comparative view of family policy

what is social policy?

the plans and actions of state agencies

what are the historical and cross-cultural examples of how social policy affects family?

• China’s old child policy

• communist Romania

• nazi family policy

• democratic societies

what was the Chinese one child policy?

population control policy that discouraged couples from having more than one child

what was China’s one child policy supervised by?

workplace family planning committees where women had to try and become pregnant with a waiting list & quota for each workplace

what were the benefits given to people who followed China’s old child policy?

• free child healthcare

• higher tax allowances

• children get priority in education and housing

what were Chinese women pressured to undergo after their first child?

sterilisation

when was Romania communist?

1980s

what did communist Romania introduce?

a series of policies to drive up the birth rate e.g., restricting contraception and abortion & setting up infertility treatment centres

what did the nazi state enforce?

a twofold policy that encouraged a healthy ‘racially pure’ breed of a ‘master race’ that sought to keep women out of the workforce

how many disabled people were sterilised by the nazi state?

375k

what do some argue democratic societies are like?

the family is a private sphere of life where the government does not intervene unless something goes wrong e.g., abuse