New right and the family Flashcards
Charles Murray
He argues that an underclass has developed made up of the poorest people at the bottom of society who are dependent on welfare benefits rather than work. Says that lone parent families headed by women form a big section of this underclass and that children growing up without fathers are likely to do worse at school and are more likely to turn to crime. He lays the blame on successive governments who have rewarded irresponsible behaviour by giving generous welfare benefits to lone mothers. This has created welfare dependency.
Dennis and Erdos
Families without fatherhood:
argue that children raised by single mothers on average have lower educational attainments and poorer health than children from two-parent families. Boys in particular who grow up without learning that adulthood involves taking responsibility and so are immature.
Criticism/evaluation
New Right thinkers have been accused of looking back to a ‘golden age’ of family life, where marriage was respected and where the nuclear family was overwhelmingly the norm. In reality, lone parent families, cohabitation and sexual relationships outside of marriage were often commonplace, they were just concealed in the past. People often received harsh treatment which most people find unacceptable today.
