Divorce Flashcards
(11 cards)
How are divorce statistics presented?
- Total number of divorce petititions per year (people applying for divorce but not necessarily getting it)
- the total number of decrees granted per year (the number of divorces actually granted)
- the divorce rate (the number of divorces each year per thousand married people in the population
What are the reasons for increase in divorce rates?
- Changes in laws
- Changing roles of women
- rising expectations of marriage
- growing secularisation
- changing social attitudes
- greater availability for contraception
- increased life expectancy
- growth of privatised nuclear family
How have changes in laws led to rising divorce rates?
Changes have made divorce easier and cheaper to get and have given men and women equal rights in divorce
What are the changing roles of women affect on rising divorce rates?
Around 2/3 of requests for divorce are initiated and granted to women.
This suggests more women are unhappy with the state of their marriage and so take first steps in ending them.
This could be due to feminist arguments that womens expectations have increased in marriage and they are less likely to accept patriachal nature of marriage and family.
What are rising expectations of marriage had on the affect of divorce rates?
Parsons and Fletcher say that divorce rates have risen due to couples expecting and demanding more in their relationship today than they parents or grandparents might have settled for.
What has secularisation done to affect divorce rates?
Secularisation refers to the decline in influence of religious beliefs and so marriage has become less sacred to religion and so the rigid view of divorce as shamed upon in religion has declines and less religious ties are linked to marriage.
What does Gibson say?
Argues that secularisation has resulted in marriage becoming less sacred, spiritual union and more of a personal and practical commitment which can be abandoned if it fails.
How has greater availability for contraception affected divorce rates?
It has made it safer to have sex outside of marriage and with more than one person during marriage so it weakens traditional constraints of fidelity to one person in a marriage and expose relationships to instability.
How has increased life expectancy increased divorce rates?
As people are living for longer, it has given more of a chance for things to go wrong and for divorce to occur.
What has the decline of marriage increased?
Growth and acceptance of cohabitation
