4. FAMILIES AND SOCIAL POLICY Flashcards
Functionalist Perspective - Social Policy
Social policies are good for all – help families to perform functions better
Donzelot’s (Policing the Family) Perspective - Social Policy
Social policies are a form of state power and control over families
argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families
The New Right Perspective - Social Policy
Social policies have encouraged major negative changes + undermined NF
Feminism Perspective - Social Policy
Social policies help to maintain women’s subordinate position + unequal gender of division in the family
Marxism Perspective - Social Policy
Social policies help to control the W/C and benefit the R/C
Fletcher (1966) - Social Policy
.The introduction of health, education and housing policies in the years since the industrial revolution has gradually led to the development of a welfare state that supports the family in performing its functions more effectively
→The existence of the NHS means that with the help of doctors the family today is better able to take care of its members when they are sick.
Condry (2007) - Policing the Family
the state may seek to control and regulate family life by imposing compulsory Parenting Orders through the courts. Parents of young offenders, truants or badly behaved children may be forced to attend parenting classes to learn the ‘correct’ way to bring up children
Functionalist Criticisms - Social Policy
.It assumes that all members of the family benefit equally from social policies, whereas feminists argue that policies often benefit men more than women.
.It assumes that there is a ‘march of progress’ with social policies, gradually making life better, which is a view criticised by Marxists (welfare benefits cut)
Social Policies Undermining NF
.Laws making divorce easier undermine the idea of a lifelong commitment
.The introduction of civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples – sending wrong idea that undermines the heterosexual marriage
They see increased family diversity and freedom as detrimental to society - ↓ Social Stability
Land - Social Policies are Patriarchal
Patriarchal policies will encourage marriage & the gendered division of labour. Policies reinforces this norm and creates a self-fulfilling prophecy as everyone sees it as normal and the way to live if everyone else is in a nuclear family!
Feminism - Patriarchal Family Policies
.Tax and benefits policies may assume that husbands are the main wage earners and that wives are their financial dependent
.Childcare – while the govt does pay for some childcare in places, it’s not always enough for parents to work full time.
.Care for the sick and elderly – Govt expect family to do this = usually the woman who does this
Leonard (1978) - Feminist - Social Policies
Policies that seem to benefit women often actually benefit men more E.g. Maternity Leave, Child Benefit being paid to Women
= reinforces gender roles!
Drew (1995) - Gender Regimes
family policies help to promote gender regimes that can prevent or reinforce gender inequality in the family
assume that men are the main breadwinners who support their wives. Females are careers & homemakers.
1979 – 2019 Prime Ministers
1979 - Margaret Thatcher \
CONSERVATIVE
1990 - John Major /
1997 -Tony Blair \
NEW LABOUR
2007 - Gordon Brown /
2010 - David Cameron \
2016 - Theresa May CONSERVATIVE
2019 - Boris Johnson /
Social Liberalism Definition
a belief in gender equality and acceptance of a wide variety of different types of family
Thatcher + Major - Policies Supporting Trad NF
1988 - budget changed taxation so that cohabiting couples could no longer claim more in tax allowances than a married couple
1993 - Child Support Agency was to make absent fathers pay to support their children even after a relationship had failed = less burden on state
Thatcher + Major - Policy Supporting Social Lib
Divorce made easier in 1984, and further legislation gave ‘illegitimate’ children the same rights (e.g. inheritance rights) as those born within marriage
Blair + Brown - Policy Supporting Trad NF
1998 Government Green Paper “Supporting Families” – number of measures to support marriage and reduce divorce
Blair + Brown - Policy Controlling Families
2003 Parenting Order – parents to have guidance and counselling if their children acted in anti-social ways / broke the law
Blair + Brown - Policies Supporting Social Lib
.2001 New Deal - aims to help lone parents get jobs or increase their hours of work
.2006 Childcare Act – required councils to make sure there were enough childcare places available for mothers in the area
Blair + Brown - Policies Supporting Families
Sure Start Centres – provided child services, parenting courses + play for children
Family Intervention Projects – work with ‘families at risk’ of social exclusion
Cameron + May - Policies Supporting Trad NF
2015 = tax break for married couples and civil partners = favoured the NF 2017 = govt withdrew child benefit from new claimants for third/additional children = designed to discourage benefit-reliant families from having children they couldn’t afford to support
Cameron + May - Policies Supporting Social Lib
.Childcare policies from 2010-2017 gave additional support to families where BOTH partners worked
.Equality Act 2010 = The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society
.2015 – parental leave = shared between both partners rather than just the woman
.Same-sex marriage legalized 2014
Cameron + May - Policies Intervening in Families
.2011 - £450 billion programme targeting 120,000 problem families – control rather than support
.Immigration SP – discriminated against those on low incomes by preventing them from living together
Cameron + May - Policy Not intervening
Significant cuts to Sure Start Centres
Coalition government 2010-2015 Evaluation
They were more interesting in saving money rather than a desire to promote/discourage traditional family norms
= these policies hit the finances of most families and households
Conservative Govts 1979-1997 Evaluation
Considering how important family and traditional family values was said to be by New Right politicians in the 1980s and 1990s, there was actually not a huge amount of ground-breaking new policy in this area.
Morgan (2007,2014) - Social Policy Against NF
argues that a range of measures have destabilised this type of family and have even provided incentives to live outside the traditional NF
She even states that there has been a ‘war’ between the state and the family which has been very damaging to family life
Morgan - war between the state and the family
.Abolishing Marriage – Morgan argues that tax and benefits have been changed to remove any advantages for married couples
.Divorce and lone parents
.The state as breadwinner – the state has become the breadwinner rather than the men of the house.
.The state as the child carer – New Labour govt established the lone mother family type as the BASIC family type
Impact of Social Policy on Family Structures
.Increased cohabitation and delayed marriage - Equal Pay Act / Sex Discrimination Act
.Increased divorce - Divorce Reform Act 1969
.Same-sex families - Adoption and Children’s Act (2002) , Same Sex Marriage legalized 2014
.More lone-parent families - 2001 New Deal ,Child Support Agency
Social Policy as Biased Towards Conventional Families
.School hours and long school holidays = hard for parents to both work full time – mother will stay home
.Care of relatives = seen as female responsibility
.The 2015 tax break only for married couples = favoured the NF
