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.
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.
The 2001 census shows that 43% of young people with no religion were cohabiting. The increased secularisation influences the change in the divorce rate because it makes dissatisfied couples feel more at ease to file for a divorce without having to bear the wrath of the churches opposition towards their decision. In addition to that many churches are starting to soften their attitudes towards divorce and divorcees,
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.
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.
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 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.
Secularisation means the decline of the importance/influence of religion in a society. Due to science becoming more influential in a modern society, religion is no longer seen as an important consideration that certain norms and values should alter for. As marriage is a religious concept, it might also be seen as insignificant in society and many might not perceive it as valuable or important as much as they used to. Divorce could be the result of this as the decline of the worth