social policy & the family

• Social Policies


  Laws made by the government which aim to improve society
• Fletcher


  • Health education and housing policies have led to a welfare state which supports the family in completing its functions
  • Argued for post war consensus social policy - NHS, Housing
• New Right


  • Strong believers that the conventional heterosexual nuclear family is self sufficient
  • Believe state policies have had a negative influence on society promoting family diversity and the disintegration of society
• Feminists


  • See policies as assuming what a normal family is a patriarchal nuclear family with a male breadwinner and a female homemaker
  • Social policies ensure the maintenance of this family type - Childcare policies and caring for the elderly
• Donzelot (1977)


  The state has power & control through use of social policy
• Donzelot's theory of 'state surveillance'


  1. Doctors, social workers and teachers use their role to check on people and exercise power over them by 'reporting' back to the government (e.g. police, law, courts & social services)

  2. The government undertakes 'the policing of families
• Condry (2007)


  • Poorer families are victims of state surveillance
• New Right view of social policy


  • Divorce is too easy, and civil partnership laws encourage gay & lesbian couples
  • A family needs heterosexual fam, and tax laws work against married couples
• Cohabiting couples have the same rights as married couples - the wrong message
• Murray (1990)


  • State welfare benefits are too generous - council housing for unmarried mothers, and cash payments for single mothers
  • Perverse Incentives - dads/fathers do not accept financial responsibility, teenage girls get pregnant and get a council house & lone parent families are encouraged- increases crime rate, no discipline among young men
  • State Paternalism
• Conservative (Thatcher) - Banning the promotion of homosexuality, Child Support Agency, Divorce made easier


  1979-97
• Labour (Blair) - Longer maternity leave, Working Family Tax Credits, Equal rights for same- sex couples

  1997-2010
• Conservative (Cameron) - Introduced gay marriage


  2010 -15
• Conservative - No blame divorce (2022)


  2015- present