Free Essay

Single Parents in Uk

In: Social Issues

Submitted By joyce1018
Words 1576
Pages 7
Introduction
There are 1,250,000 lone-parent families in the UK, and 19 percent of all these families have children(Millar, 1999). The quantity of single parents have almost increased two-fold since early 1970s and this growth is part of widest patterns of change in family structure. Here are so many reasons for this, for example, the rising in extramarital births, the increasing in cohabitation, the rising in the divorce, and the rising of remarriage and cohabitation after divorce. (Millar, 1999). In 2000, it may be that less than 50% of all children in the United Kingdom will have spent all their lives in a traditional two parents family with both their real parents (Kiernan & Wicks, 1990 cited Millar, 1996). The essay will analyse several of the main factors which have affected the changing of the lone mothers families in the UK. And both the troubles and fortunes that received by lone mothers. There are three main parts to explain the changing of lone parents families in Britain: the changing policy; the ascending economy; the changing sociology ( social value).
The Three Main Factors—Policy, Economy, and Sociology, for the Increasing of the Lone Mothers Families in the United Kingdom
Since 1971 to 1990 the number of divorced and seperated female with children increased from 290,000 to 650,000; the quantity of single mother rose from 90,000 to 390,000. The numbers of lone fathers have also raised from 70,000 to 110,000, but they still very much in the small number ,at nearly 10% of all single parents. Hence most lone parents are women and only over 50% are female who are divorced or seperated from their ex-hunsbands (Haskey, 1993 cited Millar, 1996).
Nevertheless, the rise in the numbers of single mothers families itself has not significantly increased the concern of the government. In recent three decades, the reason why the quantities of lone parents in the UK has been rising is that their dependence on state benefits has been increasing and the rates of their employment have been decreasing. Poverty has risen and partly single mothers live on incomes probably fewer than the average for other households with children. However, during this time policy for long parents has been ‘in the doldrums’(Bradshaw, 1989 cited Millar, 1996).
The Changing Policy
In the late 1980s, while, the government began to pay more attention to those lone parents families. The social security system as a whole had been reviewed in the middle 1980s and legislation introduced in 1986( Millar,1996). After this review was completed ,according to Millar (1996), policy attention changed, especially to lone parents. In the middle of 1980s the Lancashire Country Council established a welfare rights service which offering expert advice and guidance on the maze of benefits and allowances available to people across the country (Cosslett, Easton & Summerfield,1996). Lone mothers in the UK got tremendous benefits from this service, and various poster and press advertising campaigns have been launched to ensure that mothers are aware of the benefits avialable to them and how to apply for them.
Finance is another of the essential reasons. Because the income support for long parents had been increasing rapidly throughout the 1980s and because of this, in real terms social secutrity spending on lone parents increased three times between 1981 and 1988(DSS, 1990 cited Millar,1996). The key economic objective for conservative government in the 1980s was the control of public expenditure. Therefore these increasing cost lead to the concern.
One of the Conservative social policy’s central tenets in the 1980s was that the government offered too much support, offering a large number of welfare, and this means that the people and households were not responsible for themselves anymore(Millar,1996). As there was an increasing numbers of lone mothers families who relied on the government to offer them an income. In order to lighten this burden and reduce single parents’ unemployment rate, the policy turned its attention towards another aspect: children support, to solve these problems. Through this way, firstly, it can rise the ‘responsibility’ of the absent father; secondly, it can reduce the ‘dependency’ of the lone mother on the state; thirdly, it can save the state money. So in 1991, there was a Child Support Act. And it aims to deal with thoes lone parents’ children’s issues by establishing an government organisation to be responsible for setting and enforcing maintenance payments for children (Millar,1996). The Children Support Agency really did a big favour to those lone parents, and at the same time it also reflects a particular response to changing employment of female in economy.
The Ascending Economy
