TOPIC 7 - FAMILIES AND SOCIAL POLICY

• The state policys influence family life: CHINA'S ONE CHILD POLICY =

  • Extra benefits provided for those who comply such as: free child healthcare and higher tax allowances
  • if you don't = pay a fine
  • women encouraged to undergo sterilisation after first child
• State policy influencing family life: Communist Romainia =

  • drove up the birth rate, restricted contraception and abortion,, made divorce difficult
  • charged an extra 5% tax to unmarried and childless couples
• State policy influence on family life: Nazi Germany = twofold policy

  • encouraged pure reproduction - restricted contraception and abortions
  • sterilised almost 4 hundred thousand disabled people
• State policy influence on family: Democratic societies =

  • the government doesn't intervene unless something goes wrong e.g child abuse
• Functionalism view on social policy =

  • believe that the state is acting for the interests of society as a whole (consensus) to help families and make life better e.g =
  • Fletcher - the introduction of health (NHS), education and housing policies - leading to the welfare state
• Criticisms of the functionalist perspective on social policy:

  • it assumes all members of the family benefit equally - feminists argue the policies benefit men over women
  • it assumes theres a 'march of progress' marxists argue that policies can reverse e.g cutting welfare benefits
• DONZELOT: Policing the family (conflict) he is interested in the surveillance of families (observing)

  • see social policy as a form of state control - he shows the importance of professional knowledge (doctors, social workers) as a form of the states power and control
  • Donzelot is criticised by Marxists and Feminists for failing to identify who benefits from such policies of surveillance e.g Marxist = capitalist class benefits and Feminist = men benefit over women
• The New Right perspective on social policy:

  • Changes in family diversity such as increase in divorce and cohabitation threatens the nuclear family producing problems such as crime and welfare dependency
  • The state policy have encouraged these changes e.g ALMOND =
  • laws making divorce easier undermine the idea of marriage
  • intro of same sex marriage, state no longer sees heterosexual as superior
  • Tax laws discriminated conventional families - more tax as dual earners
• Lone parents, welfare policy & dependency culture:

  MURRY - welfare benefits offer "preserve incentives" (rewarding irresponsible behaviour) e.g teenagers getting pregnant to get free counsel housing or boys growing up without a father role model leading to more crime

  • state social policies are encouraging a dependency culture threatening 2 functions the family fulfils for society 1. successful socialisation of the young and 2. maintenance of work ethic of men
• The new rights solution =

  • Cuts in welfare spending & tighter restrictions for who is eligible for benefits
  • This means taxes can be reduced, give fathers more work and reduce teenagers becoming pregnant very young
  • support the nuclear family such as taxes that favour married couples
• Evaluation of the new right:

  Criticisms = Feminists argue that its an attempt to return to traditional patriarchal nuclear family where women are confined to their domestic role

  • it assumes that the nuclear family is natural rather than socially constructed
  • ABBOTT and WALLACE - argue cutting benefits would lead to even greater poverty
• Conservative Governments 1979-97

  • Thatcher banned homosexuality & the teaching of its acceptance in families
  • conservatives defined divorce as a social problem & set up Child support agency to enforce maintenance payments by absent parents
  • Conservatives introduced measures opposed by the new right such as laws to make divorce easier & giving illegitimate children equal rights
• New Labour Governments: 1997-2010

  • like new right, they see a family headed by a married heterosexual couple & emphasised the need for parents to take responsibility of their children
  • Silva and Smart, new labour reject the new rights view of one earner and follow dual earner neo-conventional family (Chester) e.g working tax credit (claim on childcare)
  • new labour support same sex relationships, giving unmarried the same support as married
• Conservative led Governments from 2010

  HAYTON: conservatives are divided into

  1. Modernisers - recognise families are more diverse
  2. Traditionalists - favour new right, diversity is wrong

  conservative coalition government introduced gay marriage
• Policy as self-fulfilling - the effect of policies reinforce a particular type of family e.g normal families are based on marriage and offers tax incentives to married couples
• Policies supporting the patriarchal family: Feminist view

  • Tax and benefits policies = assume males are breadwinners, making it hard for wives to claim social security benefits of their own
  • Childcare = school time tables and holidays make it hard for mothers to work full time unless they can afford childcare
  • Care for sick and elderly = middle aged women are expected to do this care, preventing them from working full time
• Evaluation of the Feminist view:

  • Not all policies are directed at maintaining patriarchy e.g equal pay, sex discrimination laws, the right for lesbians to marry, benefits for lone parents
• Gender Regimes (DREW) describe how social policies in different countries can encourage or discourage gender equality in family & work

  1. Familistic gender regimes = policies based traditional gender divisions, where males are the breadwinner and females housewife and care
  2. Individualistic gender regimes = policies based on the belief that husbands and wives should be treated equally e.g Sweeden
• State versus market:

  Drew - European unions are moving towards individualistic gender regimes away from traditional patriarchal family

  but social policies such as publicly funded childcare doesn't come cheap, who should benefit from them