Firstly, the major factor in the way marriage is looked upon these days is the Divorce laws of the 1970’s. Right at the beginning of this period, people who were in unhappy marriages had to put forward a severe case for divorce if it were to happen. But after the laws were introduced, people who were in these situations could get away with a lighter case still being accepted. Mutual agreement was becoming more common, as if a woman was in an unhappy relationship, she could decide on a court settlement, which could cost the man a lot more than a normal out of court settlement. Also, these changes in laws have lead to another factor in changing relationship patterns, cohabitation. It is very much the case these days that 2 people can live together without being married and have children while still being considered normal. This has proved to be a grey area in the past, as it has been frowned upon in many areas of society. In the past, if a child’s parents were not married, the child would have been seen as being different from the “normal” families, but in modern day society, there are many children who have single parents, reconstituted families or unmarried parents. This reflects the changing norms and values held by the evolving modern society.
In modern day society, many people have been through divorce through their parents or people they know, therefore they have become disaffected, and its not as important as other things, but in the past when it could be argued there was a stronger sense of upholding personal image, it was important not to look bad, so any unhappy or troubled marriages would stay together because of this. There was also the fact that it was frowned upon cohabiting and that is was seen as a sin, whereas in modern times it’s the stage most people see before marriage or just while with a partner, as it is also financially more supportive than living alone. Most of these changes that have been looked at are to do with laws and norms and values. But also the connotations with words such as unmarried parents, single mother and cohabitation have changed. In the past they carried negative meanings, like unreliable, poor and living in sin. However, recently they have been accepted as part of society and now make up a large part of society as a whole.