The twentiety century has went through a far-reaching change of the nature of work and of the skills of the workforce. Particularly , the economy is controlled by the service industries and work tasks increasingly include work with people rather than on objects. An the same time, with the development of science and technology , an increasing number of works are associated with different kinds of skills. These changes in the forms of work have been accompanied by a dramatic shift in the sex composition of the work force (Halsey & Webb, 2000).
Men’s participation rates have consitently decreased through every ten years, from 94% in 1911 to 71% in 1998. On the opposite, there has been a strong trend for women’s participation in the labour force to raise. In 1991, only more than 1/3 of female (35%) were in the workforce; by 1998 this was the case for over half ( 54%) (Halsey & Webb, 2000). From this we can know that the increasing of female cooperation was indicated in the women’s rised share of works. At the same time, it also means that more and more single mothers can support themselves by using their incomes, since they are becoming more independence than before. Hence , it is not uncommon for an increasing number of mothers to chose to support their children by themselves.
At the beginning of the 20th century, manufacturing industries had been the main industries, work mainly involved the production of objects. While ,at the end of 20th century the main industries were service industries and work mainly included solving people(Halsey & Webb, 2000). This change was followed by a leading move in the family structure and gender roles.
The Canging Sociology (Social Value)
With the development of modern culture, people’s notion about family structure becomes more and more open-minded. Several decades ago, the most popular family was the traditional family which includes both natural parents and several children. In this kind of family, the traditional role of the man is the financial provider, and the traditional role of the woman is the housewife (taking care of children and doing the housework). At that time, lone mothers were likely to be a number of negative consequence of this fixation on traditional gender roles(Millar,1996). Because, firstly, the women’s ability to improving their incomes are very limited; secondly, the income of part-time jobs are very low. In other words, this sort of family was reflected inequality between male and female.
However ,in contrast, nowadays, there is an increasing number of cohabitating family, divorce family, remarriage family, single parents family, and even homosexual family. Therefore, lone mother family has become a natural part of social families now, and this kind of family is also understand and accepted by the whole society. These days the acceptable role for women includs every kind of jobs, so lone mothers are also have the opportunities to find those high payment jobs. In the modern society, in order to protect women’s right, the feminist organazation WLM even ‘tempted to produce a protection organization which could appeal to all female to adopt its ‘manifesto’ of seven requests. These demands were for (Easton & Summerfield, 1996):
1, equal pay;
2, equal education and job opportunity;
3, free contraception and aboration on demand;
4, free 24-hour nurseries, under community control;
5, legal and financial independence;
6, an end to discrimination against lesbians;
7, freedom from intimidation by the threat or use of violence or sexual coercion, regardless of marital status’.
Significantly, feminists have played a essential role in the development of lone mother families. It has helped the lone mother gain a lot of rights, and enhance their social states. But we still need ways to reduce inequalities betweent men and women.
Conclusion
Overall, with the increasing number of single parents ,that the lone mothers families had become have a significant influence in the British society. It is true that lone parents family brings some challenges for social policy, especially about state financial support for low income single mother families. And the government also need to pay enough attention to single parents family’s children care problems and welfare support. Thanks to the rapid development of 20th century’s economy, because it offers more acceptable jobs and good development opportunities. Then it is not unrealistic that more and more single mothers can find higher salary works and becoming more independence than several decades ago. However, there are still inequalities between men and women, and so many single mothers and their children are still facing some problems, such as poverity, education inequality, violence threaten from the women’s ex-husband( Millar,1996 ). So things are unpredictable. Now what we should do is to find ways to solve those problems, and reduce the unfair between male and female.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Sociology Essays

