New Right Views on Family

• Norman Dennis and George Erdos (1992) found that single-parent families (especially single-mother families) are not ideal for raising children. They found that children, especially boys with absent fathers, have:


  poorer health

  lower levels of educational achievement

  worse life choices

  higher levels of unemployment and crime compared to children in two-parent families.
• Iain Duncan Smith, Work and Pensions Secretary (2010)


  Single-parent families are twice as likely to experience poverty compared to two-parent families.

  Children from broken and unstable homes are nine times more likely to become young offenders.

  Only 30 percent of young offenders grew up in a two-parent home.
• (Benson, 2017)


  Unmarried, cohabiting couples are unstable; even though only 21 percent of couples are unmarried and cohabiting, they are responsible for 51 percent of separated families involving children
• Charles Murray


  A key New Right thinker, Charles Murray, believes that the traditional nuclear family structure is under threat. The disintegration of this family type leads to increasing levels of single parenthood and teenage pregnancies. Murray argues that this creates an 'underclass'.

  The cycle perpetuated by the underclass creates a culture of dependency on the state and its benefits. If children are socialised into this culture, it can span across multiple generations.
• New Right view of the nuclear family

  According to the New Right, the ideal nuclear family consists of:

  a married mother and father couple

  a breadwinner father

  a stay-at-home mother

  This type of family is the 'bedrock' of society as it is an independent unit that does not seek welfare from the government. It is self-reliant.

  In addition, the children are cared for by two parents with a clear division of roles in a stable household. To the New Right, the nuclear family is the best way to raise children.
• New Right view of family diversity and the decline of the nuclear family


  The New Right believes that there is a decline in the number of nuclear families in modern society due to higher numbers of single-parent families, cohabiting families, and higher divorce rates.

  Supporters of the New Right believe that the reduced significance of the nuclear family leads to many problems in society, including crime, poverty, over-reliance on the welfare state and a decline in morality.

  As such, the New Right advocates a return to 'traditional' family values, influenced by morality.
• What are 'other' types of families?


  single-parent (also called lone-parent) families

  reconstituted families

  cohabiting families

  non-heterosexual families
• Therefore, the New Right also opposes social policies that support these other types of families. Such policies:


  are generous with welfare benefits for single parents and unemployed individuals ('handouts')

  make it easy (or easier) to get a divorce

  give rise to alternative family structures, such as the legalisation of same-sex marriage
• Consequences of welfare benefits

  According to New Right theorists, generous welfare benefits are harmful because they create a culture of dependency on the state. They believe if there are welfare incentives for single parents, this will encourage unplanned/teenage pregnancies; and that some may even have multiple children so that they can collect more welfare.

  Likewise, if there are welfare incentives for unemployed people, they will continue to rely on them instead of taking responsibility and finding employment. Eventually, society will come to rely on the state solely.
• Criticism - Robert Chester


   argues that despite its decline, the nuclear family is still the dominant family type and most children are raised by two parents.
• Criticism - Deborah Chambers

  argues that the media creates unjustified 'moral panics' about non-nuclear family types, which are then used to justify welfare benefit cuts.