1. REASONS FOR INCREASING LEVELS OF DIVORCE IN BRITISH SOCIETY
Reason for divorce Brief Details
1 Changes in the Law
Book page 58
Changes in the law have made divorces easier, quicker and cheaper to obtain than in the past.Four significant changes have been:
• 1949: Legal Aid facilities became available and so divorce became a lot cheaper.
• 1969: Following the Divorce Law Reform Act (1969) an individual could file for divorce on the grounds of ‘irretrievable breakdown of
marriage’ as a result of separation, desertion, adultery or unreasonable behaviour. When this new law came into force in 1971 it virtually
doubled the number of divorces overnight.
• 1984: In 1984 the law changed so that people could file for divorce after just 1 year of marriage rather than 3.
• 2007: Appeal Court ruling: in divorce settlements the starting point is a 50-50 split of all assets.
Evaluation: legal changes have generally given people greater freedom to divorce but this doesn’t in itself explain why more people seem to be
choosing to take advantage of this freedom. To fully explain the changes in divorce rates then we need other reasons.
2 Declining Stigma and
changing attitudes
Book page 58
• The break-up of a marriage was at one time viewed with some disgust and it was seen as shameful – it carried a stigma
• Now it is accepted that if a marriage isn’t working it is better to end it and move on
• This indicates that ideas in society about what is desirable / undesirable have changed
3 Secularisation
Book page 59
• The decline in religious belief in society is known as secularisation.
• In all religions marriage is seen as something sacred to God and so divorce is discouraged
• The decline in religion has meant that fewer people are tied to marriage by their faith
• Many people get married in civil ceremonies and don’t see their vows as ‘sacred’ and so don’t believe that marriage is ‘till death do us
part’
• In the Catholic religion divorce is not allowed – people get married once in the eyes of God although people do separate. Catholicism is
declining in the UK.
4 Rising expectations
of Marriage
Book page 59
• The media tend to emphasise the importance of ‘romantic love’ – a dominant ideology that we all have a Mr or Miss Right out there
• RonFletcher (1966), a functionalist, argued that this means that many people enter marriage with unreasonably high expectations.
• As an increasing numbers of marriages do not fulfil such high expectations, more divorces occur. Expect more, get less – result: divorce.
• Moreover this is ‘advertised’ in soap operas which keep their viewers interested by detailing the breakdown in relationships, and the
tabloids delight in publicising the ending of celebrity marriages (e.g. Jordon and Peter Andre, Katie Perry and Russell Brand….)
5 Changes in the
position of women
Book page 59
• Today, more women are in paid employment (known as the feminisation of the workforce)and are therefore more economically
independent than in the past so they can end an unsatisfactory marriage.
• New laws like the Equal Pay Act (1970) and the Sex discrimination Act (1975) have helped to narrow the pay gap
• Girls are outperforming boys quite significantly in terms of academic performance
• Women are more likely than men to petition for divorce
• Allan & Crow argue that ‘marriage is less embedded within the economic system’, for example there are fewer family firms, so husbands
and wives are not so economically interdependent – each has their own separate source of income from paid work. Freed from financial
dependence conflicts between partners are more likely to end in divorce

2. 5 Changes in the
position of women
(continued)
Book page 60
• The Feminist movement hasempowered women by highlighting women's’ equal status to men – this has enabled women to become
more assertive, financially independent and confident. It has created a new source of conflict within the private sphere and personal
relationships. To feminists marriage remains patriarchal (biased towards men) illustrated by the fact that in 70% of divorces it is the
woman who has petitioned for divorce. To radical feminists like Bernard (1976) feminist ideas are challenging the whole idea of marriage.
• Hochschild (1997) argues that men’s continuing resistance to doing housework and childcare frustrates women making a marriage more
unstable. Moreover in busy families where both partners work stress levels are higher and the time to resolve problems is not
there.Sigle-Rushton (2007) in her research found that working mothers are more likely to divorce than women in relationships with a
traditional division of labour between breadwinner and female homemaker.
6 Empty shell
marriages are no
longer tolerated
• Married people have always had problems in their relationships. However the way that people have dealt with this has changed
• At one time many people stayed together even though the relationship had long since broken down
• These loveless marriages are known as EMPTY SHELL MARRIAGES
• Now people get divorced and end it
7 People are living
longer
• People are now living a great deal longer than they ever did before, death rates have fallen and the average age we live to continues to
rise (82 for men and 85 for women) – more time for more partners! More time for serial monogamy!
8 More welfare
benefits for single
parents
• One-parent families on low incomes now receive standard welfare benefits from the government
• This has meant that women and men in unhappy relationships are in a better financial position to end the relationship with a divorce
• With the availability of welfare benefits, women and children are no longer destitute as a result of divorce
• New Right sociologists wish to slash welfare benefits to single mums as a way of preserving nuclear families which they see as superior
9 People are more
individual / Lack of
social support
networks
• People are more individual now and want what they believe is right for them. That is why people increasingly want to live alone (rise of
the singleton)
• Families tend to be more isolated than they used to be. Social support networks tend to hold marriages together – Asian families are
more likely to have these support networks and as a consequence their rates of divorce are far lower.