...social issues, in this case the family. For example, in the 1930’s the Nazi government in Germany wanted to encourage Aryan families and put in place policies that involved sterilising certain groups to prevent them from having children. More recently in China they have a one child policy, if individuals have more than one child the government have put in place a series of penalties try and control their population. In the UK sociologists are interested in if social policy has caused families to become more diverse or different. One way in which families have become more diverse is an increase in same sex families. This is lesbian and gay couples living with children. Social policies that can be linked to this type of family diversity are laws to do with homosexuality in the UK. For example, in 1967 male homosexuality was legalised in the UK this has made homosexuality more socially accepted; this would allow gay couples to start a recognised family. However, other social policies have made same sex families even more accepted. For example, in 2002 the UK adoption laws were changed to allow gay couples to adopt children and create a family unit. Furthermore, in 2004 the Civil Partnership Act meant that gay individuals could now enter into a civil partnership; resulting in the stability and long term commitment of a family. All these changes could be linked to the growth of same sex families. Some sociologists are really happy with these changes. For example, feminists...

Words: 1852 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Family Diversity

...related by kinship ties: relatives of blood, marriage or adoption” (Brown, 1998). But many people might argue this statement is not right anymore as this only defines a traditional family. There are many different types of family which include Nuclear, Cereal Packet, Extended, Single Parent, and Reconstituted. Over the years family life has become more diverse. There is a lot of evidence that there is no one particular family type in Britain. In this report I will be looking at the impact of diversity on the family; such as Social Class, Ethnicity, Sexuality and cultural differences in relation to family diversity. Types of families The statistics of families in modern Britain show that there is increasing diversity, which in turn suggests that the nuclear family is decreasing in importance. The types of family that are increasing include Lone parent families, Reconstituted families and Extended families. These are the main types of families in the UK. Because of increasing diversity in family life in modern Britain, there are more types of family: Cohabiting and Homosexual. In this section I will look into diverse range of families and household types. “In 2012 there were 18.2 million families in the UK. Of these, 12.2 million consisted of a married couple with children.” (http://www.ons.gov.uk) This family type is called Nuclear Family and is the most common family type in Britain. However, the number of this type is decreasing due to increasing diversity in modern Britain...

Words: 1750 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Assess the View That the Nuclear Family Is No Longer the Norm.

...to teach children the difference between right and wrong, and to provide a sense of morality more widely known as “family values.” Functionalists such as Murdock and Parsons would say that the nuclear family is the norm. Murdock felt that all families fulfil four functions. The first function being sexual which is where married adults enjoy a healthy sex life which prevents them having affairs and ensures children are raised by their natural parents. The second function is reproductive which involves making the next generation. The third function is economic, by this Murdoch means providing food and shelter. Ideally the man will go out to work and the woman will look after the house and children. The fourth function is educational, by this Murdoch means socialisation which is the process of learning the norms and values of society. This shows the functionalists favour the nuclear family, they feel this provides children with a male and female role model and it also provides socialisation from two parents. Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is the one best...

Words: 1195 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Balance of Advantages of the Uk Joining the Emu and/or Using the Euro as a Functional Currency

...of the UK joining the EMU and/or using the Euro as a functional currency. Contents Contents 2 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 2. INTRODUCTION 3 2.1. HISTORY OF INSOMNIA PLC 3 2.2. SCOPE OF BUSINESS 3 2.3. CURRENT EXPOSURES 4 2.3.1. TRANSACTION EXPOSURE 4 2.3.2. ECONOMIC EXPOSURE 4 2.3.3. TRANSLATION EXPOSURE 4 2.4. HEDGING 5 3. EFFECTS OF UK JOINING EMU ON INSOMNIA PLC 5 3.1. COST SAVINGS ON CROSS-BORDER TRANSACTIONS 5 3.2. STABILITY OF PRICES 6 3.3. PRICE TRANSPARENCY 6 3.4. OTHER EFFECTS 6 4. USING EURO AS A FUNCTIONAL CURRENCY OF INSOMNIA PLC 7 5. CONCLUSION 8 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 9 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY It has been found that UK joining EMU as well as accepting the Euro as a functional currency will bring more benefits to Insomnia plc than staying outside of the Economic and Monetary Union or continuing using Pound Sterling as a functional currency. Both of the choices will decrease the currency exchange rate fluctuation risk which was found to be the most significant to the company. Analysis were based mainly on academic articles, European Central Bank (ECB) publishing’s, and International Accounting Standards (IASs). 2. INTRODUCTION “The Economic and Monetary Union is an agreement between participating European nations to share a single currency, the Euro and a single economic...

