Other such legislation changes such as the 1949 legal aid and advice act provided support to people with a lower income and helped them get divorced. This meaning that basically everyone could get a divorce, as the upper class could afford to go through with it and anyone else with a small income would be given free legal aid and support. In 1996 it was changed so that not even a reason was needed for a divorce just consent from both adults. This will have lead to a massive increase in divorce rates. Because there was no reason needed, people may be forced into it, from fear or abuse.
Legislation changes made divorce easier for people so if there was anything wrong in their marriage then divorce wouldn’t be the last thing on their mind of a way to sort out their marriage. This shows both a negative and a positive impact that the divorce legislations have had on society. It gives people more of a chance to truly find what they want in life, but at the same time it is destroying the Nuclear Family, the structure to society, and without this we will have a society of drug abusing, vandalising, criminals, according to Murdock.
However an alternative explanation for the increase in divorce is the changed attitudes in society. We have changed our attitudes towards women, religion, and marriage. The decline in religion is due to many things, however Brian Wilson states that Religion is declining as people are becoming too self-involved and they no longer know the meaning of their own religion. Many people confuse being a Christian with just believing in God. This shows that many people do not know that being a Christian involves having a Husband/Wife and Children, which have made divorce, increase from people no longer believing in the holy union of marriage. Also divorce has become more of a common thing, thus society has become more de-sensitivised making it less frowned upon by the common man/woman.
Another reason explaining the increase in divorce is the impact of feminism. A study carried out by feminist Sue Sharpe (1972), found that girls mainly wanted marriage, but the same study was carried out in the 90’s and the results showed that women wanted a career before marriage. This shows that women would be willing to get a divorce to further themselves, and to become less dependant on men. Also in the mid 70’s the equal opportunities act and the sex discrimination act, gave women more rights and the power to ‘fight back’ against men. So women were no longer just housewives, there were equal opportunities for them to go out and get a job that pays the same as it would for a man. This shows a divorce increase as in the older days women got married, as they couldn’t afford to live by themselves, so they depended on men to support them but as this has now changed for the better most women prefer to be independent. And they are now appreciated for standing up for their own rights and beliefs.
This argument is in contrast to the idea that it is legislation that is purely to blame for the increase in divorce because the legislation changes of the equal rights act had a major impact on women’s thoughts towards marriage, and from the other legislation changes of easier divorce, women would just think, why not? As another key aspect of the decline in divorce rates, is that people easily fall out of love, as there is no longer arranged marriages people have choice, and if they make a wrong choice from falling in puppy love then the marriage isn’t as likely to last. Hence increasing divorce rates.
I think that the main reason for divorce changes of the past 50 years is the changes in legislations. Making divorce easier made it available to a wider group of people, and the equal rights act and sex discrimination act would make it seem appealing to women. But I think that the only reason legislation changed was because of the changes in attitudes, like feminism’s impact and the slow decline in religion that has occurred over the past 50 years.
