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,
Functionalists like Fletcher believed that divorce was rising because people were raising their expectations in marriage, this suggests that higher divorce rates means higher value of marriage. Women petition for 70% of divorces this shows that the women may be increasingly likely to feel dissatisfied with marriage. The unequal distribution of tasks may be a key factor for example Delphy and Leonard suggest that the woman already performed 57 unpaid roles for their partner. This places a great deal of pressure on the wife leading them to believe that divorce is the key to lift this burden off their shoulders. Couples also had fewer children which again may mean that there is less to keep them together leading to an increase in
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.
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.
Other reasons can be things such as declining stigma and changing attitudes. It is now seen and respected by the public to divorce if want to end your marriage. Whereas before it had been looked down on and a act of shame. Now that it no longer exists people are more confident to divorce without the judgement of society. Mitchell and goody (1997) claim that important changes since the 1960's has rapidly declined stigma attached to divorce.
For example, in 1946, only 37% of petitions came from woman – barely half todays figure. The most common reason for a woman to be granted a divorce is the unreasonable behaviour of her husband. Some couples are more likely than others to divorce, those couples whose marriages are at greatest risk include those who marry young, have children before they marry or cohabit before marriage, and those where one or both partners have been married before. Divorce was very difficult to obtain in 19th-century Britain, especially for woman. Gradually, changes in the law had made divorce easier.
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.
Furthermore, some families feel that they can find someone that they trust in their own church or community. If deciding to go with a home care agency, they do all the screening and interviewing. Families have less input into the selection process and sometimes this can cause stress and frustration. Finding the right caregiver will improve your loved ones quality of life, keep them active for a longer time and keep them happy. One thing to be careful of,
Women also received greater equality as non financial contributions to the marriage were taken into account during the dissolution. The Family Law Reform Act 1995 (Cth) simplified the divorce process and thus made it more cost effective and less time consuming. However, the introduction of this act has resulted in one in two marriages breaking down today. In result, it has been seen as ineffective for making it far too easy for couples to access and apply for dissolution, leaving many children having to witness the public
Although public attitudes have become generally more accepting towards interracial dating in the more recent decade, these couples still face much concern when their families become aware of such issues. One reason for conflict may include the issue of reputation. In many families (mostly caucasian), there is a lot of worry about what others outside the family might think and how much their reputations might suffer within the community (Jones et al). Despite the fact that the younger generation of men and women are more open to the idea of interracial dating in America, the problem most commonly lies in the parents’ more reserved opinion. Many times, “the social support a person receives while in an interracial relationship can be either beneficial or detrimental” (Honeycutt et al).