Sociology - Part Of Childbearing Essay
Examine Changes in the Patterns of Childbearing and Childrearing in the UK Since The 1970’s
In the last 40 years, patterns for both childbearing, which is having children, and childrearing (which is the primary socialisation of children) have changed due to several different reasons.
Since the 1970’s less children are born outside of marriage, we know this due to statistics which show that over four out of ten children are now born outside of marriage which is five times more than in the early 1970’s. Women are also having children later on in their lives. In 1971 the average age was around 24.3 years whereas in 2005 the average had risen by quite a lot to 27.3 years. Some are even deciding to remain childless and it is also predicting that 25% of those born in 1973 will be childless by the time that they are 45 years old. They are also having less children than in the mid-1900’s. in 1964 the peak was 2.95 per woman, and decreased to a record low of 1.63 in 2001. Although it seems like it would keep decreasing, in 2006 the numbers rose slightly to 1.84.
There are various sociological reasons for these changes. One of them being that there is a rise in the number of cohabiting couples with children. Cohabitation involves an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship who live together, and the reasons for the increase in this kind of relationship is that there is less stigma related to sex outside of marriage nowadays than what there was in 1989 where only 44% of people agreed that premarital sex is not wrong at all and so because of this decline in stigma and secularisation, which is the decline of religious influence, more cohabiting couples will be having sex outside of marriage and therefore producing children. As well as this, there has been a feminisation of the workforce and due to this happening women may also feel that they no longer have as much of a need for financial security that they would get with marriage and so, decide to opt for
In the last 40 years, patterns for both childbearing, which is having children, and childrearing (which is the primary socialisation of children) have changed due to several different reasons.
Since the 1970’s less children are born outside of marriage, we know this due to statistics which show that over four out of ten children are now born outside of marriage which is five times more than in the early 1970’s. Women are also having children later on in their lives. In 1971 the average age was around 24.3 years whereas in 2005 the average had risen by quite a lot to 27.3 years. Some are even deciding to remain childless and it is also predicting that 25% of those born in 1973 will be childless by the time that they are 45 years old. They are also having less children than in the mid-1900’s. in 1964 the peak was 2.95 per woman, and decreased to a record low of 1.63 in 2001. Although it seems like it would keep decreasing, in 2006 the numbers rose slightly to 1.84.
There are various sociological reasons for these changes. One of them being that there is a rise in the number of cohabiting couples with children. Cohabitation involves an unmarried couple in a sexual relationship who live together, and the reasons for the increase in this kind of relationship is that there is less stigma related to sex outside of marriage nowadays than what there was in 1989 where only 44% of people agreed that premarital sex is not wrong at all and so because of this decline in stigma and secularisation, which is the decline of religious influence, more cohabiting couples will be having sex outside of marriage and therefore producing children. As well as this, there has been a feminisation of the workforce and due to this happening women may also feel that they no longer have as much of a need for financial security that they would get with marriage and so, decide to opt for