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  • Title: [Family policy in Western Europe: a sociological reflection].
    Author: Dumon W.
    Journal: Annee Sociol; 1987; (37):291-308. PubMed ID: 12314966.
    Abstract:
    Family policy, a primarily European phenomenon including all governmental actions designed to maintain, support, or influence the structure and life of families, must be distinguished from measures intended for other purposes which merely impact upon the family. Family policy may concern legislative measures governing the formation and dissolution of households and marriages, or it may concern social transfers. The transfers may be monetary ones as in the tax, social security, and public assistance systems, or services such as child care made available to families. This article argues that recent changes in family policy in Western Europe tend to blur the distinction between family policy and a policy of family impact. 3 phases can be distinguished in development of family policy in Western Europe. The first, developed after World War II, involved economic and financial aid to families through tax benefits and family allowances; it was explicitly intended to safe guard the economic base of productive families. Next came nonmaterial assistance intended to increase the welfare of families through such measures as sex education and marriage preparation courses and centers for family therapy or marriage counseling. The final step was provision of services such as child care intended to substitute partially and temporarily for the family. In the 1960s and 1970s economic aid to families was criticized by feminists for perpetuating sexual stereotypes and by others for benefiting middle income and wealthy families more than the disadvantaged. The economic recession which began in the late 1970s, the diffusion of nontraditional household and family types, and the spectre of population decline due to very low birth rates have been important influences on family policy during the 1980s. Employment has become an issue in family policy for the first time, with feminists rejecting policy initiatives that would discourage female employment and other groups arguing that jobs should be allocated to families, not individuals. Controversy has arisen over the most equitable manner of calculating income tax for 2-income households. The close relationship of family allowances to employment and the social security system is weakening in several countries, and allocations are coming to be viewed as a right of the child regardless of the employment or marital status of the parents. Changes in family policy or family impact are perhaps most notable in public assistance policies. In some countries, family status has become a criterion for the level of assistance received. The recent Western European experience demonstrates that family policy is often at cross purposes with other goals such as improvement of the status of women. The conflicting interests of varied groups must be taken into account when policies affecting the family are developed.
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