families and social policy

functionalism

P: policies help families perform functions effectively

E: Parsons- family performs functions of primary socialisation and SOAP

R: Fletcher- introduction of health and education policies has led to a welfare state which support the family eg. NHS allows families to better take care of their members

C: Marx- work in the interest of the ruling class not the family

surveillance

E: Foucault- sees power as something diffused throughout society and in all relationships → doctors and social workers exercise power over clients by turning them into clients to deal with

R: Donzelot- social workers, doctors etc use their knowledge to control the family→ policing of families

poor families more likely to be viewed as a problem and be a victim of surveillance

C: Murdock- help the family to carry out its functions

new right

P: policies encourage diversity which undermine the nuclear family

E: Almond- laws which make divorce easier and the introduction of civil partnerships and gay marriage → undermine superiority of heterosexual marriage

R: Murray- welfare benefits create ‘perverse incentives’ that reward deviant behaviour and encourages a dependency culture eg. council houses for young mothers encourages teen pregnancy → view shared by conservative gov. under Thatcher- defined divorce as a social problem

C: Abbot and Wallace- cutting benefits would drive people into poverty and make them less self reliant

new labour

E: policies favoured Chester’s neo conventional family eg. 3 months unpaid leave for both parents and Working Families Tax Credit enabling parents to claim tax relief on childcare costs

R: Silva and Smart- new labour rejected new right view of sole male earner

C: Murray- opposes state intervention

2010 conservative

E: Hayton- tories are divided between modernisers and traditionalists = hard to have consistent policies

R: introduction of gay marriage in 2013 / financial austerity policies eg. cuts to public spending and welfare reforms → reflected new right views

C: Browne- despite this nuclear families fared badly due to tax and benefits policies

feminism

E: Land- many policies assume families are patriarchal with male provider eg. tax policies assuming wives are financial dependants of their husbands

R: Leonard- even when policies appear to support women they may reinforce patriarchy → more generous maternity than paternity leave reinforces children’s as mothers responsibility

C: some policies benefit women eg. 1975 Sex Discrimination Act and criminalising marital rape in 1991