Is divorce increasing as it is more socially acceptable
I am considering if divorce is increasing due to its increased social acceptable. It the past divorce was look more harshly upon and was social undesirable, and so people would stay together in unhappy marriages just to avoid the social stigma place on divorce. Gardern (2002) says that there were just as many unhappy relationships in the past as the present however they did not end in divorce as the consequences of social stimga, alienation and dependency on their partner prevented it. Dependency was primarily an issue for women, who did not work and so were income dependent on there husbands.
Evidence is provided in support of this, as the incidence of divorce increased with the introduction of the 'no-fault divorce' laws in 1976 and the supporting parent benefit in 1973 (Gradern, 2002).
Do you think a lot of marriages can become happier if they stick it out and work together?? Or are unhappy marriges just something that is always going to occur??
Reference
Gardern, M. (2002). The unholy war on divorce. Social Alternatives, 21, 52-56.
posted by Monique @ 7:09 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
I was chatting on the phone last night with my mother and she was saying exactly this - that "young people" just aren't trying as much these days with their relationships and that its too easy for people just to walk away. Mum was a primary school teacher for 40 years, so she came into contact with many examples of children in different kinds of family situations.
This is probably not a particularly fashionable view these days.
Hi Monique, i agree about your comment on the reduced stigma of divorce in Australia. In Australia, divorce has become so normalized that people dont give it much thought. When i was living in Poland, i discovered that divorce was associated with a negative label... it wasnt socially acceptable to have a failed marriage. Consequently the divorce rate in Poland is extremely low! Is this because their marriages are better? doubtful. They have less conflict? Unlikely... so we're left to conclude that perhaps they work at it harder, and that if our society was less accepting of divorce then our divorce rate would be lower as well! I wrote more on my own blog: see http://mrsfreud.blogspot.com/
i'm not sure myself. my parents divorced quite a few years ago, but i really don't know if they could have just "kept making the effort" because i can see now they are just too different. i'm not sure if they would have got divorced if it were less socially acceptable, but i suspect they still would have. relationships do seem to be funny things (and i do not mean humourous!)
-kayeb.blogspot.com
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