People are also expecting more from marriage, and women especially are choosing to live alone due to feminist views. One reason for the growth in single hood could be the change in the law for divorce. In 1969 the Divorce Reform Act allowed people to divorce easier, as it meant they could put in place a no fault act. This meant that people didn't feel forced to stay in a marriage that made them unhappy. Furthermore, this would lead to a lot of people expecting more from relationships after getting divorced, as they wouldn't want to fall victim to what cause their last marriage to end again.
Change in divorce rate essay. A divorce is the legal separation of married people through the court. Divorce rate is the number of people per thousand of the married population getting divorced per year. Since the 1900s, divorce rate has been increasing for many different reasons such as secularisation, the changes in the expectations of adulthood and the changes in the laws concerning divorce, however in the last few years it’s been slowly decreasing again. One reason for changes in the divorce rate is the change in how divorce is perceived by society.
On the one hand, it can be said that legal changes are the main reason for the increase in divorce over the last forty years due to acts brought into force, such as the Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1984. This act allowed couples to divorce at least one year after marriage, instead of three years, which is what the law enforced before. This meant that people were divorcing sooner and therefore less issues within marriages were being resolved and more marriages were being ended. This is because before, when people had to wait three years before they could divorce, they would often work on the issues in those years, and sometimes move past them and fix the marriage, whereas after the act came into force they could possibly divorce as soon as an issue arose rather than having to deal with it. This is highlighted by the numbers of divorces over the past forty years – in 1974, ten years before the Matrimonial Proceedings Act, there were 113,500 divorces in England and Wales.
1) Examine the changing patterns of marriage in today's society and the sociological reasons for these changes. The patterns of marriage have drastically changed in modern society in contrast to the past with the patterns or marriage rapidly decreasing with time with only 170.800 new marriages recorded in 2005 which is less than half of the number recorded in 1970, however, in recent years the number or re-marriages has been on the increase an aspect in which functionalists would say is a good thing because it not shows that people are not turning their backs on as well as the total number of alternative living styles such as LATs (living apart together), Cohabitation and one person households. this is widely due to social changes a that have occurred over the past few recent years the decrease in marriage patterns can be linked to certain key contributing factors, factors that consist of things such as; declining stigma, secularisation, changing attitudes towards marriage, change in womens positions, fear of divorce and economic standing the aforementioned reasons all have their own contributing factors resulting in their change and ultimately leading to a declining marriage rate. the decline in stigma is related to the decline in stigma attached to alternative lifestyles to marriage much like LATs and cohabitation due to this decline in the attached stigma more people think that said alternate routes are the new way forward which is an idea most commonly found and shared by the younger generations and because of this more people are seeking these lifestyles, this is because many who believe that cohabitation and LATs are the way forward and because of this decline in the stigma attached to such alternate routes more people especially the younger generations are seeking these lifestyles. this could be down to the fact that many believe that the
Another main reason is the simple fact people are marrying later for many reasons, more because of the change in attitudes towards education and religion (seclurisation). It doesn’t help that the countrys ecnomy is in decline and the price of weddings not only was expensive enough but they are also getting dearer to match the current cost of living. From 1838 until. Nearly a quarter of children lived with only one parent (25%) last year and nine out of ten of these households were headed by
It is notivable that religioin is becoming a decline, so more people are accepting divorce as they believe religioin is less important, whereas in the past religioin was highly important and the church would not accept people to remarry. It is noticable that divorce today is viewed at as more acceptable, and in society today people don't believe in divorce as a negative thing as it is a lot more common than it was in 1969. Functionalists see divorce from a negative point of view, a functionaist would, say, blame divorce on failur of social instistutions, opposing to look into the individuals who are involved in the divorce. Functionalists believe that the couple should support traditional, historical familys (smaller divorce ratess, and that communcation, working together and equability is highly
One of these policies is the divorce act 1969; which has made it easier for couples to get divorced. Due to this, marriage has become less sacred which has made the family unit weaker. Couples may get a divorce instead of trying hard in the relationship to make it better. Another law affecting the family is the new deal 1998; which makes it easier for lone mothers to get back into paid work. This was introduced by the Labour party, who Lewis argues have taken on the idea of ‘social investment in children’ seriously and have realised family forms are changing.
For example, Bilton, Bonnett and Jones (1987) argue that increased rates of divorce do not necessarily indicate that families are now more unstable. It is possible, they claim, that there has always been a degree of marital instability. They suggest that changes in the law have been significant, because they have provided unhappily married couples with 'access to a legal solution to pre-existent marital problems' (p.301). Bilton et al. therefore believe that changes in divorce rates can be best explained in terms of changes in the legal system.
Even so, millions will remain uninsured,” (Pros and cons of Obama care June 29, 2012). Taxes will increase, so yes our health insurance coast goes down but is made up for in higher taxes. Another con is that by forcing states into federally-mandated health insurance it goes against state rights and violates federalism. Finally, not only is there fines if you don’t have health insurance but there is also the fact that “some speculate that you can be thrown in jail for failure to pay your health insurance taxes,” (Pros and cons of Obama care June 29, 2012). The evaluations of the pros and cons should be evaluated by their effectiveness.
Gender Inequality Question - Critically examine the success of recent government measures to reduce gender inequality. The Government has tried to eliminate gender inequality for a very long time, a great example of this is the Equal Pay Act, this was introduced by the Government in 1970 and came into effect in 1975, the purpose of this act is to get rid of gender inequality between men and women in terms of employment and pay conditions such as bonus payments, holidays and sick leave when they are doing the same work. There is currently a 17% gap between men and women’s pay for full time work in the UK with a woman earning on average 83p for every £1 a man earns. And for part time workers there is a 38% gap with women earning on average 62p per hour or every £1 a man earns. The equal pay act has been successful in many cases, for example when the act was first introduced it had an immediate impact.