Impact of Government Policies and Laws on Family Life: Sociological View
Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the impact of government policies and laws on family life (24 marks)
Social policies are laws made by the state to bring a change to society. As stated in item 2B different political policies have different ideologies and agendas that they will try and reinforce through the family.
One example of a social policy is The Family Act Law in 1996 which is a part of John Majors ‘Back to Basics Campaign’ and this introduced a one year waiting period before a couple could file for divorce. It was implemented to encourage and reinforce the nuclear family and give couples a chance to work on their relationships and not choose the easy way out. This policy was to favour New Right as they believe that divorce undermines the traditional nuclear family. In their view, divorce creates more welfare dependent lone parent families, 90% of all lone parent families are matriarchal families and prevents boys from growing up properly, without the male role model they need to be successful for the future. As stated in 2B the New Right argue that the benefit system undermines traditional nuclear family by encouraging lone parents through divorce. Postmodernists would totally disagree with New Right thinkers and argue that this policy creates less family diversity and stops the creation of new family types such as lone parent families and reconstituted families. As stated in Item 2B, feminists argue that social policies assume that the ideal family s the nuclear family, and this policy favours this sort of family. Feminists would argue that most divorces are made by women, seven out of ten of all divorces. And so feminists would think that by keeping women in a relationship for a year, this would be oppressing them to stay in an unhappy and maybe abusive relationship. This policy would reinforce the ideology that Ansley says women are ‘the takers of shit’. Marxists would disprove this policy as it serves the needs
Social policies are laws made by the state to bring a change to society. As stated in item 2B different political policies have different ideologies and agendas that they will try and reinforce through the family.
One example of a social policy is The Family Act Law in 1996 which is a part of John Majors ‘Back to Basics Campaign’ and this introduced a one year waiting period before a couple could file for divorce. It was implemented to encourage and reinforce the nuclear family and give couples a chance to work on their relationships and not choose the easy way out. This policy was to favour New Right as they believe that divorce undermines the traditional nuclear family. In their view, divorce creates more welfare dependent lone parent families, 90% of all lone parent families are matriarchal families and prevents boys from growing up properly, without the male role model they need to be successful for the future. As stated in 2B the New Right argue that the benefit system undermines traditional nuclear family by encouraging lone parents through divorce. Postmodernists would totally disagree with New Right thinkers and argue that this policy creates less family diversity and stops the creation of new family types such as lone parent families and reconstituted families. As stated in Item 2B, feminists argue that social policies assume that the ideal family s the nuclear family, and this policy favours this sort of family. Feminists would argue that most divorces are made by women, seven out of ten of all divorces. And so feminists would think that by keeping women in a relationship for a year, this would be oppressing them to stay in an unhappy and maybe abusive relationship. This policy would reinforce the ideology that Ansley says women are ‘the takers of shit’. Marxists would disprove this policy as it serves the needs