Families And Social Policy Flashcards
(13 cards)
Functionalist view on social policy
-State acts in interests of the whole society and its policies benefit everyone
-Policies help family to perform its functions, like socialising children and caring for the welfare of its members
-There’s a march of progress that policies are gradually imrovoimg family life eg the welfare state enables families to look after their members better, through access to the NHS
BUT
-assumes that policies benefit everyone, feminists say they only benefit men
-Also assume that it makes family life better, yet can be argued they can also make it worse eg cutting benefits to poor families
The new right view on social policy
-sees the traditional nuclear family as natural, and based on the biological division of labour between male bread winners and female nurturer
-if parents perform these roles properly, the family will, be self reliant, able to care for and socialise members effectively
-opposes family diversity and sees lone parent and single sex families as damaging to children
BUT
-feminists criticise new right views as an attempt to justify the patriarchal nuclear family that oppresses women
-nuclear family isn’t natural, but socially constructed
What do the new right see as a problem in social policy and what is there solution?
PROBLEM: criticise many welfare policies for undermining the family’s self reliance by providing generous benefits eg to lone parent families
-results in a dependency culture where individuals depend on the state to support their families
-Murray (1984)- benefits are ‘perverse incentives’ rewarding irresponsible behaviours, encouraging fathers to abandon their families
SOLUTION: new right favour cutting welfare spending, especially universal benefits.*(8# will give fathers more incentive to provide for their families. Unlike functionalists, who see policies benefitting the family, the new right believe that the less families that depend on the state, the better
What is the new right influence on social policy?
-banned promotion of homosexuality by the local authorities
-set up Child Support Agency to enforce maintenance payments by absent parents
BUT
-there has been a split (eg over gay marriage)
-during the coalition with Lib Dem’s, the influence of traditionalists has decreased
What are the similarities and differences between The New Right and New Labour?
-like the new right, new Labour saw a married heterosexual couple as the best environment for raising a child
BUT
-preferred the dual earner, neo conventional family with policies that made it easier for both parents to work
-The New Deal, helping lone parents return to work
-nl has argued that state intervention can improve life of families eg through welfare, taxation and minimum wage policies to lift children out of poverty by redistributing income
-introduced civil partnerships for same sex couples
Feminist view on social policy
-conflict perspective, sees society as patriarchal
-social policies often shape or define family life in ways that benefit men and maintain patriarchy, disadvantaging women and maintaining their subordination
-Land (1978) policies often assume the patriarchal family to be the norm, policies act as a SFP, actually helping to reproduce this family life (eg maternity leave is longer than paternity leave, reinforcing women’s responsibility for childcare
BUT not all policies maintain patriarchy
(Eg women’s refuges and laws against rape in marriages. In Sweden, policies treat women as individuals, not dependants)
Gender regimes
Drew (1995) concept of gender regimes describes how social policies in different countries can either encourage or discourage gender equality in the family
1) familistic- assumes a traditional gender division between male bread winner and female home maker
Eg in Greece there is little state welfare and women have to reply on support from extended kin
2) Individualistic- treat husbands and wives the same eg in Sweden, equal opportunities policies, parental leave and good welfare services mean women are independent and have more opportunities to work
Donzelot-
Policing of the family
Donzelot (1977)
-conflict view of society and sees policy as a form of state power and control over families
-uses Foucaults concept of surveillance
-interested in how professionals carry out surveillance of families eg social workers and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families
-this is called the policing of families
-surveillance isn’t targeted equally on all social classes, poor families are seen as problem families
-Condry, state may seek control and regulate family life by imposing compulsory parenting orders through the courts
Donzelot evaluation
-Donzelot rejects functionalists MOP view, he sees social policy as a form of state control of the family
- focuses on micro level of how ‘caring professionals’ acts of agents of social control through surveillance of families
-Marxists and feminists critique him for failing to identify clearly who benefits from such policies, eg Marxists- operate in interests in capitalist class, feminist- operate in interests of men
Comparative view
China
Cross cultural examples from different societies and historical periods can show us some of the more extreme ways in which state policies can affect the families life
This can help us to see the relationships between families and social policies in a new light
Eg China’s one child policy which was where fhe governments population policy aimed to discourage couples from having more than one child. The policy is supervised by workplace family planning committees where women must seek their permission to try to become pregnant, and there is often both a waiting list and a quota for each factory. Couples who comply with the policy get extra benefits such as free child healthcare and higher tax allowances. Any only child will also get priority in education and housing in later life. Couples who break their agreement to only have one child must repay the allowances and pay a fine, women face pressure to undergo sterilisation after their first child
Comparative view
Communist Romania
-The former communist government of Romania in the 1980s introduced a series of policies to try and drive up the birth rate, which had been falling as living standards decline.
-It restricted contraception and abortion, set up infertility treatment centres and made divorce more difficult, it lowered the legal age of marriage to 15, made unmarried adults and childless couples pay an extra 5% income tax
Comparative view
Nazi family policy
-In Nazi Germany, in the 1930s, the state pursued a twofold policy
One one hand, it encouraged the healthy and supposedly racially pure to breed a master race
Official policy sought to keep women out of the workforce and confine them to the children, kitchen and church, the better to perform the biological role
-The state compulsory sterilised 375,000 disabled people that it deemed unfit to breed in groups of physical malformation.
Many of these were later murdered in Nazi concentration camps
