families and households

Families and Households

Marriage, Divorce and Cohabitation:

Changing Patterns of Marriage

Explaining the Long Term Decrease in Marriage

• There are four main sociological explanations when explaining the long term decrease in marriage.

1. Economic factors – increasing property prices in recent years may be one factor leading to couples delaying marriage until later life. The average deposit on a first time home is now over £30,000 and with the average cost of a wedding being £18,000, it is more financially viable to buy a house first and then marry in their 30’s opposed to marring earlier and then having to rent or live with parents

2. Changing gender roles – Liberal Feminists point out that now more than half of the workforce is now female and so women no longer have to be married to be financially secure. According to the genderquake theory, economic power is shifting to women with the majority of jobs in the service sector and so marriage is a poor option for women in a female economy.

3. Moral decline – the New Right blame the decline…