New Right views of the family

New Right view of the family

• 1980s, New Right argued government policy undermining family, policy changes needed. Their thinking dominated policy development from 1979 to 1997. Current policy makers are more accepting of diversity and supportive in legislation, still a dominant ideology supported by traditional, conservative ‘New Right’ views on what’s seen as best family type in society.

• Believe there’s only one correct family type - nuclear family. Like Functionalists, sees this family as ‘natural’, based on fundamental biological differences between men and women. Argue decline of traditional family, growth of family diversity causes social problems e.g. higher crime rates and declining moral standards generally.

• Believe it’s important for children to have a stable home, married mother and father, ideally wife stays at home to look after children. Introduction of welfare state led to people depending on hand-outs from state, encourage single parenting, leads to deviancy, decline in morality.

• Murray argued nuclear families were best, single parent families causes social problems, lazy families, inadequately socialised children.

• Encouraged conservative government to launch the ‘Back to Basics campaign’ - 1993, encourage a return to traditional family values. Criticised for being unsuccessful, and hypocritical due to some Conservative MPs being found to be having affairs/being divorced.

• Since 1960’s believe there’s been a decline in traditional family values encouraged by the state. They see this as problematic.

Cohabitating rather than marriage is bad for children

• Rate of family breakdown is much lower amongst married couples (6% compared to 20%).

• Children from broken homes, almost 5x more likely to develop emotional problems.

• Young people from broken homes 3x more likely to become aggressive or badly behaved.

• Children from broken homes 9x as likely to be young offenders.

Lone-parents are a problem

• More than 2x as likely to live in poverty than two parent families.

• Some in New Right have decency to blame ‘absent dads’ not the single mothers.

Evaluation of the New Right

• Exaggerate decline of Nuclear family. Most adults still marry, have children. Most children are reared by two natural parents. Most marriages continue until death. Divorce has increased, but most divorcees remarry.

• Feminism – gender roles are socially determined not fixed by biology. Traditional gender roles, oppressive to women/divorce being easier is good because without it many women end up being trapped in unhappy or abusive relationships.

• Most single parents aren’t welfare scroungers – most want to work but difficult to find flexible jobs to balance work and child care.

• Chester - New Right exaggerate extent of cohabiting/single parent families - most children still spend most their lives in nuclear family arrangement, calls this Neo-Conventional family.