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Sociology - Family > Family Diversity > Flashcards

Family Diversity Flashcards

1
Q

What do the New Right argue about family diversity?

A
  • Any other type than the TNF is dysfunctional and abnormal.
  • TNF is in decline and this should cause a moral panic.
  • The welfare state gives incentives for the underclass not to work.
  • Family diversity such as gay families, lone parent families and cohabiting families have an impact on the children negatively.
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2
Q

What are the post-modern perspectives of family diversity?

A
  • The individuals control society and this leads to increasing family diversity due to choice.
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3
Q

What are possible criticisms of the individualisation thesis?

A
  • Exaggerates how much choice people have about family type today.
  • Budgeon (2011) notes that this reflects neoliberal ideology that individuals today have complete freedom of choice. In reality however traditional norms that limit peoples relationship choices are not weakened as much as the thesis claims.
  • The thesis wrongly sees people as ‘free-floating’ individuals.
  • It ignores the fact that our decisions and choices about personal relationships are made within social context.
  • Ignores the importance of structural factors such as social class inequalities and patriarchal gender norms in limiting and shaping our relationship choices.
  • Not everyone has the same ability as privileged groups to exercise choice about relationships.
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4
Q

What does the connectedness thesis do?

A
  • Emphasise the role of class and gender structures.

Examples:

  • After a divorce, gender norms generally dictate that women should have custody of the children which may limit their opportunity to form new relationships.
  • Men are free to form new relationships and new families after divorce.
  • Men are generally better paid than women and this gives them greater freedom and choice in relationships.
  • The relative powerlessness of women and children compared with men means that many lack the freedom to choose and so remain trapped in abusive relationships.
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5
Q

Why is divorce a cause of family diversity?

A
  • Because it creates an increase in reconstituted families or lone parent families.
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6
Q

What is the definition of divorce?

A
  • The legal termination of a marriage
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7
Q

What is an empty shell marriage?

A
  • Where the couple continue to cohabit but that their marriage only exists in name.
  • For example the couple may only choose to stay together for sake of the children.
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8
Q

What are some statics/patterns and trends for divorce?

Give at least two examples

A

At least two examples from the following:

  • Since the 1960s there has been a rapid increase in divorce.
  • Between 1961 and 1968 divorce rates doubled and then doubled again in 1972.
  • The upward trend peaked in 1993.
  • 40% of relationships end in divorce.
  • 7/10 petitions for divorce come from women.
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9
Q

Under what cucumstances are couples at a greater risk of divorce?

A

If they have:

  • Married young
  • Had children before getting married
  • Been married before
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10
Q

What are the causes for an increase in divorce?

A

1) Changes in the law
2) Declining stigma and changing attitudes
3) Secularisation
4) Rising expectations of marriage
5) Stress caused by an isolated TNF
6) Changes in the position of women

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11
Q

What changes in the law have taken place to make divorce easier?

A
  • Equalising the legal reasons for divorce between men and women.
  • Widening grounds for divorce
  • Making divorce cheaper
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12
Q

What other ways (other than divorce) can couples deal with an unhappy marriage?

A
  • Desertation

- Legal separation

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13
Q

What is the definition for desertation?

A
  • Where one person leaves the other but the couple remained married.
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14
Q

What is the definition for legal separation?

A
  • Where the court separates the financial and legal affairs of a couple but they remain married and are not free to remarry.
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15
Q

What are some patterns and trends in laws surrounding divorce?
Give two examples

A
  • The grounds for divorce have now widened and in 1996 there was no longer a need to show one partner was at fault. Instead the coupled with divorce on the grounds of ‘irretrievable breakdown’.
  • In 2002 it became necessary for spouses to pay a fixed proportion of their income to childcare costs even if they didn’t have custody.
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16
Q

What are possible evaluation points for changes in the law?

