Examine Sociological explanation of the rise of cohabitation, divorce and remarriage.

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Examine Sociological explanation of the rise of cohabitation, divorce and remarriage.

Today, almost 25% of 18-49 year olds are cohabiting, it has been suggested that this is now an alternative to marriage. However, only a small percentage of women are cohabiting on a permanent basis and the majority of cohabitees are in a stage which proceeds marriage or going through the process of a breakup. For example, more than half of cohabitations last for less than two years and the reason the main reason for breakup is their decision to get married. This is linked to the decision to have children or the fact that the woman is already pregnant.

There are three types of marital breakdown, divorce, which is a legal dissolution of marriage, separation, this is where partners live apart and empty-shell marriages, where the couples remain married but have separate emotional and social lives. Since 1971, marriages have fallen by one-fifth and divorce have doubled, this suggests a collapse in the institution of the family but it could be argued that all of this happened due to unhappy marriages which are likely to end in divorce and the number of empty-shell marriages has declined.

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The divorce rate partially reflects legal changes. When the law was liberalised to make divorce easier to obtain, there became an increase in the numbers applying for divorce. This is not a course of divorce but a reflection of unhappy marriages. Goode has argued that this process of liberalisation is part of a wider process of secularisation in western societies, by which he means that it reflects the decline in the institution of religion. There is now less stigma attached to it as society as accepted it. Examples of the sudden increase in divorce include the Divorce Reform Act ...

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