Words: 3577 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Sociology

...Outline and evaluate the view that uk government policies support the traditional family values. [33] In Post-Fordist uk, David Cameron is a New Right politician but has inherited policies from the labour government under Tony Blair. Blair encouraged diversity and passed many laws which gave rights to same sex, single parents and cohabiters. In principle Cameron supports traditional family values. New Right want us to live in nuclear families as socialisation for children is the best for children in society. However many policies are currently in force which do not support traditional family values e.g. same sex marriage. At this moment in time in the uk, we have many different benefit systems which entitle families to extra allowances depending on their situation. Most common is child allowance. This is £20.30 a week given to children which gives them more chance of having basic needs such as clothing and shelter and warmth and also improving their lifestyles. This was introduced after The Second World War and has been in place ever since. Despite family allowance being reduced in February 2013, 85% of children will still receive the benefits. Next we have the educational system. New Right sociologists value education as they believe that education progresses society. The Government ensure that all 3 year olds have a place in nursery and that children now must stay in some sort of education until the age of 18. Bourdieu called this ‘deferred gratification’. They aim to...

Words: 611 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Assess Sociological Explanations of the Nature and Extent of Family Diversity Today. (24 Marks)

...are lone-parent, cohabitation and reconstituted. But there are also some others such as same sex couples, single parent and multi-cultural families. There has been a decrease in the number of nuclear families in the UK and an increase in various other families such as single parent families. But the raise in single parent households has to do with the increase in divorce across the UK which means that more people are left having to support their children on their own unless they become a reconstituted family. Functionalists are classed as modernists when it comes to their opinions on family diversity in post-modern UK. But they also see modern society as clear-cut, fixed and predictable. They think that the best and strongest family type is the nuclear family. The main functionalist who is focused on is Parsons. He came up with the functional fit, which is where pre-industrial society and the extended family changed into industrial society and the nuclear family. He also believes that the nuclear family meets all of society’s needs the best unlike any of the other diverse family types which society has to offer. Functionalists see all other family types as inadequate, abnormal or deviant. This shows that they don’t think that any other family type other than the nuclear family will benefit society and help to achieve the best it can. Functionalists also believe that there is no need for family diversity on society. They also feel that families such as single parent or same-sex...

Words: 861 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Assess Sociological Explanations of Ethnic Differences in Educational Achievement

...mistake to think of ethnic groups as always being defined by physical features such as skin colour. Although many ethnic minority groups in the UK are non-white, this is not applicable to all groups. According to Crystal (03), well over 100 languages are in routine use in the UK. Today, children from minority backgrounds make about21% of the pupils in English schools. The level of achievement of different ethnic groups varies greatly in Great Britain. This may be due to factors such as home background, class, language and in-school factors. Recent studies highlight the effects of racism. It is believed that ethnicity influences such factors, leading to an impact upon their education. When ethnic minority students do underachieve in education this may be explained partly by social class disadvantages and partly by educational disadvantages related specifically to their ethnicity. Although members of ethnic minorities are found throughout the UK class structure, Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin students are especially likely to be found in the lower sections of the working class and to experience poverty. Social theorists working with a relative definition of poverty usually define poverty to exist where individuals are receiving an income below 60% of the median income in the UK as a whole and relative poverty in the UK can be shown to be widespread; approximately 20% of Whites, 25%...

Words: 1510 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

The Family

...what it means to be a member of society. Weiss defines the family as “a small kinship structured group with the key function of nurturant socialization of the new-born” (quoted in Cree 2010). There are many different types of family. The nuclear family with 2 generations of family members under the same roof are the most common in modern society. Extended families with 3 or more generations living in the same household are becoming less frequent. These families can be extended either vertically, usually involving grandparents, or horizontally, with aunts uncles and cousins. Single parent families, as the name implies, involve a single parent with dependent child or children. Reconstituted families, sometimes called step families, are as a result of the loss of a partner through divorce or death and subsequent remarriage. This type of family is usually nuclear with children from one or both remarrying parents (Macionis and Plummer 2005). What is Leech referring to when he says narrow privacy and tawdry secrets? The familiar phrase ‘skeletons in the closet’ comes to mind....