A
  • Changes in the law give people the freedom to divorce but that this does explain why people choose to divorce.
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17
Q

Previously, how was divorce stigmatised? (Example)

A
  • Churches tended to disapprove of divorce and often refused to conduct marriages involving divorcees
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18
Q

How has the decline in the stigma of divorce helped couples to solve their marriage problems?

A
  • Couples are now more willing to divorce.
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19
Q

Why is divorced now less stigmatised?

A

It has become normalised

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20
Q

How is divorce seen today?

A

More to be as a result of misfortune, than something to be ashamed of.

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21
Q

Do children with a divorced parents have a higher risk of getting divorced?

A

Yes

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22
Q

What does secularisation refer to?

A
  • The influence of religion in society.
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23
Q

What does secularisation cause?

A
  • Church attendance rates to decline.
  • People to be less influenced by religious teachings when making decisions about personal matters such as whether to file for divorce.
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24
Q

What has secularisation caused churches to do?

A
  • Soften their view on divorce and divorcees
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25
Q

How has the ideology of marriage changed?

A
  • People are now of the opinion that marriage should be solely based on love.
  • People now believe that everyone can find that Mrs/Mr right somewhere out there.
  • If someone’s love for someone dies out this is seen as acceptable because they can find someone else.
26
Q

What were the previous values of marriage?

A
  • That marriage was formed for economic reasons or duty and not necessarily for love.
  • By entering marriage with less or no expectations for romance people are less likely to be dissatisfied with the absence of intimacy.
27
Q

How have changes in the position of women impacted on divorce? Give at least three examples.

A
  • Women have improved economic positions and therefore less dependent on men meaning their free to leave an unhappy marriage.
  • Benefits are more easily accessible should women need them making them less financially dependent on men.
  • Today women are much more likely to be in paid employment.
  • Although women generally are paid less than men, equal pay and anti-discrimination laws have helped to narrow the pay gap.
  • Girls greater educational success now helps them achieve better paid jobs and previous generations.
28
Q

What would feminists argue about the changes in the position of women and the impacts on divorce?

A
  • Women have become more equal to men in the employment, education and politics.
  • However the family has been slow to change and still remains patriarchal with women burdened with a ‘triple shift’
  • At work women feel valued, but in the home male reluctance to do the housework creates stress and frustration.
29
Q

How do the New Right view divorce rates?

A
  • Feel sceptical of divorce rates are increasing.
  • The decline in the TNF creates an underclass of lone parents who are dependent on welfare.
  • Boys have no male role model making children delinquent and criminal.
30
Q

How do postmodernists view divorce rates?

A
  • They see them as a cause of greater family diversity.

- Argue it gives people the freedom to end a relationship when they feel it no longer meets their needs.

31
Q

What are the patterns and trends in marriage?

Give at least two examples

A
  • Fewer people are getting married - marriage rates are at their lowest since the 1920s.
  • People are getting married later - the average age for marriage is now 30 where is in 1981 the average age was 23 years.
  • There are more remarriages than before - where one or both partners have been married before.
  • There is a pattern of ‘serial monogamy’
  • There has been a decline in religious marriages in church.
32
Q

What are the reasons for the changing patterns in marriage?

Give at least four examples

A
  • Changes in norms and values around the idea you have to get married.
  • Secularisation
  • Decline in the stigma attached alternatives of marriage such as cohabitation, remaining single, or having children outside of marriage.
  • Changes in the position of women
  • The fear of divorce
  • The idea that people want to postpone marriage and spend longer in full time education and establish a career first.
  • Less people marry in church and church is mainly fused to marry some divorcees.
33
Q

How have changes in norms and values around marriage impacted on the changing patterns in marriage?

A
  • There is less pressure to marry and more freedom for individuals to choose the type of relationship that they want.
  • There is now a widespread belief that the quality of the couple’s relationship is more important than its legal status.
  • The norm that everyone should get married has greatly weakened.
34
Q

How has secularisation impacted on the changing patterns in marriage?

A
  • The influence of churches declines as people feel free to choose not to marry.
35
Q

How has the decline in the stigma of marriage alternatives impacted on the changing patterns in marriage?

