2. Social Policy, ideology and the family

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  • Created on: 12-04-17 22:24
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  • Social Policy, ideology and the family
    • A comparative view of the family.
      • worlds more extreme social policies
        • China's one child policy
        • Communist Romania
          • Restricted contreception to increase birth rates
        • Nazi Germany
          • Master race
          • Womes roles are the 3 K's in german - children, kitchen, church.
    • Functionalism
      • society is built on harmony and consensus and free from major conflict.
      • The state acts in the interest of the society as a whole - they see policies as helping families to perform their functions more effectively
      • Fletcher
        • introduction of health, eductation and housing policies in the years since the industrial revolution has gradually led the development of the welfare state that supports the family
          • i.e the introduction of the NHS mean with the help of doctors and nurses, family can look after each other.
      • Criticisms
        • functionalists assumes that all members of the family benefit equally - whereas feminists would argue women do not benefit.
        • assumes there is a march of progress and is slowly making family life better
          • However Marxists argue policies can also reverse the progress made i.e. cutting welfare benefits for poor families.
    • Donzelot
      • Policing of Families
        • He looked at how professionals observe and monitor families. He argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families.
        • By using surveillance - those in the working-class are more likely to be seen as problem families and the cause of crime. These are the families that professionals target for 'improvement'
        • Condry
          • the state is controlling the family life through regulating parenting orders by the courts.
      • he agrees with the conflict view that social policy is a form of state control over the family.
      • Criticisms
        • Marxists and feminists criticise Donzelot for failing to clearly identify who benefits from such policies of surveillance.
      • He uses Foucalt's concept of surveillance. Foucalt doesn't just see power as something held by the government, he believes it is diffused throughout society and found within all relationships. He sees professionals (e.g. doctors) as exercising power over their clients by using their expert knowledge.
    • New Right
      • They are in favour of the nuclear family - they see them as self-reliant and capable of caring for its members.
      • they feel the changes have led to greater family diversity (increase in divorce, cohabitation etc..)
      • Almond
        • Divorce law makes it easier to undermine lifelong commitment between a man and women.
        • introduction to gay marriage - the state no longer see heterosexual marriage as superior.
          • Similarly the new right see the increase for the right for unmarried couple (adoption etc) begin to make cohabitation and marriage similar - signalling the state does not need married couples.
      • Murray
        • Welfare benefits offer a perverse incentive (rewarding irresponsible behaviour etc:
          • father see the state will maintain their children - they won't carry out their responsibilities
          • providing council house for unmarried teenage mothers encourages girls to become pregnant.
          • lone parent families = no role model of the same / opposite sex = more crime.
      • Social Policy encourages a 'dependency culture'
        • individuals come to depend on the state to support them and their children rather than being self-reliant = threatening 2 essential functions that the family fulfils for society:
          • Successful socialisation of the young
          • the maintenance of the work ethic among men
      • Their solution
        • Policy must be changed with cuts in welfare spending and tighter restrictions on who is eligible for benefits.
          • meaning taxes would be reduced is benefits were reduced - giving fathers the incentive to work and provide.
          • denying council houses to unmarried teenage mothers would remove incentive to come pregnant when young.
          • like the idea of policies that support the nuclear family eg taxes that favour married couples, and making absent fathers pay towards their children.
      • Criticisms
        • Feminists argue its an attempt to justify traditional patricarchal nuclear family
        • wrongly assumes patriarchal nuclear family is natural rather than socially constructed.
        • Abott and Wallace argue cutting benefits would drive families to poverty and make then even less self-reliant.
      • The new right is a conservative view of the family therefore we might expect it to have a strong influence on the conservative Party's policies towards the family.
        • Conservative Gov (thatcher) - 1979 - 1997
          • Defined divorce as a social problem + emphasised the continued responsibility of parents towards their children.
        • New Labour Gov 1997-2010
          • Introduced Parenting Orders for parents of young offenders
          • Family = bedrock of society and family headed by marriage.
            • However Smart & Silva say New Labour rejects the New Right view that family should have just one earner & recognise women now go out to work.
              • Introduced Parenting Orders for parents of young offenders
              • Therefore New Labour favoured the kind of dual-earner family:
                • Longer maternity leave, right to seek time of work for family reasons
                • Working Families Credit Tax enabling parents to claim tax relief on childcare costs.
                • The New Deal - helping lone parents go back to work.
        • The Coalition Government 2010-2015
          • Hayton
            • conservative has been long divided between modernisers and traditionalists.
              • they introduced gay marriage
    • Feminism
      • See policies helping to maintain womens subordinate position and gender division in labour
        • Hilary Land argue many social policies assume the ideal family is patriarchal and nuclear
          • In turn the effect of the policies is to reinforce that particular type of family st the expense of other types - creating self fulfilling prophecy.
      • Policies supporting patriarchal Family
        • Tax and benefits
          • impossible for wives to claim social security as its expected there husbands to provide. reinforcing dependence on their husbands.
        • Chlidcare
          • school holidays and timetables make it harder for parents to get a full time job, unless they can afford extra childcare.
        • Care for the sick and elderly
          • Leonard
            • if policies seem to benefit women they are usually not
              • Maternity leave is much longer than paternity leave enforces women to do the childcare, not go to work and be financially dependent on their husband.
      • Drew
        • uses gender regimes to describe social policies in different countries
          • Familistic gender regimes
            • Policies based on traditional gender division between male and female
              • In greece, there is little state welfare or publically funded childcare - having to rely on husbands
          • Individualistic gender regimes
            • policies hat believe the husband and wives should be treated equally.
              • in Sweden, policies treat both gender equally - state provision of childcare, parental leave - making women less dependent on men.

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