SOCIAL POLICIES

• CHILD BENEFIT / CHILD TAX ALLOWANCE

  only one parent can claim money, must be main carer of the child.

  feminists argue this reinforced idea that money paid to mother will be spent on children when men spend money on themselves
• CHILD CARE

  lack of funding for pre-school child care means women are restricted from working. governments can increase childcare funding to encourage more women to work
• CHILD PROTECTION ACTS

  1989 and 2004

  outlines the requirements of a duty of care towards children
• COMPULSORY EDUCATION

  late 1800s

  school was made compulsory for children

  the leaving age was set at 16 in 1973 but raised to 18 in 2013
• EQUAL PAY ACT

  1970

  prohibited unequal pay and working conditions between men and women
• DIVORCE LAW

  1857 men were allowed to divorce unfaithful wives

  grounds equalised for men and women in 1923

  1969 widened the grounds for divorce, added ability for couples to divorce as long as they lived apart first

  2022 changed to allow no fault and file jointly
• MARRIAGE TAX ALLOWANCE

  2015

  give tax breaks to married couples where one partner does not work or is on low income
• MATERNITY LEAVE

  usually more generous (time wise) than paternity leave and amount paid is low.

  feminists argue it increases female dependence on their male partners
• SAME SEX MARRIAGE

  legalised in 2013

  prior to this gay couples could enter a civil partnership 2005
• SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT

  1975

  extended equal pay act, aimed to ensure all employees received equal opportunities of promotion and working conditions and training are the same. job advertisements couldn’t be sexless and made illegal to offer position exclusively to males or females
• SHARED PARENTAL LEAVE

  2015

  women can now “give” some of their maternity leave to their partner, making it easier to share childcare
• BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT

  1948

  allowed those living in commonwealth countries British citizenship and full rights of entry and settlement. began first mass immigration of non-white people into the uk
• THE WELFARE STATE

  collection of social policies, introduced post WW2, which brought about the NHS, an increase in social housing and unemployment benefit. based on the belief that people should have the right to help when they are in need
• TROUBLED FAMILIES PROGRAM

  2011 after London riots

  identified 120,000 ‘broken families’ in need of support to turn their lives around. each family was given a case worker who supported them in getting jobs and attending school. success has been criticised