut division of labour between the breadwinner-husband and homemaker-wife. This is the same as the functionalist distinction between the ‘instrumental’ and ‘expressive’ roles performed by husband and wife respectively. The New Right argue that the decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity are the cause of many social problems, such as higher crime rates and educational failure.
One of the many factors which contribute to the changes in the divorce rate is adjustments made to the law. Amendments such as the 1969 divorce law reform act; which made the reasoning of ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’, a sole ground for divorce; whilst gradually leading to the instalment of the 1984 minimum divorce petition being reduced from three years to just one year. The modification of the law influences the change in the divorce rate because it gives unhappily married spouses the freedom to divorce more easily. However, the pervious factor does not explain why a large proportion of people chose to take advantage of this freedom. So an arguably more important reason as to why there has been a change in the divorce rate would be due to the declining stigma which society attaches to divorce.
For example someone who lived in Niger might have four children and three of them might die but if they moved to the UK they will have the privilege of better health care, so are likely to have more children where the likeliness of them dying is dramatically reduced. The DTM does not take account of the factors such as famine, natural disasters and war…although it is affected by all of them. The two former factors are likely to reduce the working population; and war is most likely to reduce the working population. DTM assumes all countries will go through the stages in
Instead of marriage and a family more people opted for an education and career. People staying single longer lead to cohabitation outside of the marriage, and in the end more children born out of wedlock than ever before. (Cherlin 529) With this even though more woman were having more children out of wedlock birth rates in general sank to an all-time low. (Cherlin 529) In all people were more interested in there wants and needs instead of just sacrificing they wants and needs for their spouses. Also the “roles” each partner carried was negotiable, it was no longer the set norm for the husband to work and the wife be home barefoot and pregnant.