Divorce: Patterns, Causes and Consequences

Divorce in Britain Since 1945

Divorce is the legal ending of a marriage. The pattern of divorce in Britain since 1945 is one of dramatic and sustained increase, followed by a plateau and some decline in more recent years. In the decade after the Second World War, divorce was relatively rare — around 25,000 divorces per year. By the mid-1990s this figure had risen to around 175,000 per year. Since then the rate has declined somewhat, partly because marriage itself has become less common (more couples cohabit rather than marry, so fewer marriages can end in divorce). Understanding the causes and consequences of this change is a central requirement of the AQA families topic.

Reasons for the Rise in Divorce: Legal Changes

One of the most significant causes of the rising divorce rate was legal change. The Divorce Reform Act 1969 came into force in 1971 and fundamentally changed the legal basis of divorce in England and Wales. Before 1969, divorce required proof of a matrimonial “offence” (such as adultery or cruelty). The 1969 Act replaced this with a single ground: irretrievable breakdown of marriage. This made divorce substantially easier and cheaper to obtain, and the divorce rate almost doubled in the years immediately after it came into force. Legal aid had already made divorce cheaper for poorer couples well before 1969. The law changed again in April 2022: the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 brought in “no-fault” divorce, so neither partner now has to blame the other.

Changing Social Attitudes and Secularisation

Legal change does not occur in a social vacuum. The Divorce Reform Act 1969 reflected — and further accelerated — a broader shift in social attitudes towards divorce. As Britain became an increasingly secularised society, the religious stigma attached to divorce diminished. The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church had traditionally taught that marriage was a lifelong sacrament and that divorce was morally wrong. As church attendance fell and religious authority over personal life weakened, divorce became more socially acceptable. By the end of the twentieth century, divorce carried little social stigma in most communities.

More broadly, changing social values contributed to higher divorce rates. The growing expectation that marriage should provide personal fulfilment, romantic love and emotional intimacy — rather than simply economic partnership or social respectability — raised the threshold for what was considered a “good enough” marriage. When marriages fell below this standard, individuals were more likely to seek divorce rather than continue in an unhappy relationship. Sociologists describe this as a shift from an “institutional” to a “companionate” model of marriage.

The Changing Status of Women

A particularly important cause of rising divorce rates is the changing status of women in society. Women’s increasing participation in paid employment since the Second World War has given many women greater economic independence. This has reduced the financial dependence on a male partner that previously made divorce an unviable option for many women. Research consistently shows that the majority of divorce petitions in Britain are filed by women — suggesting that women are more likely to seek to end unsatisfactory marriages when they have the means to do so.

The changing status of women is also linked to changing expectations: women’s greater social and political equality has raised their expectations of what a marriage should provide. The continued unequal distribution of domestic labour (Oakley’s double shift) means that many women experience marriage as disproportionately burdensome, and rising aspirations make this burden less acceptable over time.

Consequences of Divorce for Family Members

The consequences of divorce affect all members of the family. For husbands and wives, divorce can bring both relief from an unhappy relationship and significant emotional, financial and practical difficulties. Women tend to experience greater financial hardship after divorce (since they are more likely to have reduced their participation in paid employment during the marriage). Men tend to experience greater social isolation after divorce (since they are less likely to have primary care of children and may have weaker social networks).

For children, sociological research presents a complex picture. Some research suggests that parental conflict — not divorce itself — is the key factor in children’s outcomes, meaning that divorce may in some cases be better for children than continuing an acrimonious marriage. Other research highlights the economic and social disadvantages associated with growing up in a lone parent household, including lower educational achievement and poorer health outcomes. Sociologists caution against treating all divorces as equally harmful, since outcomes vary significantly with income, quality of post-divorce parenting arrangements and the degree of continued conflict between former partners.

For the extended family, divorce disrupts grandparent–grandchild relationships and wider kinship networks. Grandparents on the non-resident parent’s side may lose contact with grandchildren. The rise of divorce has also contributed significantly to the growth of lone parent families in the UK, since many divorces involve children.