feminism

• view of social policies?


  -help maintain women's subordinate position

  -help maintain the unequal gender division of labour in family
• policy is a self fulfilling prophecy


  -the norm of what a family should be like affects the kinds of policies governing family life

  -effect of policies is often to reinforce that particular type of family at expense of others
• example of self fulfilling prophecy


  -if state assumes 'normal' families are based on marriage and offers tax incentives to married couples

  -policy may encourage marriage & discourage cohabitation
• effect of self fulfilling prophecy


  makes it more difficult for people to live in other family types than the one policymakers assume they live in