Words: 1096 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Using the Material from Item 3b and Elsewhere, Assess the Reasons for the Widening Gap Between the Rich and the Poor in the Uk.

...Using the material from item 3B and elsewhere, assess the reasons for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the UK. Beth Clarke. One reason for the widening gap between the rich and the poor is that since 1970, the government taxation policies have changed, these policies are more favorable to the wealthy people. This means that households within the higher tax bracket are paying less tax, this in turn then makes the rich people richer meaning the gap between the poor even greater. for example as item 3B shows in 1970 the share of total income taken by the top 1% of earners was only 7.1%this had risen by more than half in 2005 and the share of total income take by the top one percent of income was now 14.3%. A second reason for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the UK is changes to the labour market, these changes have led to more relatively low paid jobs such as in the tertiary sector. With less people working in the higher paying primary and secondary sectors the gap between the rich and the poor will be widening as more people will begin to work within the substantially lower paying tertiary sector, this will widen the gap between the rich and the poor as it means there will be more people working in lower paid jobs. Item 3B also raises the Marxist Argument that our Capitalist society is the underlying reason as to why there is inequality in our society. It could be argued that Capitalism is to blame for the widening gap between the rich...

Words: 924 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Sociological Context

...Natalie Gayle 13439 The London College UCK Natalie Gayle ID: 13439 ASSESSOR: Barabara Ocello Introduction I have prepared this report regarding the effects of inequalities in health and social care. It will include the meaning of social construction and stratification in the UK. I will be looking at Current trends in society in the UK as well as cultural values, beliefs and the implications of change in society that effect the health and social care sector. Task 1 LO 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d Social construction is something you might not be aware of. You are somewhat living in segregation depending on what gender, race and class you are. Race, class and gender don’t really mean anything. They only have a meaning because society gives them a meaning. Social construction is how society groups people and how it privileges certain groups over others. For example, you are a woman or a man because society tells you that you are, not because you choose to be. Simple as that. Just like it tells you what race you’re classified as and what social class you belong in. It is all just a social process that makes us differentiate between what’s “normal” and what’s not “normal.” http://oakes.ucsc.edu/academics/Core%20Course/oakes-core-awards-2012/laura-flores.html Social constructionism is characterised by an emphasis on the extent to which society is actively and creatively produced by human beings. The world is portrayed as made or invented – rather than as given or taken for...

Words: 3187 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

Pest

...Trends that affect businesses Social – People are living longer This could have a grave impact on Iceland Food as a business in both a positive and negative way. The fact that if people were living longer there will be an increase in more people requesting there state pension and less people working and paying income taxes. This therefore has a ripple affect which is that the government will require higher tax rates on the decreasing workforce. So this implies that if the working society are having to give away more of their earnings to tax they will have less money in their own back pocket. This could lead into a fall in the growth of the economy due to firms like Iceland having less money to invest because of the increase in taxation. Linking this all back to Iceland Food for one, if taxes are raising Iceland is going to find it harder to meet there aim and objectives. This is due to if there customers income is decreasing because of tax they are going to have less money to spend and indicating that there weekly or monthly budget for shopping will go down and portraying the overall companies’ sales revenue will fall. But if the current population lived longer this can also lead to benefits for Iceland. By the population living longer this therefore implies that the death rate is slowing down, and also means that the population is increasing. Consequently there will be more customers to provide a service for. Furthermore loyal customers will be shopping at Iceland for a...

