Traditional marriage in Britain is currently in a disturbance. Not only is the divorce rate rising, --71-- the rate at which people marry is falling. Living together is more popular than --72-- before. The shape of the family is now no longer one man, one woman and their children. Instead, there are --73-- numbers of families which include step-parents, half sisters and brothers, or merely one lonely parent coping --74-- her own.
Compared with other countries, Britain is still its marriage pat terns. In America, the divorce rate is --75-- more shocking. Two ou t of five marriages --76-- divorce. In Sweden living together is now more popular than marriage among couples in their early twenties and a similar --77-- seems to be emerging in Denmark.
Although this is happening on a smaller --78-- in Britain, it has not yet become such a marked trend. But --79-- we do follow the American and Scandinavian patterns, the --80-- will see many more couples living together before marriage-and even more divorce.
Interestingly enough, it is women --81-- men who get a divorce in the courts. Seven out of ten divorces are --82-- to the wife. Divorce, of course, only reflects the --83-- winding up of a marriage which may have --84-- broken up long before. The partner who asks for divorce may not be the partner who --85-- the marriage. Women usually have more to gain from the courts in the way of money, rights --86-- the home, and child maintenance . --87-- there is also a certain unequal proportion in one of the g rounds that the sexes choose for divorce. The grounds --88-- unreasonable or cruel behavior are overwhelming, --89-- more women t h an men. Does this mean that women will --90-- less than they used to?