Social Policies

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The Welfare State

  • Introduced in 1942, after the war
  • The government set liberal politician William Beveridge the task the task if discovering what kid if people Britain wanted to see after the war.
  • He declared that there were ”five giants on the road to recomstruction”, these being; poverty, disease, ignorance, squalor, idleness.
  • To be able to overcome the giants, he set up the W.S with social security, a NHS, free education, council housing, and full time employment.
  • Functionalist and new right: disagree with W.S becuase it benefits non traditional families and believe it will increase crime rate.
  • Marxist: agree with W.S because it aids families to make society Fit to work and benefit capitalist society, maintaining hierarchy
  • Feminist: agree with W.S because matrifocal families can survive and no longer be oppressed by men, due to benefits providing money to support their children
  • Postmodernist: agree with W.S as it aids family types who are struggling to look after children
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Legislation of contraceptive pill

  • 1961 for married women, 1967 for all women
  • Arriving at a moment of social and political upheaval, it is now 50 years since it became free on the NHS
  • Gives women a choice and allows women to have a career
  • Functionalist and new right: disagree with LCP because they favour the nuclear family and it reduces the chances of couples having children
  • Marxist: disagree because if children aren’t born they can’t contribute to society
  • Feminist: agree because they believe women should be able to choose when they want to kids
  • Postmodernist: agree because they believe that it supports family diversity as some people want children and therefore gives him the right to
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Abortion legislation

  • An act of the parliment of the UK
  • 1967
  • Legalising aboritons by regisetere practitioners
  • Regualting thet tax paid provision of such medical practises through the NHS
  • Functionalist and new right: disagree, aboritons decreases amount of children, they believe children are the new generation and therfore need to work and look after parents in their old.
  • Marxist: disagree because if children werent born they woudnt contribute to society
  • Feminist: agree, it gives women the oppportunity of choosing to have a child, avoiding oppression, thus favouring women.
  • Postmodernist: agree, they believe in family diveristy. Allowing families to not have chidlren, increases the diversity of families in society.
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Divorce Reform Act

  • 1969
  • Allows married couples to divorce on the grounds of innevitable breakdown
  • Functionalist and new right: disaagree, breaks up the traiditonal nuclear family
  • Marxist: agree, support different family types as long as they contribute
  • Feminist: agree, allows women to escape oppression and partiarchy of husband/marriage
  • Postmodernist: agree, leads to family diveristy, which is better than just one tradtional type
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Children Act

  • 1989
  • Ensures chidlren are safeguarded
  • promotes child welfare
  • Functionalist and new right: agree - protects children from harm of labour. Disagree - does not give child a good lifetyle/teaching of working future
  • Marxist: agree, protects children from harm
  • Feminist: agree, wouldnt have to rely on man to pay/protect children
  • Postmodernist: agree, moving towards future of protecting the children
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Child Support Agency

  • 1993
  • Provides child benefits to low income families
  • Functionalist and new right: disagree, child support is seen as a sign of weakness as the man should be able to independently support his family
  • Marxist: agree, increases happiness of family and increases family diversity
  • Postmodernist: agree, allows a variety of families to successfully support and care for children
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Marital **** Act

  • 1991
  • Bans **** within marriage (before was legal)
  • Functionalist: disagree, warm bath theory - mans stress reliever
  • Marxist: agreee, supports and protects women
  • Feminist: agree, stops women beig stuck in an oppressive and patriarchal situation in which they have no control
  • Postmodernist: agree, supports equality within the household
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Civil Partnerships

  • 2004
  • Stop discrimination against same-sex couples
  • Functionalist: disagree, goes against nuclear family
  • New right: disagree, any family type that is not nuclear is not beneficial to society
  • Marxist: agree,believe all families should be treated the same
  • Feminist: agree, allows women to have a relationship whlist still avoiding male oppression
  • Postmodernist: agree, encoruages family diversity
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Additional Paternity Pay

  • 2012
  • Allows new fathers to be payed whilst bonding with their new-born child
  • Functionalist: agree, creates happier family and stonger bond. Disagree- childcare is womens work, not mans & they think that men should be able to support their families without support
  • New right: disagree, left wing parties would view it as bad
  • Marxist: disagree, the policy would only support those who have a higher class income
  • Feminist: disagree, they think that men are oppressive and thus should spend less time with children ????
  • Postmodernist: disagree, only supports families who have fathers ad not families of same-sex couples
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