CHANGES IN FAMILY AND MARRIAGE IN BRITAIN SINCE WORLD WAR 2

Presented by

Fox Lee

&

Rodger Liu

MAJOR FACTORS

• non-marriage on the increase

• formal marriage → stable cohabitation

• number of marriage fallen

• steady rate of divorce

• lone parent family

Non-marriage on the Increase

• Of women born in the early 1960s, 28 percent remained unmarried at the age of thirty-two.

• Only 7 percent of women born in the early 1940s were still unmarried by that age.

Formal Marriage

Stable Cohabitation

• women under sixty cohabiting—from 13 percent in 1986 to 25 percent in 1998 and 1999

• By the early 1990s as many as 70 percent of women cohabited prior to marriage

Number of Marriage Fallen

• first marriages

343,000 in 1971 →184,000 in 1999

• average age

22 for women & 28 for men

28 for women & 30 for men

Steady Rate of Divorce

• 145,000 divorces per year since the early 1980s, a rate of 12.9 per thousand married people

• The numbers of divorces involving children under sixteen

Peak of 176,000 in 1993 150,000 in 1999 • ¼ children under five years old

Lone Parent Family

• form about 23 percent of all families with children in Britain

• 1.7 million families with about 2.8 million children

Family & Marriage

Great changes the drop in rates of

marriage the increasing rate of

divorce cohabitation one-parent families the single patrician

Fear and resistance of marriage

• The social conception towards marriage

• The working pressure

• The fear of divorce

The social conception towards marriage

The social conception towards marriage

• youth culture :• Freedom• Independence• self-help• enjoyment • Fulfill the desire of human nature• No marriage → cohabitation• other dating way

Fear of divorce

Emotion

Money

Reason for divorceReason for divorcethe simplification to get divorced the higher expectation of marriage

extra-marital affairs

domestic violence

the simplification to get divorced the higher expectation of marriage

extra-marital affairs

domestic violence

The decrease of the production rate of children

the application of contraceptive

the rise of the married people’s education level

changes in women's social position

cohabitation

Possibility: a trial marriage

get married

cohabitation =a family form

Cause:Marriage value

application of contraceptive

social welfare system

Compare with chinaSimilarity Acceptance of cohabitationIncreasing divorce rate

Distinction.

stick to their familyCohabitation never replace marriage

Thank you !