Do social policies have a positive effect on families? Flashcards
Yes positive effect as it helps families perform functions
It helps families to perform functions- Functionalists argue that social policies help nuclear families to perform the 4 functions of family more effectively and make family life better. Fletcher argues that the welfare state and the introduction of the NHS by Labour government supports families as it takes the pressure off the
family so the family can concentrate on its 4 main functions.
+C=Functionalists assume that social policies benefit
everyone in the family equally, while Feminists say social policies
benefit men more than women. Secondly, Functionalists assume
that social policies are making family life better, while Marxists
say that they can make life worse, e.g. cutting benefits makes poor
people poorer.
Yes positive effect as it decreases poverty `
New labour argue that social policies such as minimum wage, sure start and child trust fund benefit poorer families in the UK. In this way families such as LPF are most benefited as it takes pressure from lone parents to provide basic educational needs such as books. Also the New labour introduced compensatory education policy which helped take stress of mothers and allow them to work while their child went to nursery free of charge. This positively affects the family as children are instilled with the values needed for educational success and mother can work to provide for family financially rather than having to look after her young kids. +C= After coalition government came into power they scrapped the compensatory and sure start programmes so the poor became even poorer.
Yes positive as it It allows for march of progress towards equality
Liberal feminists argue that social policies such as the creation of paternity leave by new labour. This was then extended by the Coalition government. This creates march of progress towards gender equality as now fathers get to spend time with the new-born to bond as a family – it acknowledges the man’s responsibility for childcare. Furthermore the extension of paternity leave is an even greater march of progress as now mothers and fathers can share responsibility for childcare 50/50. Moreover policies such as sex discrimination and equal pay act help women to become more independent and shows the extent of the march of progress view as women are becoming equal to men. +C= These policies can be described as a cosmetic as it makes people think that they are positive as they make women think that they get paid more but on average women still get paid less than men
No it has negative effects as it creates dependency culture
New Right are particularly critical of welfare policies. For example Murray argues that generous welfare benefits such as council housing for unmarried teenage mothers and cash payments to support LPF undermine the NF and encourage dysfunctional family types that harm society. He also argues that these policies create a perverse incentive. For example they encourage fathers to abandon responsibility towards their families as they see that the gov will look after them. Also providing council houses for unmarried teenage mothers encourages young girls to become pregnant. Moreover because of the growth of LPF boys grow up without male role models so they turn to street gangs and this increases crime rates in the UK. Therefore it creates a dependency culture as these people depend on the state and become reliant on them. This threatens two essential functions of the family:
-Successful socialisation of young
-maintenance of work ethic among men. New right claims that to fix this you need to cut benefits and deny council housing for unmarried teenage mothers. +c= Abbot and Wallace argue that cutting benefits would only make poor families even poorer and drive them into even greater poverty. Also they assume that the traditional nuclear family is natural rather than socially constructed.
No it has negative effects as it maintains capitalism
Marxists argue that Free education, health care and benefits are the result of class struggle.
They are the concessions the state has had to make to the working class,
fearing the consequence if they did nothing to improve the working class living standards a rebellion would occur. In reality, these social policies are just a smoke-screen making life appear
better, e.g. free NHS and state education. In reality, both are paid for by
the workers’ taxes so are not actually free and private education is better
than state education so ruling class children benefit more , while the ‘free’ health care is
only there to cure the workers so they can go back to work. +C= It is deterministic - it assumes all aspects of family life are
determined by economic forces. The approach focuses on one particular
type of family and does not deal adequately with alternative forms.
no it has negative effect as they police the family
They police the family- Donzelot has a negative view of social policies as he sees them as a form of state power and control over families. He uses Focault’s idea of surveillance and argues that government agencies such as social workers, teachers and doctors carry out surveillance of the family. They carry out policing of families with the aim of ‘improving them’. Poorer families are more likely to be seen as ‘problem families’ and policed more, e.g. parents whose children are seen as anti-social are forced to attend parenting classes to learn how to be better parents. +C=Donzelot fails to explain who benefits from the work of these professionals.
no as they maintain patriarhcy
Land argues that social policies help maintain women’s subordinate position and encourage a
particular type of family structure (nuclear family).For example, social policies on
taxation favours married couples which encourages couples to get married and discourages cohabitation. Furthermore they believe that many social policies are sexist. For example Maternity and paternity leave. Leonard argues that maternity leave enables women to receive medical care and recover from childbirth, but at the same time they are based on the assumption that childcare is the mother’s responsibility. Also, maternity leave payments are very low which makes women financially dependent on their partners. +C= not all laws are patriarchal, e.g. Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act protect women’s rights in the workplace.
Can have negative and positive effect but depends on where you live
On one hand Drew found that Greece had a traditional familistic gender regime, where social policies were based on the assumption that the husband works. As a result, there is no state welfare or childcare provision. So after birth the women has to either rely on kin or quit her job to look after children.
On the other hand she found that in Sweden they have individualistic gender regimes.The state provides childcare, parental leave and welfare services thus making women independent from their husbands and husbands responsible for childcare as they believe that women and men should be treated equally.
