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[quote][i]contd:[/i] Policy makers out of touch Both the Conservatives and Labour assume that those people not living in married two-parent families are simply choosing not to. The Conservative Party therefore believes that the two-parent family needs promoting by financial incentives to marry, while Labour, has adopted a 'neutral' position in which family structure doesn't matter. Both parties are out of touch with reality: Marriage doesn't need incentivising. Most people already want to marry - research shows that more employment, not tax-breaks, will enable them to. Pressurising people to marry will not stabilise the family in the absence of the circumstances conducive to commitment. Marriage signals, rather than generates, commitment. Structure should matter to Labour. Owing to economic obstacles, people who are poor and unemployed are considerably more likely to be unmarried and separated. Reactionary Labour Anastasia de Waal argues that while Labour thinks it is being liberal, its position on the family is actually highly conservative. Its policy is currently determined not by its own priorities, but by Conservative policy and past notions of the repressive 'traditional' family. Labour therefore considers family structure to be solely Conservative moralising territory and marriage irrelevant to 21st century policymaking. Instead, the government has focused on celebrating so-called 'diversity'. But Labour's nominally inclusive stance is actually blurring the lines between the poor family and what Labour imagines to be the 'modern' family: 'What are construed [by Labour] as positive manifestations of diversity are in fact very often negative manifestations of deprivation and limiting circumstances. This is not to deny that new opportunities to end unhappy relationships and a greater freedom of choice in family life have positively affected families right across the socio-economic spectrum. However, non-marriage and parental separation in the UK today disproportionately represent the problematic, as opposed to the progressive, elements of family diversity.' [p.5] Labour must recognise the significance of family structure Labour's misjudged resistance to acknowledging the importance of family structure is undermining its equalising agenda, perpetuating inequality between both the classes and the sexes. The significance of structure is imperative to: 1. Tackling 'structural poverty' Lower marriage rates and greater numbers of cohabitating parents are strongly connected to what Anastasia de Waal terms 'structural poverty', that is, unemployment-related poverty incurring further poverty through parental separation. The relationship between unemployment and parental separation is hugely significant because child poverty in Britain is concentrated in single-parent households. Child poverty is a central priority for Labour, yet the government is failing to acknowledge the circumstances giving rise to parental separation and subsequent single parenthood. A child born to cohabiting parents is nearly twice as likely to see his/her parents break-up before his/her sixteenth birthday than a child born to married parents. The unmarried parent is therefore more likely to become the single parent. Labour must finally tackle the issue of NEETs - young people not in education, employment and training - which is exacerbating family poverty. Almost a fifth of school leavers today are unemployed, a 15 per cent rise in the last ten years. The effect on families is an increased risk that young women and men enter into parenthood in unstable circumstances. 2. Fostering equality in parenting between men and women There is currently a very narrow-conservative-conceptualisation by Labour as to what is meant by attaching importance to family structure and the two-parent family. Structure ought to refer as much to the parenting model as to the relationship between parents. For this reason it would be useful to stop talking about family breakdown and start talking about parental separation-and single parenting instead of lone parenting. The household may split, but the family unit-the parenting structure-should remain intact. One of the main reasons that the children of separated families are more likely to suffer difficulties is because the two-parent structure in terms of responsibility - the dual-parenting - breaks down. Labour's treatment of fathers as 'optional extras' is exacerbating difficulties for women and children. Whilst the aim has been to be non-judgemental to mothers and children in separated families, in reality the effect has been to legitimise irresponsible fathers. Policy recommendations The current emphasis on women in every area of policy affecting the family should be reformed in favour of equal responsibility. Family policy must include men, starting from childcare to the position that even if the relationship between adults ends, the responsibilities towards children don't. Child poverty is strongly connected to the failure of non-resident parents to contribute financially. Child maintenance should be automatically taken out of wages or social assistance through HM Revenue and Customs, regardless of income. Notes to editors: i. Civitas is an independent social policy think-tank. 'Second Thoughts on the Family' by Anastasia de Waal is published by Civitas (www.civitas.org.uk) at £11.75 inc. pp. Tel 020 7799 6677.[/quote]
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