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Family and Marriage Conditions in France

 

            The modernisation of the family unit and living arrangements among couples have evolutionised to the point that marriage laws and family policies have adjusted to the ongoing development of social and cultural practices.  Particularly in the Western world, where social and cultural views are more liberal, the subject of couples legalising their relationships and establishing a nuclear family unit are now more or less acceptable despite the controversies raised in modern living arrangements.  These criticisms are based on moral concerns, though the argument always boils down to ‘adapting to the times’.

            The universal suffrage in France, like most countries, is attained by the age of 18 years.  As early as this age, young individuals are already being considered as adults and are up to the option of choosing which type of lifestyle they want to have.  However, with the evolution of more liberal thoughts and practices, despite with France being dominantly Roman Catholic, more and more couples get themselves into living together under the same roof without necessarily sharing a legal marriage bed; civil marriage ceremonies in a mairie (or City Hall) is the recognized method of exchanging vows in France, and has to be officiated by an Officier de l'Etat civil (French civil authority).  Religious matrimonial ceremonies are not recognised, and the marriage license or certificate attained from the civil vows is required by the local churches before proceeding to the religious ceremonies.

             A survey that shows comparison between 1990 and 1970 on the average age of first marriage in France was released by INSEE Première 1/ 1992, showing that the average marrying age in 1970 for men and women were 24.4 and 22.4 years respectively, while the shift in 1990 shows the average age jumping to 27.8 and 25.7 years, respectively (Muller-Escoda & Vogt, 1997, 57).  In the recent years, the number of women getting married started to decrease also due to the fact that women are more inclined to focus on their careers at a younger age rather than get married and create a family.  Also, with the lengthening of the years required for the completion of education became a major factor for the individuals to spend more time on their own and develop themselves, rather than legalising a relationship; moreover, with divorce being legal in France, and the percentage rate of divorce cases seem to increase, averaging to 106,000 divorce cases per year (cited from Muller-Escoda & Vogt, 1997, 57) it has also become a factor for some to think twice before saying “I do”.

            Family policies in France are very important since that a family is considered an institution, having its own constitutional rights.  However, families in France have also complicated in time, and familial configurations have varied:  stepfamily ( famille recomposée ), uncertain family ( famille incertaine ), one-parent family ( famille monoparentale ), non-marital long-term relationship ( mariage-compagnonage ), cohabitation ( couple cohabitant ), and consensual union, among others.  (Muller-Escoda & Vogt, 1997, 49).  This is to say that a family maintains to be a strong nuclear unit in the society, yet, with the various options when it comes to living and relationship arrangements, the creation of a normal French family has taken a different turn from its former, typical composition of a father, mother and children.

            The formation of a modern French family has, in a way, become a product of the twists and turns of marriage and divorce laws in the country.  In the past years, it was also recorded that the rate of children born to unmarried parents are increasing; the rate of marriage decreasing, the average marrying age increasing, and the divorce rate increasing.  Couples are legally acknowledged by means of marriage, and the family is eventually institutionalised by means of the French family policy; however, divorce remains to be an option, and people can always remarry.  The illegitimate children will keep their mother’s name, the children of divorced parents will keep the father’s name while the divorced mother has the option to take her old name back, or in the case of a remarriage, gain another new name.  In turn, the decline of marriage shows an increase of consensual unions.  By the end of the 1980s, there was a total of 2.5 million unmarried couples in France coming from all age groups, there is still a good number out of this large number that most of them will lead to matrimony.  (Muller-Escoda & Vogt, 1997, 58).

            Despite the liberalisation of the concept of couples living together and the institution of marriage, what has been happening is the greater freedom citizens are given in terms of choosing which lifestyle or living arrangements they want to have.  However, in France, marriage and family remains to be a very important basic institution in the society, and despite the cultural shifts, the basics of family life and marriage remains to be the strongest and most preferred option of all.

 

 

 

Cited Works

 

“France”.  The World Fact Book.  13 January 2005.  Central Intelligence Agency.

            27 January 2005.  < http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fr.html>

“Getting Married in France”.  Visiting France.  24 August 2001.  Embassy of France –          US.  27 January 2005.  <http://www.usmarriagelaws.com/search/europe/france/>

 Muller-Escoda, Beatrice & Vogt, Ulla.  “France: the Institutionalization of Plurality”.    Family Life and Family Policies in Europe. Volume: 1.  Ed. Franz-Xaver Kaufmann.  Oxford, England: Clarendon Press,1997