4.2 - Family and Social Policy

• What are the New Right views on the family?

  • believe in the traditional nuclear family - with a male provider and housewife.
  • do not like any acts/benefits that undermine the nuclear family
  • criticises the government for offering overly-generous benefits
  • believe they support lone parent families
• Who is Charles Murray?

  • A new right sociologist
  • believes that the gov benefits are 'perverse incentives' which encourage different family types
  • encourages anti-social behaviour such as teenage pregnancy
  • encourages lone parent families - since they give benefits to lone parent families
• What was the 1967 Abortion Act?

  • legalised abortion in the UK. New Rights argue that young women treat it as contraception which undermines the sancity of life.
• 1967 Sexual Offences Act -

  • partly discriminated male homosexuality
  • age of consent was reduced from 21 to 18 and 16 in the 2000
• 2002 Adoption and Children Act -

  • made it legal for same sex couples to adopt children
• 2009 Embryology and Fertilisation Act -

  • Recognised lesbians and legalised the use of IVF to help lesbians have chidren
• Who is Patricia Morgan?

  • new right sociologist
  • Criticises the new acts - says gays/lesbians should not be allowed to have children as it defeats the purpose of the sexual union of a man and woman
  • Says that these acts help mimic 'heterosexuality'
  • Believe gay/lesbian couples treat their children as trophy children - show them off to other couples and neglect them
• What was the 1975 Sexual Discrimination Act?

  • made it illegal to discriminate women in the workplace
  • women are paid the same as men
• What do New Right think about the 1975 Sexual Discrimination Act?

  • Says it drives women away from their natural calling as mothers.
  • Women are now more career-orientated and neglect having children
  • Children can face maternal deprivation
• What was introduced in the 1960?

  • the contraceptive pill
  • criticised for encouraging sexual immorality and affairs
  • undermines the union of sex
• What was the 1969 Divorce Reform Act?

  • made divorce easier and cheaper to obtain
  • criticised because New rights argue people no longer take marriage seriously
• Criticisms of the Acts -

  • Morgan - more than 2/3 of families now use the government's benefits. It defeats the purpose of the traditional nuclear family.
  • Butler - argues because of these benefits, society has more broken families instead of strong and durable families
• When was the Labour government introduced?

  1997 - 2010
• What does Finch argue?

  • labour government were moving from an individualistic regime to a more familiaristic regime
  • helped lone parent families by providing jobs and benefits
  • took a social investement in children by hiring a child commissioner to eradicate child poverty
• What did Labour introduce in 2003 to help children?

  • child tax credit
  • helped see children as individuals
  • gave income to lone parent families to help raise children
• Why do the New Right criticise the Labour government policies?

  • Undermines the nuclear family and encourages lone parent, gay families
  • creates a nanny state
• When did the Coalition government form?

  • 2010 - 2015
  • took place to help families to become strong and stable as they are the bedrock of society
• What did the Centre of Social Justice produce?

  • a report on troubled families
• What were the features of a troubled family?

  • Dysfunction - families did not take responsibility for childrens behaviour
  • Dissolution - divorce was easy to obtain
  • Dad-lessness - dads did not keep contact with children
• What did the troubled families programme solve?

  • anti social behaviour in children
  • dads keeping contact with children
  • high crime rates
  • truanting in schools
  • lone parents who did not work
• Criticisms of troubled family programme?

  • Levitas argues that they put the blame on poor families.
  • Data shows 3/4 families that were fixed returned back to anti social behaviour
• Evaluation of state policy -

  • New Right argue that the state policies undermine the nuclear family since most policies are due to the outcome of nuclear families.
  • Marriage tax is lower than cohabitating tax
  • Child tax credit is given to mother - shows the nurturing role
  • Best council housing is given to nuclear families