Feminists believe that society is structured by Patriarchy, the idea that men are the most important people in society, and everything in society is organised to provide for the needs of men. This view is supported by the distribution of salaries; examples of this are managerial positions in large companies where women get paid less for the same job and numerous other industries. Another good example relates to the view that social inequalities are built into society, there are more women that are reliant on the state pension, which is 20% less than men’s, this is because women were unable to go out and work when they were younger because they were expected to stay at home to look after their children and have therefore been unable to contribute to a pension, this demonstrates the in-built inequalities in society. Glendinning, Millar and Townsend have identified, through research, the ‘feminisation of poverty’, whereby the poor are made up of more women than men. Feminists will also argue that the benefit system has assumed that women are dependent upon men and this means the welfare state functions to maintain patriarchy.
The cycle of poverty supports the view that poverty is caused by the social inequalities that are built into the structure of society. This view is that when a person is born into a poor family, their chances in life of furthering themselves in society are significantly reduced. This is the process in which poverty is transmitted from one generation to another. Michael Rutter and Nicola Madge acknowledge that some of the disadvantages that are associated with the poor like underachievement at school are linked with children of low income families being “labelled” as a problem.
The social democratic approach accepts this cycle of poverty and the relative definition of poverty. Their ideology is that those at the bottom of the social classes are in disadvantaged groups whose poverty resulting in social exclusion. Research carried out by Peter Townsend and Frank Field found that there are main groups in the underclass, including the elderly, retired, lone parents and the long term unemployed who are forced to rely on inadequate state benefits, which are too low. This gives these groups an unacceptable standard of living and insufficient opportunities to escape poverty. The social democrats ideology illustrates that unemployment needs to be eradicated, those who live on benefits need to have a better standard of living and incentives are needed to help people come off benefits. This explains why the children of the poor are likely to be in poverty themselves. This brings inequalities upon the poor because the government is not doing enough for them so there children are forced into poverty and the cycle starts again with the government not providing enough benefits for them to escape the poverty trap.
An opposing view is that there is a dependency culture created by the welfare state and its generosity, this ideology was particularly popular during the Conservative government of 1979-1997. It is a theory of New Right supporters, who were very influential during this period. New Right supporters, such as Charles Murray and David Marsland, consider the poor as undeserving because of the culture of poverty that causes dependence on the welfare state. Marsland believes that universal benefits are not useful and instead considers means-tested benefits the best option; however Murray has a more diverse view that the attitude of the poor forms an anti-social underclass. Murray feels particularly strongly about lone parents on benefits and is critical that women are encouraged by benefits to have children they could otherwise not afford. The New Right do not believe that there are social inequalities built into society, they think that poverty is caused by the individuals laziness and inability to stand up and look after themselves sufficiently without any help because the individual does not believe that they can get out of poverty. A disadvantage to this approach is that micro approach so it cannot comment on society as whole and it therefore it cannot comment on the structure of society because it only focuses on the individuals in that society.
Those theories that agree that poverty is caused by the social inequalities that are built into the structure of society have strong arguments when they refer to the institutions in society, for example Feminists blame the social inequalities that are evident in so many of the institutions that make up the superstructure of society, this is proved to be true by statistics and opposing views cannot deny these inequalities. However those that blame the individual for there inability to escape the poverty trap are also backed by research and there are examples in everyday life of individuals in poverty that do not suffer social inequalities. I agree more with those that agree that there are social inequalities built into society, but I do not believe that they are the sole cause of all poverty, for example lone parents in poverty are mostly women, and these women are paid fewer benefits because they are assumed to have a male breadwinner in the family who supports them. However I also believe that some poor people are living off benefits because they choose to rather than being forced to.
