To encourage people to get married and not divorce the government may put a policy in place were, if you get married you get to pay less tax then, cohabiting couples or single parent families ect, this not focusing on couples who choose to cohabit, to so something about It therefore more people will be wanting to marry having an influence on the family and household.
Another policy that may have an influence on the family is ‘The Equal Pay Act’ of 1970, specifying that women should be paid the same as men for doing the same job, largely as a consequence of this act from 1970 to 1977 female earnings rose from 63% to 74% of men’s, this indicates that this increase on earning has encouraged a shift to later childbearing, because of the raising cost of children, this effect of later childbearing, made an important contribution to the large fluctuation in births during the 1970’s but had little effect the size of then families, as for the later childbearing this also strongly associated with later marriage. Facts show that the Equal Pay Act encouraged later marriage and probably increased the number of divorces! It’s unclear that the link between legislation and divorce rates operates through higher pay to women or through longer time spent in employment. From the women’s point of view, higher relative pay reduces the incentive to accept the traditional division between spouses, from a women’s point of view they may see it as their own dependence, it helps women to support themselves and children outside of a marriage, or as a single parent family. If women are less financially dependent on their husbands, marriages that are strained are much more likely to break down, it is difficult to assess the overall effect of the equal pay policy, but we can clearly see it influences the family in some way., these policies also influence the timing of motherhood, and marriage and the amount of time spent in paid employment.
There is now a more range of contraception available for free, now couples can choose when to start a family or, to stop them from having children, this wasn’t the case 50 years ago when you had no choice. Now women are opting for a career before they have children and with contraception this can be achieved, this can result into longer lasting marriages and for couples to stay in a relationship after having children so there is less single parent families, having the opportunity to choose when you want to start a family, may result into happier families and marriages, couples who haven’t planned to have children may not be as happy. It is now more socially accepted for people to go ahead for a divorce now the government have introduced, benefits for families who don’t earn as what is considered to be the average wage you can live on well, women or men who don’t want to be in a relationship can now get a divorce and still manage on there own instead of being financially dependent on their husband/wife or partners. Now education is free, more parents can send their children to school without having to worry about childcare this means that both parents can go out to work instead of one of them staying home looking after their children, this has a big influence on families, meaning there are two wages coming into a family, producing a better quality of life and equal gender roles in the family, instead of the man going to work and the women staying at home, their efforts are joint to provide for their family.
Now government intervention, in the housing market takes many forms of which two particularly have important effects, first there are policies designed to reduce the costing of housing, to the consumers these also include, rent control, rent allowance and tax-advantages to owners. Policies which reduce the cost of housing encourage household formation, most significantly among young people, previously married people and one-parent families, this making it easier for people who don’t earn as much, to be able to afford a house, if this wasn’t possible it would have a big effect on society.
In conclusion any discussion about how the family should or should not conduct itself also involves the government with their policies and laws, but in a way we are all influenced by family life, as children ourselves and then when we move on to form our own family, we have an impact to bear on the individuals who make up our family. Policies and laws try to shape the family and household, as the government think is best, although as we can see different policies fit different families better we all have the right to do and say as what we think is best, because in the end it is our family.
