Social policy

• Social policy underclass/dependency culture

  Murray (New Right)

  suggests benefits may discourage fathers to provide for their children and may lead to families without positive male role models

  this 'dependency culture' creates an underclass and he suggests cutting benefits to stop people depending on the state and taking responsibility
• Social policy

  Hilary Land (Feminism)

  argues social policies assume the 'ideal family' is the patriarchal nuclear family

  these policies tend to assume the male is the dominant wage earner despite 20% of households having a higher female earner
• Social policy Patriarchal assumptions

  Leonard

  even where social policy appears to support women, they may still reinforce patriarchal assumptions of the family - maternity leave being greater than paternity leave assumes the women is the main caregiver
• Social policy surveillance

  Donzelot

  believes the state has become too powerful and has too much power/control over the family - observation and monitoring
• Social policy abortion

  Abortion Act 1967

  legalising abortion on certain grounds by registered practitioners
• Social policy Equality

  Equal pay act 1970 - labour Gov

  prohibited any less favourable treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment
• Social policy children

  Children's act 1989

  gave children the right to protection from abuse and exploitation and put child welfare at the heart of everything
• Social policy children

  The Children and Adoption Act 2002

  allowed same sex couples, unmarried couples and single people to adopt children

  major advancement in gay rights
• Social policy civil partnership

  Civil partnership act 2004

  enabled homosexual couples to obtain a legally recognised way of binding their relationships - homosexual couples to have some of the same rights as married heterosexual couples
• Social policy benefits

  Benefit cap 2013 (coalition gov)

  limits the amount of state benefits that an individual household can claim per year
• Social policy marriage

  Same sex marriage Act 2013

  same sex couples allowed to be married
• Social policy education

  Staying in Education until age of 18 2015

  compulsory school leaving age raised until 18- not limited to staying at school
• Social policy benefits

  2017 - benefits limited to 2 children for those born after April 2017
• Social policy civil partnerships

  2019 - Civil partnerships extended to opposite sex couples after only being limited to same sex couples