Familial Poverty, Family Allowances, and the Normative Family Structure in Britain, 1917-1945

• Published in: Journal of family history Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 508 - 528
• Main Author: Forrest, Colleen Margaret
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications 01-10-2001; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Demography; Families & family life; Family Characteristics - ethnology; Family Health - ethnology; Family income; Family law; Family Structure; Family studies; Great Britain; History; History of medicine; History, 20th Century; Income - history; Income Inequality; Income Maintenance Programs; Poverty; Poverty - economics; Poverty - ethnology; Poverty - history; Poverty - legislation & jurisprudence; Poverty - psychology; Poverty Areas; Public Assistance - classification; Public Assistance - economics; Public Assistance - ethics; Public Assistance - history; Public Policy; Sexism; Sexual Inequality; Social history; Social Policy; Social Problems - economics; Social Problems - ethnology; Social Problems - history; Social Problems - legislation & jurisprudence; Social Problems - psychology; Social Welfare - economics; Social Welfare - ethnology; Social Welfare - history; Social Welfare - legislation & jurisprudence; Social Welfare - psychology; Socioeconomic Factors; Unemployment - history; Unemployment - psychology; United Kingdom; United Kingdom - ethnology; Wages; Welfare Policy; Welfare Services; Women - education; Women - history; Women - psychology; Women's Health - economics; Women's Health - ethnology; Women's Health - history; Women's Health - legislation & jurisprudence; Women's Rights - economics; Women's Rights - education; Women's Rights - history; Women's Rights - legislation & jurisprudence; Women, Working - education; Women, Working - history; Women, Working - legislation & jurisprudence; Women, Working - psychology; United Kingdom; UK
• ISSN: 0363-1990; 1552-5473
• DOI: 10.1177/036319900102600404

In 1945, the Family Allowances Act was incorporated into law. The family allowances scheme depended on the maintenance of a normative family structure and a wage system that discriminated against women. Eleanor Rathbone, along with social surveyors of the 1930s and social policy makers, recognized the family wage system as a primary cause of poverty among working families. Unfortunately, the family allowances scheme did not address the poverty caused by long-term unemployment or the absence of a male wage earner within the family structure. As a social policy solution to familial poverty, consequently, family allowances reflected both the contemporary social processes and the normative family structure to the detriment of impoverished families.