Assessment – assess sociological explanations of the increase in the number of divorces since the 1960’s (24 marks)

The number of divorces since the 1960’s has increased largely from around 40 thousand a year to 150 in 2005. Nowadays, 40% of marriages end in divorce. It is an important issue in society as it is common and affects many families. I am going to assess the reasons and explanations behind this increase.
Functionalists such as Ronald Fletcher and Talcott Parsons argued that the expectations of marriage have risen since the 1950’s and these changes have lead to increasingly unstable relationships. This means that people in relationships (more commonly the wives) expect more and end up in disappointment when they get married. In 1992 functionalist Anthony Giddens came up with the idea of confluent love which is when you focus on intimacy and love rather than feelings of duty and obligation. This can also lead to disappointment and lead to divorce because the pressures and duties of marriage can often cause lack of love and intimacy leading to divorce.
Feminists believe that male dominance can lead the wife to feel less superior and under a lot of pressure to fulfil the role of a stereotypical and traditional wife. Due to changes in society, it is more acceptable now for the woman to work and women and men are now supposed to be equal in society. However, society has changed but the traditional role of a wife has not leading to the woman in the marriage to do the cooking, cleaning, childcare and work a full time job which leads to the breakdown of marriage because of the resentment felt towards their husband.
Change in law has also had a large impact on the large increase in divorce. The divorce reform act of 1969 involved a major change in the grounds for divorce. Before this act, a matrimonial offence had to be proven, a guilty party had to be found. When this law was removed the amount of divorce rose because there wasn’t one of the couple who would end up losing everything due to doing wrong and now, all they had to do was prove the marriage was beyond repair and it meant they could divorce simply because they didn’t love each other anymore. The grounds on divorce have been widened and also, expenses have been reduced making it affordable to not only the rich.
The divorce reform act also made it easier to divorce because the time the couple had to be married before they could file for a divorce was shortened from 3 years to 1. This meant that instead of trying to make the marriage work (which would have been the only option if the only option was to wait 3 years for a divorce) would just get a divorce after only being together for a year.
Another reason behind divorce increase is that resent research from the United States has shown that couples are becoming more and more independent on each other for emotional support which would lead to the relationship being under a lot of strain resulting in a high chance of divorce. The research participants reported that they had fewer close relations with family, friends and colleagues meaning they rely on their partner more and more for support.
Over time since the 1960’s divorce has become more and more accepted in society. Couples are less likely to stay together purely on the fact that they would be shamed on and people are less likely to think anything of it because it’s becoming the norm. Another reason similar to this is secularisation as people are less religious now and more likely to think divorce is acceptable because they don’t have a god to put shame on them or anything.
All in all, these sociological explanations are all valid and give good reasons as to why divorce is ont he increase.