Family: Theory and Policy Flashcards

Question

Murray

Answer 1

Critical of welfare policy - "generous" benefits and council housing for unmarried teen mothers, encourages deviant family types that harm society. Perverse incentives reward irresponsible behaviour e.g. if the state supports children, fathers will abandon their responsibility to their family. Lack of a father figure role model leads to male crime. There is an underclass. Current policies encourage dependency culture. Threatens two functions of family -socialisation of the young, and the maintenance of work ethic in men. (New Right)

Answer 2

Cuts to welfare spending. Tighter restrictions on who qualifies for benefits, meaning fathers have more incentive to work and provide. Denying council housing to unmarried teen mothers removes any incentive to be pregnant when young. Introduce taxes that favour married, not cohabiting couples.

Answer 3

Functionalists - state welfare policies can benefit the family, help the state support the family better. New Right - the less the state "interferes" in the family, the better family life will be due to greater self-reliance. Benston (Marxist Feminist) would say that the New Right would have women working unpaid domestic labour in the home, and would force them to recreate the workforce at a greater rate. Feminism would argue that having women in the home is oppression, and New Right policies would force women away from being independent.

Answer 4

Cutting benefits drives poor families into more poverty, makes them even less self-reliant. Ignores policies that do support conventional nuclear families. Assumes patriarchal nuclear family to be "natural" rather than socially constructed.

Answer 5

Section 28: Ban on promoting homosexuality as an acceptable family relationship in schools. Child Support Agency (today known as Child Maintenance Service): Enforcing maintenance payments by absent parents (often fathers). This discourages fathers from leaving because they will be forced to pay for the child anyway.

Answer 6

Measures to make divorce easier. Child Support Agency (because it legitimises the idea of absent parents). Giving "illegitimate children born outside of wedlock the same rights as those born to married parents.

Answer 7

Some similarity between New Right and New Labour: Family as the bedrock of society. Heterosexual married couple as the best environment for bringing up children. Need for partners to take responsibility - introduced "Parenting Orders" policy for parents of young offenders. Differences: Favoured "dual earner" family - recognised women go out to work too now.

Answer 8

Labour government of 1997-2010 mostly embraced social liberalism. Examples of policies in line with this are: 2002 Adoption Act which allowed same-sex couples to adopt children. 2004 Civil Partnership Act - legal union of same-sex relationships. However, also introduced interventionist policies to support low-income families. Examples of policies in line with this are: Sure Start Centres in deprived areas to provide help and advice. Working Families Tax Credits introduced in 1999 (and later Child Tax Credits) which were benefits paid to low-income working parents. Henricson argues that the result of these interventionist policies was a 25% reduction in child poverty. However, they also introduced controlling policies such as the 2003 change to Parenting Orders which allowed for welfare benefits to be withdrawn if parents did not attend parenting training.

Answer 9

Hayton: Hayton argues the Conservatives have long been divided into 2 groups: Modernisers: Recognise families are more diverse now and are willing to reflect this in policy e.g. sae-sex marriage introduced by conservative government. Traditionalists: Favour the New Right approach - reject family diversity as morally wrong. This division has made it hard to maintain consistent family policy for the Conservatives. Traditionalist influence was also weakened by the Liberal Democrat coalition (2010-15) Critics argue that Conservative financial austerity policies reflect the New Right desire to cut welfare spending. However, the Conservatives failed to introduce policies to promote the New Right nuclear family ideal e.g. when they introduced shared parental leave (2015) and increased free childcare for working parents (2017)

Answer 10

The functions of the family serve Capitalism

Answer 11

In primitive communism, there is no family but instead a "promiscuous horde". As the mode of production changes, so does the family. Increased wealth = private property emerges, giving rise to the monogamous patriarchal nuclear family. Monogamy is essential to this - private property has to be inherited by a legitimate heir. The legitimacy of the heir is supported by there being no confusion over who is the father or mother, due to monogamy. Women's sexuality under male control - they are there to produce children. Solution? Overthrow of Capitalism and abolition of private property - liberate women and create a classless society. (Marxism)

