Family Policy Flashcards
What does the new right feel is the solution to the dependency culture?
Abolish welfare benefits
Increase child support agency to get fathers to pay maintenance
Tax breaks for married couples
Stop council housing for teen mothers.
What is the new right perspective on family policy?
Less intervention into the family the better as e family should be self reliant.
Murray- Benefits perverse incentive that undermine self reliance and create dependency culture.
Criticisms of the new right policy towards the family?
Justify return to patriarchy
Assume patriarchy natural
Benefit cut drive more into poverty
What is the new labour view on family policy?
Similar to new right, incentives to marry, cut lone parent benefits
But believe state intervention can improve: adoption for cohabiting and gay couples, redistribute income via benefits to the poor to prevent poverty- means tested not universal
What is the feminist view on family policy?
Policies based on the traditional family- self fulfilling prophecy, reinforce patriarchy
Land 78
patriarchal, assume split roles, if man working hard for female to get benefits in own right.
Leach 67
Cereal packet family
Drew 1995
Gender regimes-
familistic Greece- assume split roles, little funded childcare, rely on relatives.
Individualistic- husbands and wives treated the same,each partner separate entitlement to state benefits Sweden and EU
BUT expensive, conflict as for who should qualify so no definite march of progress
Leonard 78
Even when policies seem to support actually reinforce, ie maternity, child benefit to mothers and custody courts all assume child care female responsibility.
What is the functionalist perspective on family policy?
Intervention help performance of roles
Fletcher 1996- since 1900 crate and increase welfare, help perform roles, ie NHS.
Criticisms of the functionalist perspective
Assume universal benefit and march of progress
Criticism of the feminist perspective
Not all policies patriarchal, ie equal pay
Marxist perspective on the family
No march of progress, all benefits won by class struggle and can easily be taken away.
Ie Thatcher cuts public services in 80s
Improvements fit needs of capitalism- 1145 nurseries during ww2 so women can work. Stopped 1945, no bargaining power.
Nazi germany
Forcibly sterilised 375,000 disabled.
Women stay at home, prizes and medals for having many Aryan children.
Romania
Increase birth rate by banning contraception, reducing the marriage age and taxing all unmarried and childless.
