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.
How much did social attitudes change in the years 1955-75? Between the years 1955-75 there were many changes regarding the law that seemed like it would have a positive change however did not make much of an impact on the social attitudes towards the issue. The main ones in my opinion are abortion, immigration, death penalty and homosexuality. The main change in the 60s in my opinion was the legalisation of abortion in 1967. In the view of the government this would have a good impact on society because it reduced the amount of children being put up for adoption, less people would go through back street abortion which was a very dangerous procedure and the government also believed it would reduce the amount of poverty.
Assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm. (24 marks) In this essay I will be assessing the view of different sociologists concerning the question ‘is the nuclear family no longer the norm?’, from this essay I should be able to conclude if it is in fact still the norm or not. First of all, in 1969 the Divorce Reform Act was put into place which enabled people to get a divorce easily compared to before. With this law people could simply say that the marriage wasn’t working out and straight away they could get a divorce, this had an impact on both family structure and society. After this law there was an increase in lone parent families, cohabiting and even same sex couples, this was because it started to be more socially acceptable and married couples didn’t have to be forced into a relationship if they weren’t happy.
One reason for the high divorce rate in the contemporary UK is because of the changes in the law. For example the main changes took place in 1969 where the Divorce reform act was introduced (Came into effect in 1971), this allowed couples to divorce without having to prove that their relationship has broken down e.g. by showing that they are now living apart. This made it easier for couples to divorce without feeling ashamed because the court did not require a ‘guilty’ partner to be identified. From here in 1984 the law allowed couples to petition for a divorce after one year of marriage instead of three, meaning that couples no longer had to endure an empty shell marriage over a long period of time.
Secondly, feminism is another reason that some people believe that nuclear families are no longer the norm. Within the 1940’s women were seen simple as housewives and mother, and education within their life wasn’t even thought about. Essentially they were expected to conform to the nuclear family model. Now women are just as likely to be in paid employment like men and therefore this gives them much more status and independence, which makes the nuclear family less likely. Yet others would argue that even the media still supports nuclear families and is socializing the next generation into thinking that it is right for example ‘The Simpsons’, so despite the increase in divorce and feminism the nuclear family will remain popular in British society.
In contrast, in more modern times, unwed mothers are more abundantly seen and accepted. In spite of what hardships it may bring, babies born to unwed mothers are now more often taken home to be raised by the mother and or extended family. Nevertheless, the most common reason for a mother to place her child up for adoption remains to be due to her being single. Secondly, in the 1950s society mainly concentrated on the negative views of being an unwed mother. The age of a person at the time of marriage was significantly lower than the age of today.
In 1857, the matrimonial causes act made divorce easier and cheaper but still too expensive for the lower and middle class. Also it was only possible if it could be proved in court that a matrimonial offence had occurred. In 1923, women were granted equal rights to men in divorce which meant the divorce rates were slowly increasing and so were the lone parent families as women were able to terminate unhappy marriage. The rise in divorced really took off in 1969 where the divorce law reform act came in. This was where you no longer had to prove that a matrimonial offence had been committed, just that your marriage had broken down.
One factor for the working-class under-achieving is that the working-class families are less likely to give their children toys that are educations, stimulating their thinking and reason skills. Another factor is that they are also less likely to read to their children also. These theorist believe that this effects the children’s intellectual development so when they begin, they are immediately at a disadvantage when compared with the middle-class children Secondly, another factor that is seen as responsible for the working-class to be under-achieving is known as “restricted speech code”. A sociologist called Bernstein has distinguished speech into two: “elaborated speech code” and “Restricted speech code”. The middle class are said to use the elaborated speech code , this tends to be a wide range of vocabulary and complex sentences.
Unlike cultural deprivation theorists, who blame educational failure on the inadequacy of working class subculture, many other sociologists see material deprivation as the main cause of under achievement. Poverty is closely linked to educational under-achievement for example · In 2006 only 33% of children receiving free school meals gained five or more GCSE’s at A*-C, as against 61% of pupils not receiving free school meals. · According to Jan Flaherty (2004), money problems in the family were a significant factor in younger children’s non-attendance at school. · Exclusion and truancy are more likely for children from poorer families, children excluded from school are unlikely to return to mainstream education, while a third of all persistent truants leave school with no qualifications. · Nearly 90% of ‘failing’ schools are located in deprived areas.
(“States Seeks to Block ‘No Child Left Behind’”). Even gym and recess are being reduced in schools around the United States due to teaching being pointed towards the test. This has only caused a negative effect as the number of obese children has risen. Standardized test and the NCLB Act are only harming the health of children- mentally and physically. Furthermore, United States needs to follow the following guidelines that countries more advanced in education than the United States have been following.