The lazy thinking behind new proposals to give marriage-like rights to cohabiting couples
This month the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee published proposals to give rights to unmarried cohabiting couples that are similar or equal to those accruing to married couples. Although this seems fair and reasonable on the face of it, the proposals risk undermining commitment, family stability and children’s well-being. The state regulates marriage […]
Should cohabiting couples have the same rights as married couples?
I’ve written about this subject before. But having just been to parliament to give evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee, it’s worth going over the story again because to many it will be counterintuitive. (You can watch my contribution to the committee here, from about 15:08) The problem in question is that many cohabiting […]
Enter civil partnerships
From new year’s eve, heterosexual couples will have the same opportunity to formalise their relationship as same sex couples through either civil partnership or marriage. The introduction of civil partnerships is an anomaly, stretching back to 2004 when a legal equivalent to marriage was introduced for same sex couples without actually calling it ‘marriage’. Subsequently […]
Falling divorce rates mean more intact families, new ONS stats show
Falling divorce means more intact families, says Harry Benson, Research Director for Marriage Foundation New ONS Families and Household data for 2019 are released today “Today’s figures provide yet another reminder to politicians of all parties that if they want greater family stability, they must wholeheartedly back marriage and commitment. Despite the well-documented increase in […]
Living together before getting married: Should you buy before you try?
It sounds like common sense. Live with somebody for a while and you’ll find out properly if you’re a good match for a life together. Wouldn’t you want to know in advance about that frightful habit you really can’t stand? By living together, you make sure they are the one … and also avoid making […]
Cheap sex, so why should men marry?
There’s a deep irony about the subject of marriage and men. On the one hand, marriage appears to benefit men more than women. Men’s health in particular, for example, is better among those who get and stay married. On the other hand, men appear to resist marriage more than women. In a couple of surveys […]
It’s not marriage that’s patriarchal. It’s cohabitation
Marriage is ‘heteronormative’ and ‘patriarchal‘, according to lawyers representing a couple in the Supreme Court this week. Their gripe is that whereas same sex couples have the opportunity to commit to one another through either marriage or civil partnership, different sex couples who have an ideological objection to marriage have no similar alternative legal structure. […]
Cohabiting parents now account for majority of family breakdown
PRESS RELEASE FROM MARRIAGE FOUNDATION Cohabiting couples now account for over half of family breakdown despite making up only a fifth of parents, a report by Marriage Foundation has found. Previous Marriage Foundation has shown around one per cent (1.3 per cent) of married parents split in the course of a year, compared to […]
It’s not marriage that’s ‘patriarchal’. It’s cohabitation.
In an article for Metro last month, writer Rebecca Reid expressed horror that her fiancé might have asked her dad’s permission before he married her. The whole idea has “a massive historical problem” behind it, she declared furiously. There was a time when “women were property to be traded for the advancement of a family […]
Legal rights for cohabiting couples will create more problems than it solves
It seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it. A woman – and in most cases it is a woman – lives with a man for a number of years, sacrifices part or all of career to bring up their children, whereupon he walks out taking all of his earning with him. The children have rights under […]