Since then, numbers have fallen slightly, but where still pretty high at 157,000 in 2001 – about six times higher than in 1961. This rate means that about 40%of all marriages will end in divorce. About 7 out of 10 petitions for divorce come from woman. This is overwhelmingly high in contrast to the situation in the past. For example, in 1946, only 37% of petitions came from woman – barely half todays figure.
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.
The main type of marriage in Britain is Monogamy because it is not needed to be a part of any religion. Polygyny and Polyandry are similar to each other and less common because they are associated with a specific religion. Statistically, first time marriages are decreasing and re-marriages are steadily increasing. The marriage rate in the UK has declined from 7.1 marriages per 1000 people in 1981, to 5.2 marriages per 1000 people in 2005. These statistics show that marriage remains popular despite the reduction in the number of marriages.
Since the 1970s society has seen a dramatic increase in divorce rates, growing cohabitation and changes in patterns of marriage. This could be because of changes in the law making divorce cheaper and easier to get, changes in society making cohabitation, marrying at a later age or not marrying at all and divorcing less stigmatised. People are deciding to not marry at all and those who do marry are putting it off until a later age. Studies show that men and women on average are marrying 7 years later than what they used to, making the norm to marry at 30 for women and 32 for men. Reaons for this as some functionalists point out are the reduced functions of the family.
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
Item A states that only half as many people are getting married today. There are many reasons why marriage rates have decreased over the years. Religious significance has dropped dramatically in many western countries including the U.K. Many people no longer feel that marriage is essential. As less people are religious, they are more likely to cohabit or divorce without fear of ‘living a sin’.
There have been many changes in the death and birth rate for many different reasons which have caused these rates to both increase and decrease throughout the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. In general the trend for birth rates since 1900 is that it has dropped from around 1.1 million to about 0.7 million in 2001. Deaths have generally stayed the same at around 0.6 million wavering back and forth. Fertility rates have also changed from 115 live births per 1000 women aged between 15 and 44 in 1900 to only 54.5 in 2001. Life expectancy in 1900 was only around 47 for men and 50 for women whereas it now in 2013 83 for men and 87 for women.
Examine the reasons for changes in divorce rate since 1969 Between 1961 and 1969 the number of divorces had doubled and then by 1972 it had doubled again. And by 1993 there had been about 180,000 divorces but since then it has dropped, in 2001 there were about 157,000 divorces however that is still about sic times higher than what it was in 1961! This rate means that about 40% of marriages will end in divorce. There are many reasons to why there has been a change of number of divorce. For example before it was very tradition for a woman to get married and be a stay at home wife looking after the children and depend on the man to be the breadwinner and support his family however, because there has been a change in the role of the woman the woman does not to fall back on the man anymore.
A reason in particular that nuclear families are no longer the norm is that, divorce rate has increased. Research shows that now 40% of marriages now end in divorce. This leads to lone-parent families and re-constituted families. However, a sociologist may also argue that nuclear families are still by far the most common type of family in Britain and therefore are the ‘norm’. Secondly, feminism is another reason that some people believe that nuclear families are no longer the norm.
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. This increase in divorce is due to many factors, one of which is the changes in legislation over the past 100 years. Since 1912 (100 years ago) there has been 5 changes in legislation, these were in 1949, 1950, 1971, 1984 and 1996. The change that caused the greatest increase in divorce was the Divorce Reform Act in 1971. This emphasized the idea of a matrimonial offence, and avoided the need for a guilty party.