The divorce rate is the number of divorces per 1000 married people per year. This number increased greatly in 1923 when 3 laws were changed. These 3 changes were:
Equalising the grounds for divorce between sexes
Widening the grounds for divorce
Making divorce cheaper
Widening the grounds for divorce in 1971 has made divorce a lot easier to obtain and produced a doubling of the divorce rate overnight.
I think that the increase in divorce rate has a lot to do with the change in law but there are many different arguments to suggest other reasons as to why there was an increase in the 1980s. These are things such as changes in social attitudes, changes in the position of women, media influence, secularization and also expectations on relationships.
Mitchel and Goody note that an important change since the 1960s has been the decline in the stigma attached to divorce; since the stigma is declining divorce becomes more socially acceptable. This allows couples to be more willing to resort to divorce as a means of solving their marital problems. Because divorce is now more common, it has become ‘normalised’ and the stigma attached has been reduced
Another large part of the increase in divorce rate is the change of women’s position. Since there have been improvements in women’s economic positions it has allowed them to become less financially dependant on their husbands and therefore easier to end an unsatisfactory marriage. The proportion of women working rose from 47% in 1959, to 70% in 2005. The pay gap between men and women has also been narrowed, girls have greater success in education and get better jobs and the availability of welfare benefits mean women don’t need to remain financially dependent on their husbands. These developments and improvement mean that women are more likely to be able to support themselves in the event of divorce.
*Secularization refers to the decline in the influence of religion in society. Sociologists argue that religious institutions and ideas are loosing their influence and society is becoming more secular. Media influence also affected the divorce rate as high profile media people influenced society to believe that divorce is more acceptable and therefore pushed them to do so. Something else that affected the rise in divorce rate is the higher expectation of society. Giddens called this ‘confluent love’, which often doesn’t last as long as marriages based on duty or tradition.
Overall, although I agree that the increase in divorce rate was due to the changes in the law, there were other factors to affect the increase, the main ones being the women’s position in society and also the stigma attached to divorce.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
According to the item the proportion of marriages ending in divorce has increased from 27,000 to almost 55,000 between 1961 and 1969. Although the changes in law might have an impact on the divorce rate of couples, I think that other factors are just as important or maybe even more important than changes to the law.…
- 429 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The Harmful Effects of Divorce are Exaggerated. Barabara Ehrenreich. Current Controversies: Marriage and Divorce.Ed. Tamara L. Roleff and Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1997.…
- 1771 Words
- 8 Pages
Good Essays -
Back in the early 1900’s divorce wasn’t looked at often. Due to religious values, cultural or even moral views, divorce was not familiar. In the late 1900’s to early 2000’s numbers of divorced women age fifteen and older went up through the years drastically until the year of 1990 when divorce rates started to decrease. According to the article by David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe, the chances of divorce may be much lower than expected. To summarize it states that with a higher income, or having a child after being married for a while, longer marriage, and religious values will decrease your chances of divorce.…
- 654 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
A big factor changing marriage rates is the changing role of women in society. Many households are now becoming more matrifocal than before. Women’s improvement in their economic position has made them less financially dependent on men and they therefore do not have a greater pressure to marry. Girls’ greater success in education has helped them achieve better-paid jobs than previous generations and the availability of welfare benefits means that they can support themselves without needing a husband to do so. Allan and Crow argue that ‘marriage is less embedded within the economic system’ now which means that the family is no longer a unit of production – proving another reason why there has been such a decrease in them. The fact that women have become so independent and less reliant on men justifies how marriage rates have decreased from 400,000 to 248,000 in the last 40 years. Marriage also now takes place between couples as an act of love rather than practicality. With changing positions of women in the last 40 years, it is not so expected for women to focus on settling down and marrying, they can allow themselves to choose other options such…
- 918 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In addition to the decline in stigma, there’s also a sharp decline in moral values. People are less aware or uncommitted to the idea what is right and wrong. Rather than marrying some people chose to be serial monogamists. This would have been promiscuous and wrong in the past, there is not as much stigma attached to it now.…
- 887 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Women are more likely than men to want a divorce, and more women are divorced than men. That is because men are more likely to remarry than women and do so at a faster rate. There has been a moderate drop in couples that have been “very happy” in their marriage in recent decades. People are more content than happy in their relationships. Since the 1970’s when the No Fault Divorce Law was put into place, there was a large spike in divorce rates because people could divorce for no reason at all, and many divorced because they were not satisfied or happy in marriage. Geographic location is a factor in divorce. For instance, the East has a far lower divorce rate than the South or West. That can be attributed for the cultural differences between the geographic areas. Popenoe and Whitehead stated there are six factors that can help lower a person’s chance at divorce, “ So if you are a reasonably well-educated person with a decent income, come from an intact family and are religious, and marry after age twenty-five without having a baby first, your chances of divorce are very low indeed,” (25). Divorce has become a common part of today’s society.…
