Sociology Families And Households: Demography And Family & Social Policy Flashcards
Functionalists views on families & social policy
Social policy’s should help the family perform its functions
Functionalist:
(Social policy’s & family)
Ronald Fletcher(1966)
Argues that the intro of health, education and housing polices led to the welfare state that supports family’s eg NHS
Family & social policy-Functionalist critique
-assumes all members of the family benefit from the policy’s eg women
New Rights views on family structure
-nuclear family are fav beacuse of self reliance
New Right:
Brenda Almond (2006)
(Families & social policy)
-laws making divorce easier undermine marriage
-state no longer sees the nuclear family as superior due to civil partnership laws
New Right:
Social policy
(Families & social policy)
Charles Murray
-Reward irresponsible behaviour e.g:
-providing council houses for unmarried teen mums -encourages young girls to get pregnant
-Encouraging dependency culture
New Right critique on
family & social policy
-Claire Wallace(1992) argues that cutting benefits would drive poor family’s into even greater poverty
-feminist argue that the new right prefer the nuclear family due to its domestic roles
Feminist views on Social policy
-see society as male dominated
-belive the state and policy’s maintain women’s subordinate position
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Land (1978)
-social policy’s assume that the ideal family is nuclear
Policy’s that support the patriarchal family:
-tax benefits for marriage
-childcare
Critique on feminists views on social policy
-benefits for lone parents
-equal pay act (2010)
Reasons for decline in birth rate:
-changes in women’s position
-decline in the infant mortality rate
-children are an economic liability
-child centrednees
Reasons for decline in birth rate:
changes in women’s postition
-major changes in 20th century
-legally equal
Access to divorce
-divorce reinformact of 1971
- Harper the education of women is the reason for decline in birth rates more concentrated on careers
Reasons for decline in birth rate: Decline in infant mortality
-Harper argues IMR leads to a fall in birth rate
-if infants die parents have more children to replace them whereas if they don’t die they have less children
Reasons why IMR have fallen:
-better housing & sanitation
-better nutrition
Reasons for decline in birth rate: children are now economically liable
-children were econmic assets as they could work
-Laws: banning child Labour
-compulsory schooling
-rising leaving age at school
-changing norms as children expect material items from parents
Effects of changes in fertility:
-The Family
-The dependency ratio
-Public services and policies
Reasons for the decline in the death rate:
-improved nutrition
- medical improvements
-smoking and diet
-public Health mixes
Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Smoking & diet
-Harper argues that the greatest fall in deaths is beacuse of less smoking not medical improvements but obesity is replacing smoking
-e.g 2012 1/4 of Uk adults were obese
-‘American’ way of life but long lifespan is achievable due to costly medicine
Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Improved nutrition
-McKeown argues that improved nutrition has contributed to half the reduction in death rates
-improved nutrition increase resistance to infection
Reasons for the decline in the death rate: critique of improved nutrition
-McKeown doesn’t explain why females live longer and fails to explain deaths from infections diseases acctully rose at this time
Reasons for the decline in the death rate: Public health measures
-government enforced laws that led to improvements in public health and quality of environment
Laws such as:
-Purer drinking water
-pasteurisation on milk
-improved sewage disposal
Effects of an aging population :
-Public services
-one person pensioner householders
-dependency ratio
Effects of an aging population : public services
-older people consume larger proportion of health and social care then other age groups
Effects of an aging population : dependency ratio
-non-working old are econmically dependent
-e.g taxation to pay for pensioners and health care
-as the number of retired people rises increases dependency ratio
-ageing population offsets by a decline number of dependent children
