Social policies

• Social policy


  plans and actions of states to provide a framework in which agencies operate
• China's one-child policy


  program to control population growth, supervised by workplace family planning committees. Couples who comply got benefits whereas those who didn't had to pay fines or sterilised
• Functionalist perspective of social policies


  Views them as good and helping families to perform their functions.

  Fletcher = the welfare state has supported families performing functions of health, education and housing
• Donzelot's perspective of social policy


  Gives state power over families. It is an example of how surveillance is diffused through society. e.g. social worker and health visitors 'police families'

  Poor families mor likely to be seen as 'problems
• New Right perspective of social policies


  Policies tat increase family diversity threaten conventional family.

  Charles Murray = generous welfare state encourages dysfunctional family types and a dependency culture.
• New Right policies

  cut welfare spending, reduce taxes, deny council housing to unmarried teen mothers, taxes favouring married over cohabiting
• Conservative 1979-97


  Margaret Thatcher banned promotion of homosexuality. Child Support Agency enforced maintenance payments.
• New Labour 1997-2010


  Parenting Orders for parents of truants and young offenders. Favoured dual-earner neo-conventional families. Outlawed sexuality discrimination. Working Families Tax credit
• Conservative from 2010


  Difficult to maintain a consistent policy due to the divide between modernists and traditionalists. Tax and benefit policies mean nuclear families suffer
• Feminists view on social policies


  Lian= social polices assume a nuclear family (feminists view as patriarchal) which creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Policies supporting patriarchal family


  - Tax and benefit policies expects the husband will provide

  - Women not paid enough to justify the spend on childcare so often forced to work less

  - Women assumed to care for sick and elderly

  - Child benefits normally paid to the mother.
• Drew's gender regime


  Familistic gender regimes = policies based on traditional gender roles

  Individualistic gender regimes = polices treating women and men the same
• European Union countries gender reigmes

  Most are individualistic, but since the 2008 recession, welfare has decreased = neo-liberal welfare policies. Gives women increased pressure and turn to private market e.g. private pensions