DIVORCE
- Created by: LaurenKSmith
- Created on: 13-04-16 20:29
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- DIVORCE
- Trends
- Changing Social Attitudes
- Michell and Goody (1997) - an important change since the 1960s has been rapid stigma attached to divorce
- new laws & tolerance and understanding about marital breakdown
- Secularisation
- marriage traditionally seen as a holy institution, media is now more influential than religion according to some
- Emancipation of Women
- general consenus is women lose out in marriage -give up work, lose financial independence etc.
- 70% divorces instigated by women
- women now have more rights and opportunities (feminist movement of late 1960s/early 1970s
- more women in the workforce - low skill, low paid, part time jobs due to childcare
- Cost
- changes in the law has made it cheaper and easier to get a divorce
- Higher Expectations of Marriage
- if expectations aren't met they will look for someone else
- Fletcher (1996) argues that we now place too higher expectations on our marriages - leading to divorce
- Allan and Crow (2001) state that love, satisfaction, commitment are now the cornerstones of marriage, if it isn't there you get out.
- Changes in Birth Rate
- Legal Changes
- have made divorce easier to obtain, now has changed in response to society
- Legal Changes
- Changing Social Attitudes
- Concequences of a High Divorce Rate
- need more housing
- more women looking for jobs
- more need for childcare
- re-marriages rise
- increase in welfare benefits
- increase in need for health services emotional
- increase in social problems - more likely to be involved in crime/deviant behaviour, cause emotional problems (extra NHS cost, increase in childcare
- increase in poverty due to welfare benefits, poor housing, poor environment, get stress in 'cycle of poverty'
- Divorce Legislation
- before 1867 divorce was virtually non-existent
- 1857 - men could divorce unfaithful wives but was very costly
- 1923 - grounds for divorce equalised
- 1969 - Divorce Law Reform Act - made irretrievable breakdown of marriage acceptable grounds for divorce (allowed after 2 years of separeation
- introduced legal aid - benefited women especially
- 1983 - Family Law Act - after a year
- Research
- Beck and Beck- Gernsheim (1995)
- argue rising divorce rates are the product of a rapidly changing world in which the traditional riles, rituals and traditions of love, romance and relationships no longer apply.
- Don't point out that the modern world is characterised by ...
- individualisation - under less pressure to conform to traditional collective goals set by extended family, religion/culture
- choice - cultural and economic changes mean a greater range of choices available to us in forms of lifestyle/living arrangements
- conflict - more potential for antagonism between men and women because there is no natural clash of interest between the selfishness acouraged by individualisation
- Beck and Beck- Gernsheim (1995)
- Trends
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