Examine the Ways in Which Laws and Social Policies Affect Family Life

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Social policy is defined as 'the actions, plans and programmes of government bodies and agencies that aim to deal with a problem or achieve a goal, eg raising levels of educational attachment.' This eassay is going to examine the ways in which laws and social policies affect family life.The government of the newly formed Soviet Union aimed to destroy pre-revolutionary patriarchal family structure. In order to achieve it, there have been changes made in the law, including divorce and abortion becoming easier to option. The constitution also guaranteed equality between men and women – women were entering paid employment while their children were looked after in nurseries provided by the state. These are examples of laws that could have an impact on family life – these law were working to destroy pre-revolutionary patriarchal family structure – there would be more single-parent families, due to the fact divorces were available and easy to obtain. Also, the women had different roles than just being housewives – they actually went to paid work. However, after a period of time, there have been changes in the law. This happened due to Soviet state being beset by many difficulties, including civil war, the threat of war with Nazi German etc. The policy has been changed to prepare for law – divorce became more difficult to obtain, since the laws were tightened. Abortion was made illegal and parents encouraged to have more children being rewarded with bigger family allowances. Another example of a social policy is China's one child policy. The government's population control policy in China has discouraged couples from having more than one child. Adrian Wilson (1985) states that the policy is supervised by workplace family planning committees. Women must get their permission to try to become pregnant. Couples who comply with the policy are rewarded with extra benefits, such as

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