Love and Mate selection
Family is a social organization where people of the same blood relation or other relations live together (Bhambra and Santos 2017). It is also defined as an intimate relationship between people who are blood relatives, have a bond due to sexual mating or are legally bounded. In a country like Australia marriages are conventionally to take place as a result of love. But there have been changes in the concept of family in Australia since mid-twentieth century. Of all the Australian population three fourth are family households (Boese and Marotta 2017). These households consist of couples-only families, couples with dependent children, and couples with independent children. The following discussion is about the changes and factors of change in family trends in recent years in the country of Australia.
It has been observed that marriages in the ancient societies were arranged by a third party rather than selecting a partner by itself. It was due to the fact that marriages were done to increase the prestige, economic wellbeing and political stance of people. But with passage of time these practices of marriage faded with the decline of imperialism and feudalism (Buchler, Perales and Baxter 2017). Love became the most prominent factor for marriage in the later years of twentieth century. After, the induction of Hollywood and its impact on the hearts and minds of people all over the world the concept of marriage changed drastically. The songs and its lyrics spoke mainly of love between two people which ended up mainly in marriage.
According to some psychologists feeling of love can be evoked by three components which are erotic attraction, revealing personal thoughts and shared feelings to an opposite sex and a tendency to stay in a relationship for companionship. Australian people are open minded and easily adapt to changes which they feel comfortable with. They felt that love is the basic driving factor to get married with a person of opposite gender (Cengage and Furze 2014). It took time for the entire society to understand the concept of love and its importance for a person to find a companion of their choice to spend their entire lives. There were social forces like marriage resources, third parties and demographic factors which also contributed to the change in trend of marriage in Australia.
Selection of a mate or a partner is the beginning of married life. The repercussions and consequences of marriage is seen and observed when some time passes. People who get married need to be satisfied in every aspect to continue in their marriage and any lacuna can sour their married life. If people are living happily after marriage then that bond is known to be longer than people who are in a useful marriage. In earlier time women were made more independent by using methods of contraception and delayed childbirth. In 1960’s women of Australia got inclined towards higher education and got jobs hence they became financially independent and they got the leverage to take bold decisions of their own lives (Denny et al. 2014).
Marital Satisfaction and Divorce
As of now divorce rate in Australia is one third. This clearly suggests that there is a high rate of marriage dissatisfaction and high level intolerance towards among married couples who want to get separated without much fuss. There arises a conflict between the feeling of love, intimacy and companionship and the notion of individual aspirations, disappointment and confusion during marriage which becomes the major reason for divorce (Denny et al. 2014). Identification of the social reasons of marital collapse is economic issues, generational partners, domestic background, fertility, value of marriage in life and relationships. Most if the divorces are due to financial incompetence of due to which domestic fights and quarrels take place. Other socioeconomic reasons also determine the divorce in Australia.
In the above discussion it was mentioned that the independence of women increased due to introduction of contraceptives. Deciding the time of reproduction in a marriage is very crucial for a couple to be happy and satisfied. It decides the duration of marriage and also the tendency of a person to stay in the marriage (Easthope, Burnley and Judd 2017). It is a known fact that women have a greater say in the matter of having children, when they will have them and how many they will have. Having children is a expensive affair as it costs a lot to raise them properly. This relates to the economic condition of a family that they can afford to have children or not.
Introduction of artificial reproductive technologies (ART) in 1978 expanded the horizon of reproductive methods. It made the terms father and mother obsolete due to its process of reproduction (Denny et al. 2014). At first the community reaction was mixed but later on it was opposed by the people of Australia as it seemed to interfere in the course of nature and tried to play the God. Introduction of surrogacy methods of childbirth has raised more questions on the mode of reproduction and legitimacy of children which becomes questionable. Women who are more career oriented and do not want to get pregnant use these artificial methods of reproduction to have children. These practices have become very popular in recent days as the orientation of women in Australia has changes drastically.
Major change has been observed in the role of women in housework and child care in recent days. With change in trend of education and reproduction, women of Australia have taken their careers and financial independence more seriously (Coyne, Reid and Marshall 2017). They opt out of doing household work as they get higher education and well paid jobs in corporate and government sectors of Australia. Doing household work is not considered as an economic activity and they do not get paid to do the work of their own houses (Easthope, Burnley and Judd 2017). Taking care of their child is the same thing which yields no economic benefit. In early days, women used to be at home and do the household work and men used to meet the economic requirements.
But the tables have turned and now women speak very freely about men doing the household work with some participation of women. Childcare work and babysitting is considered to be work of women in earlier days but now men are also tend to do babysitting and take care of child (Jorgensen, Schweichler and Moran 2017). Women do more stressed jobs than men in the household work such as dressing kids for school, preparing dinner on time whereas men do jobs like mowing lawns and doing laundry cleaning which is of less stress. This change is very modest and is accepted by the people of Australia.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that, family trends have changed drastically in Australia. Women are observed to be the main factor of change in family trends which is positive in context of Australian society. Every society changes with time and family is the basic social institution which determines the flow of values among people. Marriage is a union which makes a family legally and formally recognized in society and impacts greatly in building up a family. State of family members and their numbers have changed in Australia in recent years from couples with children to couples without children which are due to the rise in individual aspirations of people in Australia.
References
Bhambra, G.K. and Santos, B.D.S., 2017. Introduction: Global challenges for sociology.
Boese, M. and Marotta, V. eds., 2017. Critical Reflections on Migration,‘Race’and Multiculturalism: Australia in a Global Context. Taylor & Francis.
Buchler, S., Perales, F. and Baxter, J., 2017. Does Parenthood Change Attitudes to Fathering? Evidence from Australia and Britain. Sex Roles, pp.1-13.
Cengage, LA, Lie, J, and Furze, B 2014, Sociology in Today’s World – with Student Resource Access 12 Months, Cengage Learning Australia, Melbourne. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [5 October 2017]
Coyne, E., Grafton, E., Reid, A. and Marshall, A., 2017. Understanding family assessment in the Australian context; what are adult oncology nursing practices?. Collegian, 24(2), pp.175-182.
Denny, B., Gavidia-Payne, S., Davis, K., Francis, A. and Jackson, M. 2014. Strengthening Australian Families: Socioeconomic Status, Social Connectedness, and Family Functioning. Australian Social Work, 67(3), pp.438-450.
Easthope, H., Liu, E., Burnley, I. and Judd, B., 2017. Changing perceptions of family: A study of multigenerational households in Australia. Journal of Sociology, 53(1), pp.182-200.
Jorgensen, B.L., Rappleyea, D.L., Schweichler, J.T., Fang, X. and Moran, M.E., 2017. The financial behavior of emerging adults: A family financial socialization approach. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 38(1), pp.57-69.
Mitchell, M., Coombs, M. and Wetzig, K., 2017. The provision of family-centred intensive care bereavement support in Australia and New Zealand: Results of a cross sectional explorative descriptive survey. Australian Critical Care, 30(3), pp.139-144.
Treas, J., Scott, J. and Richards, M. eds., 2017. The Wiley Blackwell companion to the sociology of families. John Wiley & Sons.
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