Families And Social Policy

Question 1

Give two examples of family policy in other cultures.

Answer 1

• China’s one child policy
• Communist Romania’s policies to drive up their birth rates
• Nazi Family Policy to breed a ‘master race’

Question 2

What is the general functionalist perspective on state policy on the family?

Answer 2

The state acts for the betterment of society on the whole and so creates policy that will help families to fulfil their function within society.

Question 3

What does Fletcher (1966) believe the effect of health, education, and housing policy post-war was on families?

Answer 3

These policies led to the creation of the Welfare state that supports families by helping to take care of sick members more efficiently.

Question 4

What are the two criticisms of the functionalist perspective of the family?

Answer 4

• It assumes that all members of the family benefit equally, whereas feminists argue that policy benefits men at the expense of women.
• It assumes a ‘march of progress’ but this is not always true, such as with Roe V Wade in the US and privatisation in the UK.

Question 5

Outline Foucault (1976) and surveillance.

Answer 5

Power is within government, but is also spread throughout society. Professions such as doctors and social workers exercise power over clients by using their knowledge to turn them into ‘cases’.

Question 6

How does Donzelot (1977) apply Foucault (1976) to the family.

Answer 6

• Professionals like social workers and health visitors use their knowledge and power to control the family.
• This disproportionately affects poorer families who are more likely to be seen as ‘problems’ and in need of ‘improvement’ such as with parenting classes where they learn the ‘correct’ way to parent.

Question 7

Give a criticism of Donzelot (1977).

Answer 7

• Functionalism: people like doctors can help the family by healing sickness
• Marxist and Feminist: Donzelot does not specify who this benefits, men or capitalists?

Question 8

What is the New Right’s ideal family structure?

Answer 8

‘Traditional’ nuclear family: married heterosexual couple with a division of labour between a male provider and a female homemaker.

Question 9

Give one way Almond (2006) argues policy has undermined the nuclear family.

Answer 9

• divorce becoming easier undermines marriage as a lifelong commitment
• introduction of civil partnerships and marriage for gay couples undermines heterosexuality as superior
• tax laws discriminate against single breadwinner households as tax breaks are not transferable.

Question 10

What does Charles Murray (1984; 1990) describe welfare as doing? Give an example.

Answer 10

Welfare benefits offer a ‘perverse incentive’ (they reward irresponsible or antisocial behaviour)
- Fathers are more likely to abandon their families if the state will take care of them
- Young girls are less scared of getting pregnant if the government provides them council housing

Question 11

Give two ways the New Right plans to solve ‘dependency culture’ and how it would ‘help’.

Answer 11

• Cutting welfare spending, which means less taxes, encourages fathers to work and provide for their families
• Enforcing tighter restrictions on who is eligible for benefits removes the main incentive to become pregnant very young
• Taxes that favour married over cohabiting couples encourages them to be more like the nuclear family.

Question 12

Give two criticisms of the New Right policy on the family.

Answer 12

• Feminists: it attempts a return to the patriarchal family that historically subjugates women
• wrongly assumes the patriarchal nuclear family as ‘natural’ rather than socially constructed
• Abbot and Wallace (1992): cutting benefits will only drive poor families into greater poverty
• New Right ignores policy that supports the Nuclear Family.
• There is no ‘incentive’ to become pregnant when young.

Question 13

How did the Conservative government (1979-97) support and obstruct the Nuclear Family?

Answer 13

+ Article 28: banning of the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities
+ Set up the Child Support Agency to enforce maintenance payments by absent parents
- Made divorce easier (reduced minimum years of marriage from 1 to one)
- Gave illegitimate children the same rights as those born to married parents.

Question 14

How did New Labour (1997-2010) support and obstruct the Nuclear Family?

Answer 14

+ Favoured a married heterosexual couple for raising children
+ Introduced Parenting Orders
- Also supported dual-earner neo-conventional families with policies like the New Deal (which helped lone parents return to work)
- Outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexuality and introduced civil partnerships

Question 15

How does Land (1978) argue policy acts as a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’?

Answer 15

• Policy makers assume the traditional patriarchal Nuclear family as ‘normal’
• They then create policy which encourages and reinforce these attributes
• These attributes become actually normal, by way of force.

Question 16

Give two policy areas that have supported the patriarchal family and how.

Answer 16

Tax and benefits policies: often assume husbands are the main wage earners which can makes it harder for wives to claim social security benefits

Childcare: does not cover the full time a child requires care which forces women to pick up the slack, this inhibits full time work and therefore economic independence

Care for the sick and elderly: often assumes the family will provide which forces middle-aged women to and has the same ultimate effect as childcare.

Question 17

Give a criticism of the feminist perspective of the family.

Answer 17

Many policies do not relate to the support of the patriarch and many even obstruct it such as equal pay and sex discrimination acts.

Question 18

What are Drew’s (1995) 2 types of gender regimes?

Answer 18

Familistic gender regimes: policy based around the traditional nuclear family, such as in Greece where there is little state welfare and women have to rely on kin

Individualistic gender regimes: policy which treats men and women equally, such as Sweden where there is equal parental leave and state provision of childcare.