Governance by Gaslight: The Reproductive Politics of the Two-Child Limit

Abstract

In 2017, the UK government limited the number of children for a whom a low-income family could claim a means tested benefit (the "child element"of "Universal Credit") to two. Since then, over 400,000 families - including 1.5 million children - have been affected by the "two-child limit."Emerging research indicates that the limit has done little to influence fertility rates, nothing to influence workforce participation, and a great deal to increase financial hardship and poverty. Via a synthesis of existing research, and a critical analysis of formal policy dialogue, I explore the specifically reproductive politics of the two-child limit. I cast the limit as "successful"reproductive governance, a "technology of discipline"with complementary effects and rationales, which works by further marginalizing intersectionally marginalized women. In concluding, I argue that the state justifies this abject outcome via what has been termed "cultural gaslighting."