Families and social policy Flashcards
What are 4 cross-cultural examples of state policies?
- China’s one-child policy
- Communist Romania, this was to try bring up the birth rate (restricted contraception and abortion and made divorce difficult)
- Nazi family policy, encouraged the ‘racially pure’ to breed a ‘master race’ but compulsorily sterilised 375,000 disabled people
- Democratic societies, family is a private sphere of life in which the gov doesn’t involve in
What is the functionalist view on social policy?
They see the state as acting in the best interests of society as a whole and its social policies being good for all, the policies help families in performing their functions effectively
What does Fletcher argue?
Introduction of health, education and housing policies since the industrial revolution has gradually led to the development of the welfare state
How has the functionalist view been criticised?
- It assumes all members of the family benefit equally
- It assumes there is a ‘march of progress’
What did Foucault suggest?
He came up with the concept of surveillance, he sees power not just as something held by the gov/state but as diffused throughout society (doctors and social workers exercise their power over clients)
How does Donzelot apply Foucault ideas to the family?
- He argues social workers/health visitors use their knowledge to control and change families he calls this ‘policing of the families’
What inequality in surveillance did Donzelot find?
Poor families are more likely to be seen as ‘problem’ families and as the cause of crime and anti-social behaviour, they are seen as the target for ‘improvement’
What did Condry find?
The state may seek to control and regulate family life by imposing compulsory Parenting Orders through the courts
What does the New Right believe?
- Strongly in favour of the conventional nuclear family based on a married heterosexual couple, they see this family type as self-reliant - Changes in the family are threatening the conventional family and producing social problems
How does Almond argue that state policies have encouraged changes in the family and undermines the nuclear family?
- Laws making divorce easier undermine the idea of marriage as a lifelong commitment
- The introduction of the Civil Partnerships sends out the message that the state no longer sees heterosexual marriage as superior
What does Murray argue?
- They believe by the welfare state providing ‘generous’ benefits it encourages deviant behaviour and undermines the conventional nuclear family it also offers perverse incentives by:
1. Providing council housing unmarried teenage mothers encourages more to get pregnant
2. Fathers see the state will maintain their children so abandon their responsibilities
3. Growth of lone-parent families encouraged by generous benefits means more boys grow up without an authority figure
What is the New Right’s solution?
- Policy must be changed with cuts in welfare spending and tighter restrictions, cutting welfare benefits would mean reduced taxes which would give fathers more incentives to work
- The less the state interferes in families the better family life will be
How has the New Right been criticised?
- Feminists argue its an attempt to justify a return to traditional patriarchal nuclear family which confined women to a domestic role
- It wrongly assumes that the patriarchal family is ‘natural’ rather than socially constructed
- Abbott and Wallace argue cutting benefits drive poor families into greater poverty
What was the Conservative Governments view 1979-97?
- Mrs Thatcher’s conservative gov banned promotion of homosexuality, including a ban on teaching that homosexuality was acceptable
- They also defined divorce as a social problem
What is the New labour view 1997-2010? What did Silva and Smart say?
- Agree with the New Right that the married heterosexual couple as the best environment for children
- Silva and Smart notes the New Labour rejects that there should be one earner
What New Labour policies favour the kind of dual-earner neo-conventional family described by Chester?
- Longer maternity leave for both parents
- Working families tax credit
How has the conservatives been divided according to Hayton?
Modernisers = recognise families are now more diverse and are willing to reflect this in their policies
Traditionalists = who favour a New Right view and reject diversity as morally wrong
- It has been difficult to maintain a consistent policy line
What is the feminist view?
They see society as patriarchal, they argue all institutions including the state and its policies help to maintain women’s subordinate position
What does Feminists such as Land argue that social policies do?
Create a self-fulfilling prophecy, the policy makes it more difficult for people to live in other family types than the one the policymakers assume they live in
What policies does feminists identify as supporting the patriarchal family?
- Tax and benefits policies
- Childcare
- Care for the sick and elderly
- Maternity leave being more generous than paternity leave
- Child benefit
What is an evaluation of the feminist view?
- Not all policies are directed at maintaining patriarchy e.g equal pay act and sex discrimination laws
What does Drew mean by ‘gender regimes’ ?
- How social policies in different countries can either encourage or discourage gender equality
1. Familistic gender regimes, policies based on a traditional gender division
2. Individualistic gender regimes, policies based on the belief husbands and wives are treated the same
What did Drew argue regarding state vs market?
Since the global recession cutbacks in gov spending caused more women to take more responsibility in caring for family members
