Also, some adults do not end up getting married, almost 19 million Americans (Benokraitis, n.d., 3). Furthermore, children under the age of 18 living with two married parents went from 77 percent to 67 percent (Benokraitis, n.d, 3). That finding shows the increase of divorce among Americans. The article, “The Changing Landscape of Family”, states that women are spending less time with their children than before and there is a decrease in the number of children per family. This is partially because women have started to go back to work and the economy in the present day is not very stable so supporting a bigger family is not easily done.
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
Children are now living with one parents (a lone parent family), with another family member or are being adopted. Divorce was extremely hard to come across in the past, it was very sociallly unacceptable, and took around three years before the divorce was filed. However in the more recent years there have been laws passing in order to allow divoce to be easier and cheaper for families. In 1969 there was the introcution of the 'Divorce Reform Act', making it easier for married couples to get a divorce. 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.
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. This is part of the high expectations people now expect from relationships. Young people may have experienced divorce or bad relationships in their life, so they do not want to fall into it themselves, making them wary of marriage. Sue Sharpe's study in the early 1970s showed that young girl's main concerns were 'love, marriage, husbands, children, jobs' in that order. When she then returned in the 90s she found that the list had flipped, with jobs and careers being in first place.
This means women now have the choice whether to have a family or have a career. This have resulted in women having their first child at a later age as they have chose to focus on their career. The age that women now have their first child has gone up from 24 to 27.3 since the beginning of the 20th century. Laws such as compulsory schooling and the child labour introduced in the 20th century has now introduced the idea that children are no longer an asset to their families but an economic liability. This means children are now expensive to have and people do not have the money to have as many children as they used too.
With a mother who chooses to spend much of her time outside the confines of a family home for whatever reason you can expect to see many changes. Another reason mothers have become less dependent on their husbands is because the divorce rate has more than doubled in the last 60 years. It is still agreed that a happy marriage is something to strive for and it is all around better for the family, though the divorce rate is almost at its peek. The woman’s job in the 50’s was to make the family happy and to steer it away from divorce at all possible, and since the woman’s role has changed so has the rate of divorce. Adultery, abuse, and unhappiness are not any less common now than it was 60 years ago, but it is now less tolerated.
They are also not having babies or having them later so that they can pursue single lifestyle which means that by the time they have done this they have less time to have babies which means if they do decide to have children they will have less due to the time they have spent being single. A lot of women now have become a lot more independent and are concentrating on their career. Contraception has also improved a lot since the 1900’s this now means that women can choose whether they want to have children or not and still have a sexual relationship whereas before if you wanted to have sex you would most probably become pregnant. In the 1900’s children were less likely to survive due to the health conditions and lack of health care, now there is the NHS free health care for people so babies have a lot more chance of surviving so mothers don’t need to have as many children because the chance of them surviving is a lot higher than it used to be. Women are choosing to have babies later which is also causing the birth rate to drop this is because there is less stigma on having babies t an older age so women are waiting and not worrying what people might think.
Some joined the Land Army and others worked in the factories producing weapons. As a result, women became more self-confident and they realized that they could be efficient and skilled workers so some social attitudes towards women changed. When, in 1945 the men returned home after the war had ended and took back their previous jobs, 75% of the women workers returned home. Most men continued their pre-war attitude that women should maintain their traditional role by staying at home and looking after the children. In 1947 when women were asked whether married women should return home, 58% said that women should return to their domestic duties.
More importantly, her ability to conceive diminishes greatly after the age of 40. The media and celebrities give the impression that fertility and the ability to conceive is an easy process for women advanced in age. That is not the case for many women, especially those over the age of 40. Often, first-time mothers have the tendency to be more self-sufficient and grounded. They have more wisdom and life experiences to share with their children.
Without a change, all women would still be living life as a housewife like Lucy from “I Love Lucy” (Lamb) Divorce rates have increased since the 1950’s and the couples are getting divorced under different circumstances. Parenting styles and household structures have also changes since the 1950’s (Elliot). During the 1950s, divorce was not widely accepted, so marriages we stronger during this time. Marriage rates in the 1950’s were at their highest in this time period compared to the years prior (Elliot). In the 1950’s, interracial marriages were not accepted or legal in some states.