Answer 12

The family carries out ideological functions for Capitalism, such as socialising children that inequality and hierarchy is inevitable/unavoidable - often that male power is the norm as well (father is often the head of the household). Teaches children to accept orders from the bourgeoisie once employed. (Marxism)

Answer 13

The family offers a "haven" from the harsh world of Capitalism - workers can be themselves at home. Similar to the warm bath theory. However, this is an illusion. The family cannot meet its members' needs e.g. it is based on the domestic servitude of women, so is not meeting their needs. (Marxism)

Answer 14

Family is no longer a unit of production (working on a farm, making things etc). Capitalism encourages "family life" in their image - parents feel compelled to buy the commodities and household goods marketed to families. Family is an important market in the economy because it consumes the latest products (kids want the latest trends), the media targets children to persuade their parents to buy things, and children are mocked or bullied if they don't have the latest products. (Marxism)

Answer 15

All aspects of life are commodified, including family/emotional life e.g. party planners, care workers - forms of emotional labour becoming consumer services for Capitalism to profit from. This results in alienation - we are estranged from activities that used to be personal and from others. We even become estranged from ourselves (become less human) e.g. surrogate mothers are estranged from the pregnancy and the baby because it makes it easier to give the baby away if the mother does not think of it as hers - this is a market where a child is the commodity. (Marxism)

Answer 16

Functionalists - ignore benefits of family for its members Feminists - argue Marxists underestimate the importance of gender inequality within the family. The family serves the interests of men.

Answer 17

Policies benefit only the ruling class and interests of Capitalism: Ideological legitimation - masking Capitalist exploitation (e.g. the welfare state gives Capitalism a more "human face"). Maintain labour force e.g. NHS - keeps workers able to work. Prevents revolution by "buying off" opposition (welfare state).

Answer 18

Oppression is gradually being overcome through changing attitudes and policy e.g. some men now do domestic work. Full equality in the family however, depends on more reform and changing the way both sexes are socialised. Somerville - principled pragmatism

Answer 19

The main cause of women's oppression in the family is Capitalism Their oppression serves several functions for Capitalism: Benston - The family reproduces the labour force - unpaid labour is done and the next generation of the Proletariat is socialised. Ansley - absorption of anger (domestic violence) Reserve army of cheap labour. Family should be abolished, as well as Capitalism.

Answer 20

Family and marriage are key institutions in the patriarchy. Family is the root of women's oppression. Men benefit from women's domestic labour and sexual services. They dominate women through violence, or the threat of it. Family should be abolished - separatism is the solution (some argue for political lesbianism). Greer - matrilocal households

Answer 21

Others assume women live in nuclear families and have similar experiences. Difference Feminists say this is not true. Black feminists view the black family as a source of support and resistance against racism. A black single-mother family supported by multiple female adults is an example of a matrifocal family (with women as the head of the family, not a family with only women), which can be considered empowering rather than oppressive.

Answer 22

The traditional nuclear family is a myth and an ideology has been constructed to support it. Alternative families have been devalued because they don't conform to this ideology e.g. unmarried couples, childless couples, gay and lesbian families. There are great variations in family type (based on class, religion, ethnicity etc) - other feminist perspectives ignore these types. (Difference Feminism)

Answer 23

Marxists and Radical Feminists - see Liberal Feminism as failing to get to the root cause. Somerville - Radical Feminists fail to recognise progress e.g. divorce being easier, control over fertility etc. Also separatism is unlikely due to the simple fact of heterosexual attraction. Difference Feminists ignore the fact that all women do share similar experiences e.g. they all face the risk of domestic violence, lower pay etc.

