Family Change and Family Policies in Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States

Abstract

Family Change and Family Policies in Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Sheila B. Kamerman & Alfred J. Kahn (Eds.). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. 1997. 463 pp. ISBN 0-19-829025-X. $99.95 cloth. This book is the first volume in a series designed to describe and analyze family policies in many parts of the world. Each volume will report on societies that have something in common. This first volume groups together Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States because they share a common history, have similar economic policies, devote relatively few resources to family wellbeing, and share a positive regard for the traditional fonn of family, which calls for men and women to play different roles. The series editors, Sheila Kamerman and Alfred Kahn, are well-known family policy analysts from the School of Social Work at Columbia University. Their own methodological approach to studying family policy has been historical-comparative, and this methodology is reflected in this volume as well. They begin with an outstanding introductory chapter that concisely summarizes their conceptualization of family policy and the history of family policy research. This introduction also weaves together findings from the later chapters on specific societies to give us important insights into the relationship between family change and family policy. Following the introduction, each country receives separate treatment-five chapters written by scholars from that country. The same topics are discussed for each country, which helps to integrate the volume. These topics are family formation, the interrelationship between employment and unpaid family work, family income, families' receipt of social services, and the development of family policy. These divisions make it easy for individuals interested in a particular topic-e.g., family income-to gather that information. Altogether, the specific chapters about the four countries provide an extremely well-written overview of family life in these societies, with special attention to the development and importance of social policy affecting families with children since World War II. By the end, it becomes apparent that all four societies have experienced similar changes in family patterns (e.g., increased delays in marriage and childbearing, declines in fertility, rises in out-of-wedlock births, increased cohabitation, and climbing rates of child poverty). It seems that all four societies have political systems that are not comfortable with making formal decisions about providing support for families with children and that services to families are lacking in many areas (e.g., subsidized child care for working parents, paid family leave, enforcement of child support, maternal-child health regulation, income transfers to single parents). In all four cases, family change has propelled what little government action there has been. The conscious setting of family policy goals that focus on the well-being of children has been generally absent. The strengths of the volume are many. …