Examine the reasons for change in the divorce rate since 1969. (24 marks) It has been noticed that since the late 1960’s the divorce rate has dramatically increased. For example in 1961 two couples per thousand were getting divorced however thirty years on in 1991 it increased to thirteen couples per thousand that were resulting in a divorce. In terms of sociological perspectives such as Feminism and New Rights, this change can be analysed as both good and bad social change. Many sociologists within these perspectives have given various explanations for why the rate has increased so greatly, such as: changes in legislation, declining stigma of divorce, secularisation, rising expectations of marriage and change in women’s expectations.
“Examine the reasons for changes in the divorce rate since 1969” In the past 30 or 40 years, there have been some major changes in the family and household patters. Since the 1960’s, there has been a great increase in the number of divorces in the UK. The number of divorces doubled between 1961 and 1969, and doubled again by 1972. The upward trend continued, peaking in 1993 at 189,000. Since then, numbers have fallen slightly, but where still pretty high at 157,000 in 2001 – about six times higher than in 1961.
England, Wales, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden saw higher increases in life expectancy that ranged anywhere from 35.1 years to 39.9 years old in men, and 35.4 to 43.5 years old in women. Social class played a role as well. The wealthy usually lived longer than the laborers. However, Russia’s biological Old Regime prevented their life expectancy’s rise, and kept them in the lower 30’s. Throughout the eighteenth century, death rates were very high.
Identify and explain the two reasons for the increase in cohabitation in the contemporary UK Cohabitation is when a couple in a relationship live together without being married. Cohabitation first arose in the 1970’s; it has since become the norm to cohabit before marriage. There are over 2 million cohabiting couples in the UK, a quarter of couples under the age of 60 are cohabiting in addition the number of cohabiting couples in the UK is expected to double again by 2021. There are two reasons for the increase in cohabitation in the contemporary UK, these are; changes in norms and values, the other reason is due to legal and social policy changes. Norms are social rules, standards or expectations that govern the behaviour expected in particular situation for example wearing clothing in public, Values are drive norms, they are general behaviour guides and beliefs about how something should be.
There are many reasons for changes in family size over the past 100 years. Family size has been changing in all of the world’s industrial societies. One of the main reasons of changes in family size is that divorce rates have increased dramatically. This can be seen by figures showing that in 1950, there were 40,000 divorces across England and Wales and in 2005 there 153,399 across the same area. The increase in divorce has led to more reconstituted families, singlehood and single parenthood, therefore the family size has generally decreased apart from in cases where reconstituted families have been formed.
The legalisation of Civil Partnerships in 2005 is a main reason for the increase in number of same sex families in Britain. Another type of family diversity that is greatly increasing in Britain is ethnic family units. Changes in immigration laws have led to an increase in ethnic families such as south Asian families, who have contributed to an increase in the number of vertically extended families in Britain (three or more generations living in the same household). West Indian Families have also chosen to inhabit the UK in large numbers; these households in Britain tend to have a higher number of lone parent families and matriarchal households- families led by a woman. Sociologists have different approaches to family diversity and its importance.
Over the last 100 years life expectancy has increased steadily for both males and females. By the 1960’s women were living, on average, 5.8 years longer (CSO, 1996). In 1997 the life expectancy of females was 82 years and 77 years for males (Scambler, 1997). This could be due to world war one leaving a depleted male population and an increase in NHS services availability (Hart, 1989). The differences between males and females seems to be due to gender or social factors.
Explain why recently the UK is a destination of economic migrants One of the most high-profile trends of recent economic migration is the higher numbers of migrant workers from the EU joining states Immigration levels in the UK have risen significantly over the past 10 years, driven by sustained economic growth in the UK and the opening up of the labour market to the new EU addition states since 2004. Economic migrant means a person who has left his own country and seeks by lawful or unlawful means to find employment in another country. When Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004, the UK received many economic migrants. There were 500,000 workers from Eastern Europe in 2009. The pull factors included wages five times greater than they could get at home.
Why was the right to vote give to more and more people between 1867 and 1918? In 1867 Britain wasn't a very democratic country. There were many reasons for why Britain became more democratic during the 19th and early 20th centuries. With each reform the franchise was slightly increased. Looking back we can see that this was due to a lot of different pressures.
• Explain the impact of immigration on British society in the years 1951-79 The British society have transformed very much since 1945. A main cause of change has been the major growth in the population of immigration, matched by rising expectations about lifestyle, but it was the massive social, political and economic changes at home that truly transformed British society during the 1950’s to the 1970’s. The impact of finance in the 1950’s was very high as there were changes of job acceptance; there was a need for cheap labour this therefore limited racial disagreement, as jobs needed to be covered in order for the economy to be stable. Violence and tension rose because of an increase in racial tension, as black people were not always welcome