Words: 3873 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Nuclear Family

...Sociology Essay Assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm (24 Marks) In today’s society, the family is not as big as it used to be earlier though the decades, the nuclear family at least. Many sociologists have criticised the family e.g. feminists and the way in which it is run. The Nuclear Family is known as the traditional family. The nuclear family was mainly dominant in the 1960s when most of the UK was working in factories and looking for jobs, this family type allowed families to move around the country easily enough, this aspect is called geographical mobility. Another aspect of the family in terms of Functionalist ideals, is the gender-role socialization in which the children are brought up in a way that gender stereotypes are made, for example boys are brought up to be tough and play with cars and play sports, while girls are brought up to be sensitive and play with dolls and gossip with each other. The final function of the nuclear family is the socialization of children which teaches them the norms and values of society. Functionalists have many studies of this, like Murdock who studied 250 societies and therefore decided that the nuclear family was Universal and that the nuclear family had 4 main functions: sexual, reproductive, educational and economic. However Parsons view along with this were both proven wrong as it was said their studies were too simplistic. However many perspectives disagree by saying that the nuclear family is used...

Words: 761 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

3prm

...BOTOX UK LIMITED is a pharmaceutical wholesaler which operates in the UK. It is a subsidiary of USA parent. It supplies a range of over the counter (OTC) medicines and beauty products direct to retailers, mainly small independents. It has operated a call centre, based in Manchester for the past 5 years to act as a sales arm for its growing portfolio of products. It has been successful based on good quality at low prices. It has 20 Customer Services Representatives (CSRs), 10 focus on beauty products and 10 on OTC medicines. Each team has a team manager. A CSR’s day would be made up as follows: On average, a CSR spends: • 68% of the day engaged with a customer. • 3% of the day writing emails. • 13% of the day in wrap-up (call related work) • 6% of the day not in a position to receive a call but not logged off. • 10% of the day logged off from the system. adapted from Human Resource Management in Call Centres: David Holman, Stephen Wood, Chris Stride The Institute of Work Psychology,University of Sheffield. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globalcallcenter/research/upload/UK-CC-report.pdf 31/12/13 and http://esrccoi.group.shef.ac.uk/pdf/hrm_in_callcentres.pdf 31/12/13 The CSR’s basic salary is £15,000 pa plus 11% commission on sales. Labour turnover in the organisation is low as are absences. It is considered a good place to work with a strong team ethic and a fun place to work. Quality control is fairly strong with calls monitored on a regular basis and...

Words: 989 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Jhkhlk; Lgyhg

...ethnicity? (AO1) What patterns of attainment on the basis of ethnicity are there? (AO2) Is the education system institutionally racist? (AO2) What other social factors may influence ethnic attainment? Summary of key points Ethnicity is a word used in sociology to describe the culture that you belong to. Everyone has an ethnicity. For most people in Barry, this ethnicity or sense of belonging to a culture is Welsh. Some people have more than one ethnicity; they might be Welsh/Chinese or English/African. The majority ethnicity in Britain is white British. People who do not fit into that group are said to belong to an ethnic minority. There are many ethnicities in Britain. The majority of the UK population in 2001 was White (92 per cent). The remaining 4.6 million (or 7.9 per cent) people belonged to other ethnic groups. It has been known for a long time that different ethnic groups appear to have differing rates of attainment in the education system. Although some writers such as H J Eysenck and the geneticist, James Watson have claimed that...

Words: 2509 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Demography Essay

...them, children were to be born. When the soldiers got back from war they came home to their wives and then in the long term that caused a lot of births in the UK. This was before 1970, after 1970 there was less needs to have as many children because many things had changes came from the war. Women now had the vote, the same as men, they had the opportunities to get further education, more women were paid for employment, there was a change of attitude to the role of the women in the house because more families were single parent because of the death of a husband in the war, it was easier to get a divorce out of a relationships that wasn't working and women after 1967 had the choice to have a child or to abort the child. This gave women much more freedom and rights to do what they wanted to in life, and for many women a family was not at the top of the list, many women wanted to work and do what they wanted to do, then settle down to have a family of a smaller size because the need for many children had decreased. Infant mortality rate lowered a lot of births in the UK because more births were successful and more children were surviving to childhood and adulthood, this caused more parents to have less children so they can focuses there love and attention on the children they have. When the IMR was high in the UK the parent would have...

Words: 657 - Pages: 3