Sociology Esaay - Cohabitation and Marriage Essay Example
Sociology essay
In the past 40 years there has been a dramatic change in the amounts of marriage and cohabitation, for example 60% of first time marriages end in divorce, which means the amount of second marriages have increased because everyone always wants someone to hold onto in life and you can never be too old to find that someone.
Firstly, when a male and female are married, there is important factors to consider. Traditionally it was important for the male to be the ‘Breadwinner’ in the family and bring in the income, and for the female to be a housewife and tend to the children’s needs as well as the household, cooking every meal and cleaning the house. It was important for the family to have a function in society. But now tradition has been pushed aside and now women have careers, Sue Sharpe discovered this change in women’s views on life when she first visited a school in 1976 to see that the girls at the school only had visioned of being a housewife in the future, she then returned to the same school in 1994 to observe that all the girls had dreamed of having careers, this shows that women now having more of a role in society could prove a struggle for men not being the leader anymore. Also in a marriage men and women moreover look for not just love, but friendship. If friendship is not found or one partner doesn’t open up to their lover, then a marriage can start to crumble. Plus divorce is also frowned upon by functionalists.
Furthermore in the past 40 years there has been an increase in cohabitation (living together but not being married). There can be many reasons for this, from economical and not being able to afford a wedding seen as the average church wedding costs £15,000 or not being ready. One of the most popular reasons is that couples want to in a sense ‘try out’ living with somebody before they spend massive amounts of money and vow to spend the rest of their lives with someone who they might not even like, this gives them a chance to
In the past 40 years there has been a dramatic change in the amounts of marriage and cohabitation, for example 60% of first time marriages end in divorce, which means the amount of second marriages have increased because everyone always wants someone to hold onto in life and you can never be too old to find that someone.
Firstly, when a male and female are married, there is important factors to consider. Traditionally it was important for the male to be the ‘Breadwinner’ in the family and bring in the income, and for the female to be a housewife and tend to the children’s needs as well as the household, cooking every meal and cleaning the house. It was important for the family to have a function in society. But now tradition has been pushed aside and now women have careers, Sue Sharpe discovered this change in women’s views on life when she first visited a school in 1976 to see that the girls at the school only had visioned of being a housewife in the future, she then returned to the same school in 1994 to observe that all the girls had dreamed of having careers, this shows that women now having more of a role in society could prove a struggle for men not being the leader anymore. Also in a marriage men and women moreover look for not just love, but friendship. If friendship is not found or one partner doesn’t open up to their lover, then a marriage can start to crumble. Plus divorce is also frowned upon by functionalists.
Furthermore in the past 40 years there has been an increase in cohabitation (living together but not being married). There can be many reasons for this, from economical and not being able to afford a wedding seen as the average church wedding costs £15,000 or not being ready. One of the most popular reasons is that couples want to in a sense ‘try out’ living with somebody before they spend massive amounts of money and vow to spend the rest of their lives with someone who they might not even like, this gives them a chance to