Families

1. Family Theoretical perspectives

2. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
 One system of poor relief across the country
 Outdoor relief should be ended
 Parishes should join together to form a Union to build a
large workhouse between them for all Paupers
 Relief only if Paupers entered the Workhouse
 The Workhouses must have lower conditions than the
poorest paid laborer.

3. Government Reforms from 1906
 Act to allow free school meals 1906
 School medical Services 1907
 The Child and Young Persons Act 1908
 National Insurance Act 1911
 The Beveridge Report 1942
 The National Health Service 1948

4. William Beveridge’s 1942 report ‘Social Insurance
and Allied Services
recommended fighting five ‘giant evils’:
 want,
 disease,
 ignorance,
 squalor
 idleness.

5. William Beveridge’s 1942 report ‘Social Insurance
and Allied Services
This led to the four pillars of the welfare state:
 the National Health Service
 universal housing
 state security (benefits)
 universal education

6. 100 years of landmarks
 1908 – Children Act
 1933 – Children and young Person’s Act
 1948 – Children Act
 1969 – Children and Young Persons Act
 1973 – Report into the death of Maria Colwell
 1989 – Children Act
 1997 – New Labour elected
 2001 – Murder of Victoria Climbié
 2003 – Every Child Matters
 2004 – Children Act
 2007 – Children’s Plan

7. Functionalist – Ronald Fletcher argues
 The Welfare State supports the family in performing
its functions more effectively. Consensus view.

8. Criticisms of the functionalist view
 Functionalists assume all family members benefit from
social policies – Feminists say they benefit men at the
expense of women
 March of progress idea – Marxists say the clock can be
turned back and benefits to poor families can be cut
e.g. current cut of 10% tax

9. New Right
 Criticise many government policies for undermining the
family.
 Charles Murray argues that many benefits, especially to
lone parents, offer perverse incentives – that is they reward
irresponsible and anti-social behaviour
 Policies encourage a dependency culture
Perverse incentives
• Benefits:
• encourage fathers to abandon their financial responsibilities
• Lack of a male role model leads to rising crime and delinquency
• Housing
• encourages teenage girls to get pregnant

10. New Right solution
 Cut welfare spending and tighten the restrictions on
who can get benefits
 Introduce the Child Support Agency (CSA)
 The less the state interferes in families the better
family life will be.

11. Criticisms of the New Right
 By Feminists – it is an attempt to justify a return to the
patriarchal nuclear family and confine women to a
domestic role
 It assumes the Patriarchal nuclear family is ‘natural’
and not a social construct
 Cutting benefits would cause greater poverty.

12. New Labour
 Their ideas have moved nearer to the New Right than Old
Labour! They support the traditional family, marriage and
reducing benefits.
However they changed the law to:
 Allow cohabiting couples, including gay couples, to adopt
 Taxation and minimum wage policies aim to lift children
out of poverty
But
 Many benefits are means tested

13. Feminists
 Criticise the state for assuming that ‘normal’
families are based on marriage
 They assume it is a patriarchal nuclear family.
(Hilary Land)
 This makes it difficult for people to live in other
family types.
 Policies reinforce existing patriarchal roles e.g.
 Tax benefits
 Custody of children
 Maternity leave - Diana Leonard

14. Criticisms of Feminists
 Not all policies are aimed at patriarchy
 Equal pay
 Sex discrimination laws
 Benefits for lone parents
 Rights to divorce
All challenge this.

15. Marxism
 Do not think that policies are part of the march of
progress idea. They only benefit the elite (Conflict
view)
 Improvements for the working class have only
happened due to their own struggles and can easily
be lost in the future
 They were often only brought about because they
benefited capitalism

16. Family trends
 More diversity in families
 Fewer marriages
 Starting families happens later in life
 Children stay living at home longer
 More people live longer
 Different attitudes to sex and infertility
 Changes in economic circumstances
 The definition of the family has been stretched
British Social attitudes survey see.
http://www.statistics.go.uk/glance/#society

17. 17
Attachment
‘a lasting psychological connectedness between
human beings’
(Bowlby, 1969 p194)

18. 18
Bowlby findings.
 Loving relationship with 1 particular person
(usually mother)
 The resulting attachment must continue unbroken
for first 3 yrs
 Should ideally be centred within the child’s own
family and should be offered adequate stimulation

19. 19
Characteristics of
Attachment
 Proximity maintenance
 Safe haven
 Secure base
 Separation distress

20. 20
Sociological Perspectives (nurture).
Belief-Behaviour cannot be separated from the social
context
 Focus on
 The importance of social and economic factors in
influencing our development
 Bronfenbrenner (1979)
 Holistic view of the person in her or his environment
 Can incorporate other theories or approaches
 Seen as an organising framework for theories

21. 21
Ecological Approach. Bronbrenfenner
(1979)
 Acknowledges a child doesn't develop in isolation
 Describes the impact of the Childs environment on its
development
 Model consisted of three concentric circles … one inside
the other
 Inner: Microsystem
 Middle: Exosystem
 Outer: Macrosystem

22. Conclusions
Policy and legislation governing
the relationship between the
family and the ‘State’ has
developed over the last 100 years.
There are 1000’s of laws and
policies: Some influential ones:
1. Poor Law Amendment Act
2. ‘The Beveridge Report’ (1942)
3. The Children Act 1989
4. Every Child Matters (2003)
‘Macro’ Sociological Perspectives:
Functionalism: ‘Institutions’ (such as the
family) exist because they serve a function.
Marxism: The way in which society is
organised (structured) benefits the elite and
oppresses the majority.
Feminism: Society is unfair towards women.
Male dominance (patriarchy) is reflected in
social structures including the Family
Family Specific Theories
Bowlby: Attachment (bonding) between infants
and main care giver is crucial. Poor attachments
in infant childhood determine what we become
in later life.
Bronfenbrenner: The child’s behaviour and
thinking can only be understood with reference
to the social/ecological environment in which
they live. This environment shapes their
thoughts and behaviour.