Conceptualizing and analyzing family policy and how it is changing

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the conceptualization of family policy as well as identifying the main trends and policy reforms. The chapter first sets out an analytic framework. This underlines the complexity of family policy and the necessity to see it as relating to both family structure and family-related behavior. The chapter then proceeds to identify major contemporary trends, focusing on three main areas of family policy: income supports for families with children, early childhood education and care and parenting-related leaves from employment. It shows family policy as dynamic and seeking to balance a series of tensions between resourcing families on the one hand and regulating them on the other. At issue is the balance to be struck between continuity in the structure of families, in their economic and social organization and in regard to the relative resourcing of different generations and life phases.