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. A combination of society’s exposure to the divorce cases of famous couples in the media and in everyday lives has lead to divorce becoming normalised, when in the past it would have been seen as shameful. This factor influences the change in the divorce rate because as its social disapproval lessens and divorce becomes more socially acceptable, couples become more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving marital problems. A reason for wide society’s change of attitude towards divorce could be due to a decline in the influence of religion; which had once instilled a greater sense morality, shared norms and shared values into British society. The 2001 census shows that 43% of young people with no religion were cohabiting.
Some sociologists suggests that this change led to more equality in modern family life. However, not everyone agrees with this conclusion. Feminists are especially cautious about drawing this conclusion because they believe that there are still inequalities of power and control which persists in modern family relationships. In Talcott Parsons' 1955 functionalist model of the family, he suggests that in the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives were naturally segregated(separate and distinct from one another). Women are naturally more suited to take on the expressive role which involves socialisation of the children and meet the family's emotional needs.
Explain and assess the diversity of family structures in contemporary society When we say family diversity we mean difference or variation within the family structure. In this essay I will think about the amount of family diversity whether it’s a lot or not much and the possible causes for it. I will look at the opposing views of family diversity from individuals such as Rapoport, Robert Chester, Judith Stacey and the New Right. The nuclear family is by no means the only way to organise living arrangements. With an increased divorce rate, 1 in 3 marriages now ending in divorce, there is the creation of single parent families and reconstituted families.
In western cultures divorce is more common and it’s acceptable for people to get married multiple times. However in non-western cultures divorce is frowned upon and is therefore much less common, which makes it appear that arranged marriages are better for long term relationships. A research study which involved using a questionnaire on people from different cultures to determine whether they felt happy in their relationship or not was performed. Using questionnaires is a cheap and easy way of gathering information for lots of people, however as western questionnaires were used we cannot be sure if the results for the non-western cultures are due to how those people actually felt or if its due to how the question can be answered as its culture bias. Also the participants could show social desirability if they are aware of what the investigators are looking for.
These four functions are re-production, sex, economic needs and primary socialisation. He believes that these functions are only able to be carried out in a nuclear family. However, other sociologists say that these needs can be met in other ways outside of the family, for example, the Kibbutz in Israel provides primary socialisation and economic needs. Re-production can be met using sperm doners and the sexual needs can be met through various different ways. Marxists and Feminists argue Murdoch's theory by saying that it ignores conflict and exploitation within society.
New Right thinkers have seen the trends as a sign of the breakdown of the family and have argued for a return to ‘traditional values’. They suggest that because of the easy availability of divorce, people are no longer as committed to the family as they were in the past. In the last 40 years there were a number of marriage laws that made divorce alot easier, particularly in 1971 The Divorce Law Reform Act which meant that the spouse no longer had to prove that their partner was guilty of a matrimonial offence. This was followed up by the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act which insured a newlywed couple could get divorced after only one year of marriage. Both these together made for a good basis for divorce.
most Asian families in Britain are nuclear, however the extended family still plays a big role in the culture and remains a source of support and identity. The proportion of lone-parent families is also another thing which can create a different family type, a statistic states that 22% of lone parent families are white. Attitudes towards marriage can also create family structure diversity, for example, in Islam marriage is seen as compulsory and therefore a majority of muslims will get married. However, individuals with a different belief such as atheists may not look at marriage as being as important and therefore will not marry. 4.
Sociological Explanations of the Nature and Extent of Family Diversity Today In our modern society, there are different types of families including, but not limited to, the nuclear family, single parent family and divorce-extended family. This has caused sociologists to argue about whether this is a bad thing for society. Functionalists and the New Right argue that without pre-set roles in families, for example the male breadwinner and female homemaker, society would fall apart. These groups argue that the family that best serves society is the nuclear family consisting of a father, mother and dependent children. Opposed to this, feminists and postmodernists argue that the shift from the traditional family to the family today is a good thing because it provides individuals more choice and allows them to pursue their own wants and needs.
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.
This suggests that women who are single parents but are married and want a divorce are dependent to the state because the state pays single parents more money. Another reason for changes in the divorce rate is secularisation. People are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings in relation to divorce and love. In the UK, there is currently no leading religion in the UK and therefore the UK is a secular country. One other reason for changes in the divorce rate is increased life expectancy.