A
  • There are less ‘shotgun weddings’ which will occur as a result of pregnancy.
36
Q

How have changes in the position of women impacted on the changing patterns in marriage?

A
  • Women are now less economically dependent on men so now have the freedom not to marry.
  • The feminist view that marriage is patriarchal may also discourage women from getting married.
37
Q

How has the fear of divorce impacted on the changing patterns in marriage?

A
  • Rising divorce rates cause some people to be put off getting married, as they see the likelihood of the marriage ending in divorce to be high.
38
Q

What is cohabitation?

A
  • Unmarried people in a sexual relationship living together.
39
Q

What is the general trend in cohabitation in the UK?

A
  • It is increasing in popularity
40
Q

What are the reasons for the increase in cohabitation?

A
  • Decline in stigma attached to birth outside of marriage
  • Career opportunities for women - free not to marry for financial reasons.
  • Secularisation - people with no religion are more likely to cohabit than marry.
41
Q

What is the relationship between cohabitation and marriage?

A
  • Unclear
  • Either a step towards marriage or a permanent alternative.
  • Cohabitation doesn’t mean the same for every couple.
42
Q

How have attitudes towards same sex relationships changed?

A
  • Less of a stigma
  • More social acceptance
  • Male homosexual acts decriminalised - 1967 - consenting adults over 21 years.
  • Opinion polls - tolerance towards homosexuality.
  • 2002 - cohabiting couples (inc same sex) given the same rights to adopt as married couples.
43
Q

What are the patterns and trends in one person households?

A
  • Increase in the number of people living alone.
  • 50% - people of pensioner age.
  • Pensioner households - doubled since 1961
  • Non-pensioner households - tripled since 1961.
  • Increase in men living alone.
44
Q

What are the reasons for the increase in one person households?

A
  • Increase in divorce - increase in the amount of men living alone - women generally have custody of the children.
45
Q

What is the statistic for children being born outside of marriage?

A

4 in 10

46
Q

In 1971, what was the common age for women to have children?

A

24 years

47
Q

In 2005, what was the common age for women to have children?

A

27.3 years

48
Q

What do the higher ages that women are choosing to become parents, show?

A
  • Women have children later.
49
Q

In 1964, on average, how many children did women have?

A

2.95 children

50
Q

In 2006, on average, how many children did women have?

A

1.84

51
Q

What has happened to the number of women who remain childless?

A
  • It has increased
52
Q

Why do parents have less children, and what does this do to them?

A
  • Women prioritise their career

- Makes them less fertile

53
Q

What percentage of all family types do lone parent families make up?

A

24%

54
Q

What percentage of lone parent families are headed by women?

A

90%

55
Q

How many children are in lone parent families?

A

1 in 4

56
Q

Who were the largest group of lone mothers until the 1990s?

A
  • Divorced women
57
Q

Who were the largest group of lone mothers after the 1990s?

A

Single women who have never married

58
Q

What are the reasons for an increase in lone parent families?

A
  • Increase in divorce

- Decrease in stigma attached to birth outside of marriage.

59
Q

Why are 90% of lone parent families headed by women?

A

Patriarchal norms and values promote femininity - courts are bias and men are less willing to give up work to care for the children.
Many women are single by choice - they do not wish to marry or cohabit.

60
Q

What are the criticisms of New Right ideas?

A
  • Benefits are low - do not cause a deviant and criminal culture.
  • Lack of affordable child care - lone parents find it harder to be able to work.
  • Other reasons why people are lone parents
61
Q

What percentage of all family types are reconstituted?

A

10%

62
Q

What are the reasons for the increase in reconstituted families?
Give at least two examples

A
  • Increase in divorce
  • Greater risk of poverty - father figure has to support children from his current and previous relationships.
  • Tension - may be the result of a lack of clear social norms about how individuals should behave in these types of families.

Sociology - Family (14 decks)

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