Since the 1960’s there has been a great increase in the number of divorces, in fact they were doubled between 1961 and 1969 and doubled again by 1972. This upward trend continues peaking in 1993 at 180,000. However in Northern Ireland it peaked in 2007 with 2,913. Over half of petitions no come from women and are granted due to “unreasonable behaviour of her husband.” First reason I will look at will be the changes in the law. In the 19th century divorce was very difficult to obtain, gradually changes in the law have made divorce “easier” There was three kinds of changes in the law; equalizing the grounds for divorce between the sexes, widening the grounds of divorce and making divorce cheaper there was a grant in 1949, legal aid.
There are many reasons for the changes in divorce rates since the 1969 such as the legal changes, the changing role and position of women, also how the expectations for marriage is different. It is shown that from 1969 until 1972, divorce rates had doubled from around 50,000 divorces in the UK. It had more than tripled to 170,000 in 2000. Despite this, divorce rates dropped in 1993 from 180,000 to 157,000 in 2001. We know that in the past divorce was very hard to get as it was only legal for the men to file a divorce and was socially unacceptable.
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 patterns of marriage, divorce and cohabitation over the past 40 years has varied quite significantly. In 1972, the highest ever number of couples (480,000) since the Second World War got married. Now, obviously there is a reason for this. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), this was due to the baby boom generation of the 1950s reaching marriageable age and these people choosing to marry at a younger age compared with previous generations. However, after this period, the number of marriages in England and Wales then went into decline.
3) Here are the differences this paper will cover; it will cover finances, feminine vs. masculine traits, and economics. Being a single mother is different from being a single father because masculinity often outweighs femininity and economics today. In the society today there is still sexism that occurs in the workplace, and often men will still obtain a higher job then women, therefore having much higher pay than women. According to Baer (2011) “The median average income for all single-mother families was just $25,172 — down by more than $2,000 since 2000. The median average income for married couples with children was three times greater and, for the relatively few single-father families, nearly one and a half times greater.
Feminists also argue that women work triple-shifts within households, leading to conflict and leading to more divorces. Seventy percent of divorces are instigated by women, perhaps a reflection of the changing position of women in society
The main and most important reason for the decrease in marriages and increase in divorces was the fact that changing attitudes towards them. People now believe that is alright to get divorce is they are not happy in their marriage and with that the stigma towards divorces (Goody)had decreased as now divorces are day to day basis like the way we see in magazines articles about celebrities getting divorce and no one is against it anymore, when as before older members of the family would make the young couple stay together doesn’t matter what as that’s how they have been told. That the same for marriage as more and more people wants to cohabitate with their partner rather than get married as women now have more opportunities to work and set own rules about their life’s that before wasn’t possible. This leads to second important reason for the changes is which is the changes in laws. since women are earning money now they can afford to make divorce petition and the divorces had become cheaper.
By middle age, more than 90 percent of adults have married at least once. Married people often describe their marital satisfaction in terms of a “U-curve.” People generally affirm that their marriages are happiest during the early years, but not as happy during the middle years. Marital satisfaction then increases in the later years after finances have stabilized and parenting responsibilities have ended. Couples who stay together until after the last child leaves home will probably remain married for at least another 20 years as long as their intent was not to wait until the last child leaves the home to divorce. Divorce Middle adults do not exhibit an immunity to problems in relationships.
“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.
One of the major reasons for this is the significant increase in divorce rates. One in three marriages end in divorce, this all then leads to the lone-parent families or re-constructed families. A big increase for divorce may be due to the fact that these days women are a lot more independent than they were for example thirty or forty years ago. Women are much more likely to go into higher education, going to university and going into the same careers that men also go into. Furthermore, concentrating on education and careers first and marriage, children and all round family life much later on in life.