- 735 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Firstly the most obvious reason for the upward trend in divorce is the changes in law . Law has become more lenient on this subject because in the 19th century women had to have extreme reasons to obtain a divorce and were under several observations before they were even allowed to petition and prior to 1857 could only be taken by the act of parliament .The grounds for divorce was low however as times changed as did matrimonial acts and in 1979 the government expanded the grounds of divorce by allowing the “irretrievable breakdown” a reason for divorce which then doubled the rate of divorce . Another legislation that increased the divorce rate is the equalising grounds act which was implemented in 1923 . This gave women an equal chance to petition for divorce and as soon as this legislation came to place women’s petitions boomed excessively .Also In 1985 the matrimonial and family proceedings act allowed couples to get a divorced minimum one year into there marriage rather than three therefore giving couples more leeway and allowing them to give up quicker . Cost of divorce is another factor that the government controlled to earn revenue and stop people from getting divorces however in 1949 government lowered cost of divorce and introduced the legal aid and advice act which then gave people who could not afford divorce accessible to divorce…
- 1300 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Divorce rates have increased rapidly since the 1960s from 27000 in the UK in 1961 to 167000 by 2005. There are many reasons for this increase, for example decreased stigma of divorce, secularisation, more rights for women, rising expectations, and acts put in place by the government making it easier for a couple to obtain a divorce.…
- 580 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The divorce rate in America for first marriages is 41 percent, second marriages is 60 percent, and third marriages is 73 percent. (Gozich) Leo Gozich is the president of National Association of Marriage Enhancement and has studied the topic of divorce for many years. In his article, he includes, “Over the last 27 years, since no-fault divorce legislation swept across the nation like a tidal wave, America has witnessed a 279 percent increase in the divorce rate; and the fallout for families and society has been tragic.” When contemplating divorce, these couples made life changing decisions. Divorces occur for innumerable reasons differing in each marriage circumstance. Couples often think their problems are temporary,…
- 1392 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
The idea that children of divorced parents would be the ones who would suffer, was seen as conservative thinking and many scoffed at this notion in the 1970?s. What child would want to be part of a family that constantly fought? With the accepted idea of couples counselling a few years away many saw divorce as their only option. Because of this attitude, today there are fewer and fewer people under the age of 30 who are getting married than at any other time in history. The mistakes of the past generation are well documented and most people have a rudimentary knowledge of what divorce does to people. If not from first hand experiences than from witnessing aunt 's, uncles or cousins endure though a divorce. This has made an impact on many young…
- 2370 Words
- 10 Pages
Better Essays -
As the time passed, women became a strong presence in the workforce in the United States. They no longer needed their husband to help them financially. That provided them freedom to leave the marriage they did not want to continue and still afford the life they wanted to live for themselves. In addition, divorce became more popular among people. Couples will no longer feel guilty for having a divorce. “As more couples separated, divorce became a normal part of…
- 830 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Why has divorce rates increased in the America culture? Barbara Dafoe Whitehead states that, “Americans begin to change their ideas about the individual’s obligations to family and society. Broadly described, this change was away from an ethic of obligations to others…
- 1294 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
Divorces where first made legal in 1857 although at that time they where incredible hard to get however changes in divorce laws in the late 1960s made divorces much easier and since then divorce rates have been steeply rising.…
- 1063 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Although divorce has always been a part of American culture, it has skyrocketed in the last few decades, reaching an all time high of 50% of all marriages ending in separation. Our culture has changed its view on divorce throughout the years and now accepts divorce in society. In the past, divorce was forbidden. People did not discuss the issue as openly as we do today. In the past, divorce was never shown in the media and was looked down on. Today’s culture has shaped divorce into a more positive decision and has made it relatively easy to file for a separation. With all the hype about marriage and living the American dream, I often wonder what has influenced such an increase in the divorce rate over the last…
- 1139 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
uses precisely on these broad societal changes. For example, Nicky Hart (cited in Haralambos, 1995) argues that increases in divorce and marital breakdown are the result of economic changes that have affected the family. One example of these changes is the raised material aspirations of families, which Hart suggests has put pressure on both spouses to become wage earners. Women as a result have been forced to become both homemakers and economic providers. According to Hart, the contradiction of these two roles has lead to conflict and this is the main cause of marital breakdown. It would appear that Hart's explanation cannot account for all cases of divorce - for example, marital breakdown is liable to occur in families where only the husband is working. Nevertheless, her approach, which is to relate changes in family relations to broader social forces, would seem to be more probing than one that looks only at legislative change.…
- 666 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays