Why Marriage is Declining and Divorce is Increasing

In recent years, marriage had been declining and divorce increasing for various reasons. This report will investigate the sociological perspectives and reasons for why marriage is declining and divorce is increasing.

Economic factors, such as the cost of living and cost of weddings can affect a couples choice to get married. Increasing property prices in recent years may be one of the factors why couples choose to get married later in life. The average deposit on a first-time home is now over £30 000, with the average cost of a wedding being around £18 000. For this reason, couples are choosing to either getting married later when they are financially stable adults, or not to get married (and live together) at all. 

Liberal feminists view on changing gender roles is another reason for the decline in marriage. Women nowadays are very much career orientated, and with more that half of the workforce being female, it means that women no longer fell the need to get married to achieve a state of financial security. In fact, according to the theory of the genderquake, the opposite is happening – now that most jobs are in the service sector, economic power is shifting to women meaning that marriage seems like a poor option for women in a female economy. 

New Right Sociologists believe that part of the reason for the decline in marriage is due to people’s changing views on diversity and inclusiveness and their inability to commit to one another. This means that couples often don’t stay together long enough to get married as they keep jumping from partner to partner. 

Postmodernists explain the decline in marriage as a result of a consumer-based society inspired by our individual choice and own freewill. We are so used to being consumers and picking and choosing that marriage has just become a product of individual choice. Another process that postmodernists talk on is secularisation- the decline in religion (and tradition). As a result…