The changing nature of marriage and the family

1
Sociology of Industrial Societies

• The changing nature of marriage and the family

Week 3 HT08
2
Trends in marriage and the family

• Sudden and sustained decline in the marriage rate
  since c.1970
• Rising divorce rate since 1960s
• Similarly rising rates of
• Non-marital cohabitation 13 of singles in 1986
  ? 25 by 2005
• Non-marital births 5 of births in early 1950s ?
  38 by 2000
• Single-parent families 8 of families in 1971 ?
  25 by 2000
• Comparable trends in other industrial societies

Source Social Trends 37
The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Sociological interest in marriage and the family

• Trends have raised a series of questions for
  sociologists
• Is marriage becoming an endangered institution?
• Are more people choosing to remain single rather
  than marry?
• Is non-marital cohabitation replacing formal
  marriage?
• Why are people putting off getting married?
• Why are more marriages ending in divorce?
• Does the changing nature of marriage and the
  family have harmful consequences for individuals
  and society?
• Are adults adversely affected by non-marriage
  and/or divorce?
• Does living in a non-traditional, non-nuclear
  family impact negatively on the psychological,
  social and economic well-being of children?

The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Sociological theories of marriage and the family

• Structural Functionalism (Parsons 1943 Parsons
  and Bales 1955)
• Industrialization means shift from extended to
  isolated nuclear family
• Nuclear family serves two crucial functions
• primary socialisation of children so that they
• can truly become members of society
• stabilisation of adult personalities
• Differentiated sex roles to prevent
• competition within the family
• Husband/Father Wife/Mother
• Market work Domestic work
• Instrumental leadership Affective leadership

The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Sociological theories of marriage and the family

• Marriage market theory (Becker 1973, 1974, 1985)
• People decide to marry only if doing so raises
  their utility level over what it would be if they
  remained single
• Gain to marriage is greater the more
  complementary are the inputs traditional sex
  role specialization of men in market work and
  women in domestic work
• Increases in womens wage rates relative to those
  of men would decrease the incentive to marry
  because
• Women would work and earn more, and so would be
  less economically dependent on mens market work
  contribution
• Men would derive less benefit from the domestic
  work of women as women devote more time to market
  work
• Overall household utility lower since men and
  women increasingly engaging in activities where
  they are less productive than the opposite sex

The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Marriage decline? Empirical evidence

• Little evidence to suggest declining popularity
  of marriage
• Most people still expect to marry
• Cohabitation rarely seen as a substitute for
  marriage

Source Manning et al 2007
The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Marriage decline? Empirical evidence

• Little evidence to suggest declining popularity
  of marriage
• Most people still expect to marry
• Cohabitation rarely seen as a substitute for
  marriage
• Most of the evidence points to marriage delay
  rather than decline
• Rise in age at first marriage, from 22 in 1970 to
  29 in 2005 for women
• Projections indicate that most people will
  eventually marry
• Real question is why are people postponing
  marriage?

Source Goldstein and Kenney 2001
The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Why are people postponing marriage?

• Reformulation of Becker model womens increasing
  economic independence contributes to marriage
  delay
• But marriage delay did not begin
• to really take off until long after
• womens labour market participation
• had begun to increase c. 1950
• And marriage delay since c.1970
• only really striking by contrast with
• early post-war period
• Arguably the early post-war period
• unusual for early marriage, and
• relative homogeneity of age at
• first marriage (Oppenheimer 1994)

Source National Statistical Office
The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Why are people postponing marriage?

• Consistent with Becker model, marriage delay
  greatest among women with greater human capital
• But delay due to staying on longer in education,
  not declining economic dependence
• Marriage transition rates similar if count years
  since graduation
• Proportions of college graduates and
  non-graduates married converges early on in life
  course
• And projections indicate better educated women
  more likely, not less likely, to ever marry

Source Goldstein and Kenney 2001
The changing nature of marriage and the family
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Why are people postponing marriage?

• Also consistent with Becker model, relative
  increase in womens earnings compared to earnings
  of men
• But as much a product of decreases in mens
  earnings as increases in the earnings of women
• Alternative hypothesis declining marriageability
  of men?
• Economic decline particularly pronounced among
  the least educated and most disadvantaged groups
  ? those whose marriage rates have declined most

Source Oppenheimer 1994
The changing nature of marriage and the family
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The changing nature of marriage and the family?

• Declining marriage rates across industrial
  societies in recent decades
• but largely marriage delayed rather than
  marriage foregone
• Little evidence that marriage delay is due to
  declining utility of marriage as womens wages
  and workforce participation rates increase
• Instead, delay linked mainly to extended
  educational careers, and in part to declining
  marriageability of men
• Marriage and the nuclear family more under threat
  from marital instability and divorce
• Next week
• Why are more marriages ending in divorce?
• What are the consequences of divorce for adults
  and children?

The changing nature of marriage and the family
Week 3 HT08