Module 2 : Institutions

Lecture 6 : Family, Marriage and Kinship – Part III

 

Current Trends in the Family and Marriage

Today’s world which is aptly termed as a global village is witness to various transitions and problems in the structure of family and marriage as significant social institutions. In this lecture, we are going to discuss very important themes in the current trends in the family and marriage. The themes include:

And then we shall discuss different alternative family forms, viz. (a) single-parent families, (b) cohabitation, (c) lesbian and gay couples, and (d) singlehood.

Divorce

Weitzman (1985), Gerstel (1987), Furstenberg and Cherlin (1991), Etzioni (1993), Popenoe (1999) and Greenspan (2001) have dwelt upon several causes of divorce:

  1. Individualism is on the rise. Today’s members of the family spend less time together. People have become more individualistic and more concerned about personal happiness and earning income than about the well-being of families and children.
  2. Romantic love often subsides. Because our culture bases marriage on romantic love, relationships may fail when sexual passion fades. Many people end marriage in favour of a new relationship that renews excitement and romance.
  3. Women are now less dependent on men. Increasing participation in the labour force has reduced wives’ financial dependency on husbands. Therefore, it is wiser to leave unhappy marriages.
  4. Many of today’s marriages are stressful. With both partners working outside the home in most cases, jobs leave less time and energy for family life. Thus, raising children becomes much harder. Children do stabilize some marriages, but divorce is most common during the early years of marriage, when many couples have young children.
  5. Divorce is socially and legally acceptable. Divorce no longer carries the powerful stigma it did a century ago. Family and friends are now less likely to discourage couples in conflict from divorcing.

Remarriage

Remarriage often creates blended families, composed of children and some combination of biological parents and stepparents. With sisters, brothers, half sisters, a stepdad – not to mention a biological parent who lives elsewhere and may now be married to someone else with other children – young people in blended families face the challenge of defining many new relationships and deciding just who is part of the nuclear family. Parents often have trouble defining responsibility for household work among people unsure of their relations to each other. Then, too, when the custody of children is an issue, ex-spouses can be a source of interference for people in a new marriage. In all these cases, adjustments are necessary, and family dynamics typically change over time. At the same time, blended families offer both young and old the chance to relax rigid family roles (Furstenberg and Cherlin 1991, 2001; McLahahan 2002).

Family Violence

The ideal family is a source of pleasure and support. However, the disturbing reality of many homes is family violence, emotional, physical or sexual abuse of one member of the family by another. Richard J. Gelles calls the family “the most violent group in society with the exception of the police and the military” (quoted in Roesch 1984: 75). Family violence occurs in the context of violence against women and violence against children.