There are number of different interlinked reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage, cohabitation and divorce in the last 30 years. The number of marriages has declined as a result of most people are getting married later in life, although cohabitation has increased rapidly due to the changing social attitudes and the divorce rate has increased as changes in law made it easier to obtain.
Since the 1970s, there has been a significant decline in marriage, from 480,000 marriages in 1972 to 306,000 in 2000. Women's expectation of marriage and life has increased since 1970s. Some sociologists argue that we place an increased value on romantic love, which had resulted in more marital breakdown. Young and Wilmot suggest that in the west we have a romanticised, unrealistic view of marriage and family life. Over the past 30 years, people have tended to marry later. Living together as a couple, partly accounts for this. Many couples see cohabitation as a prelude to marriage. Also, they are less likely to give up their careers and independence as now women are financial independent. When our marriage doesn't live up to our increased expectations we are more likely to give up on it in search of the perfect marriage. Functionalists such as Ronald Fletcher Talcott Parsons claim that people expect and demand more from marriage. They believe that higher divorce rate reflects a higher value placed on marriage. Feminists argues that it is women rather than men who are increasingly dissatisfied with marriage due to traditional patriarchal marriage where male dominance and the unequal division of domestic work, with women still largely responsible for housework and childcare even when they employed outside the home. 75% of the divorces are initiated by women
Fewer people are getting married because people are waiting longer to get married – by 2005 it was 32 for men, 30 for