Does the Rising Rate of Chabitation Mean That We Are Witnessing an End of Marriage?

DOES THE RISING RATE OF COHABITATION MEAN THAT WE ARE WITNESSING AN END OF MARRIAGE?

SOCIAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPARY SOCIETY

SOCI102

In today's society cohabitation is an increasingly popular trend amongst couples. Trost’s 1975 study hypothesized that cohabitation would decrease marriage rates, with Sweden and Denmark providing empirical support for his hypothesis. We now see that this is indeed the case in both America and the United Kingdom. It is important to understand the preference towards sharing a household, without legal documentation, to review the future of marriage rates and whether society will witness a decline in marriage to a point where married couples are rare.

There is ambiguity in the meaning of cohabitation. Sociologists each have their own definition of cohabitation in relation to the partnership between the couple. For example, Arafat and Yorburg (1973) defined cohabitation as, ‘living together with a member of the opposite sex’, whereas Macklin (1972, 1974) put forward four typologies of cohabitation. ‘Type A’ standing for a couple who share the same bed for four nights each week over a period of three consecutive months, to a ‘Type D’ couple who spent less than four nights a week in the same household for less than three months. This indistinctness can sometimes make cohabitation figures unreliable and difficult from which to draw conclusions.

It is clear from published statistics and from social studies that the rate of cohabitation is increasing, although it has not yet overtaken marriage rates. Statistical data on cohabitation in the General Household Survey shows that the number of women cohabiting has risen from 11% of 18-49 year old women in 1979, to 26% in 1996. It is impossible to look at any data in isolation and from statistical analysis it is possible to see that as cohabitation increases there is a decrease in marriage rate, coinciding with the prevalence of divorce witnessed over the past thirty years.

To understand the effect cohabitation will have on marriage rates in the future, the reasons for its prevalence needs to be considered. Studies by Dyer (1999) found there was a clear difference in attitudes towards cohabitation from young and old generations, indicating a shift in social viewpoint to an acceptance of cohabitation. This change in society’s view of ‘family life’ has come about as a result of this increasing acceptance and de-stigmatization of cohabitation, and also from research finding that cohabiting unmarried couples operate the same as married couples in terms of pooling of wealth, sexual intimacy, expressed commitment and division of labour. Home secretary, Jack Straw was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying ‘the important thing is the quality of the relationship, not the institution itself’ (Daily Mail, 16th June, 1999). This acceptance in politics as well as in society leads many couples into sharing a non-married household. There seems to be three main reasons why cohabitation occurs: firstly as an alternative to being single, secondly as an alternative to marriage itself, and thirdly, as a precursor to marriage.

Cohabitation as an alternative to being single is often a prevention of loneliness. Rowingson and McKay’s 1998 study explores the idea that single mothers are more likely to re-partner than those who divorced/separated. In an earlier study, Bernard (1975) found that cohabitation was more prevalent of men who had separated with 5.4% of women to 25.6% of men cohabiting after separation. The fiscal advantages of marriage are no longer present as tax relief on income was abolished in the late 1990s and so cohabitation as an alternative will provide intimacy and companionship.

Cohabitation as an alternative to marriage occurs in couples where marriage is not wanted, or not possible, such as homosexual partnerships or relationships where one partner is already married but not divorced. Both Jeffery Weeks and Gill Dunne have studied homosexual partnerships but still very little quantitative research exists and there are no statistics for cohabiting partners of the same sex. Studies by sociologists such as Jane Lewis (2001) have found little difference between married and cohabiting couples as the relationship meets the desire for both intimacy and individualism. Beck and Giddens (1979) wrote