Answer 24

Policies assume the ideal "normal" family is a patriarchal nuclear family. The state assumes normal families are based on marriage. This impacts policy, such as when tax incentives are offered to married couples. This then reinforces the idea of the nuclear family at the expense of other types of family: for example, marriage is encouraged instead of cohabitation. Policy makes it more difficult for people to live in other family types than the one policymakers assume they live in. (Feminism)

Answer 25

Feminists see the state as helping to maintain women's oppression in the family. Even Somerville recognises the need for more "family friendly" policies like more flexible working. Tax and benefit policies assume husbands are the main wage earners: this leads to economic dependence on the husband for the wife. It can make it impossible for wives to claim social security benefits in their own right - it is seen that husbands will provide. The government only pays part of the cost for childcare: women are often restricted from working as they need to care for children. This makes them financially dependent on the male partner. Policies assuming the family will care for the elderly or sick end up making women do the caring. This prevents them from working full-time and makes them dependent on male income again. (Feminism)

Answer 26

Even when policies appear to support women, they still enforce patriarchal control e.g. maternity leave. Maternity leave - more generous than paternity leave, encourages the assumption that care of infants is the responsibility of mothers. Maternity benefits are also low - this makes the woman dependent on her husband. Child benefit is often paid to the mother - this assumes the child is her responsibility. (Feminism)

Answer 27

1970 equal pay act. Somerville - policy leading to positive change e.g. sex discrimination act (1975) made it so one cannot discriminate in employment. Rape within marriage made illegal in 1991. 2010 Equality Act made pregnancy a protected characteristic. 2020 Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act. (Feminism, especially Liberal)

Answer 28

Social policies in different countries can encourage or discourage gender equality in the family - this highlights how influential policy can be. (Feminism)

Answer 29

Policies based on traditional male breadwinner and female housewife. Example - Greece: little state welfare, traditional division of labour. (Drew) (Feminism)

Answer 30

Policies based on the belief husbands and wives should be treated the same. Wives are not assumed to be financially dependent on husbands - each partner has separate entitlement to state benefits. Example - Sweden: equal opportunities policies, state childcare - women don't have to depend on husband, more opportunities to work. The EU is moving towards this, but it requires money for welfare and the 2008 financial crisis put them back.

Answer 31

1979, written into the constitution in 1982.

Answer 32

China had huge overpopulation problems, which strained their resources and welfare systems.

Answer 33

By the mid-1980s, rural parents were allowed to have a second child if the first was a girl. Exceptions were also allowed for ethnic minorities with under 10 million population. By 1984, only 35.4% of the population was subject to the rules after numerous other exceptions were made. In 2015 it was changed to two children, and in May 2021 to three. In July 2021, the policy was scrapped, and soon there were benefits in place to incentivise having more children.

Answer 34

Free childcare, higher tax allowance, and their only child gets better priority in education and housing later on than secondary children from any other families.

Answer 35

They could face fines, and the women could be forcibly sterilised or be forced to abort children or put children up for adoption.

Answer 36

It links to Donzelot because he said that family policies are in place to control and police the family.

Answer 37

The opposite problem to China was taking place - the birth rate was not high enough. It had been falling as living standards steadily declined. Measures included: Restricted contraception and abortion. Setting up infertility centres. Making divorce more difficult. Lowering the legal age of marriage to 15. Making unmarried adults and childless couples pay an extra 5% income tax.

Answer 38

Encouraged racial purity to breed a master race - restricted abortion and contraception. Kept women out of work. Children, Kitchen and Church were the roles of women. State compulsory sterilisation of 375,000 disabled people - seen as unfit to breed. Many undesirables of this sort later killed in concentration camps.

Answer 39

Children, kitchen, church.

Answer 40

People looking to get married could get marriage loans which were written off if the couple had enough children. Medals and financial rewards were given to women who had more children.

Answer 41

Women were banned from working, and women who did not have a job were not counted as unemployed. In education they were taught that their traditional role was natural. Feminine clothing was encouraged instead of trousers, and women were expected not to wear makeup.

Family: Theory and Policy Flashcards

(65 cards)