The Need for a Family Policy That Fosters Family as an Institution
Abstract
The 20th anniversary of the international year of the family has led to the General Assembly of the
United Nations to ask for a review of family policies adopted by each country to achieve three objectives:
eradication of poverty, full employment and social integration. However, an X-ray of the
situation of the family according to the data provided by The Word Family Map (2013) says that it
has decreased the rate of birth and marriage, while it has increased the cohabitation and births in
other than the traditional family forms such as single-parent families. This article advocates the
need to institutionalize family policies focused on promoting a family culture to achieve the replacement
birth rate. In addition, the current trends reveal that the future family models require
the women integration in the working world and therefore family policies should focus on supporting
a model that includes working women, as Sweden has been adopting since 1984. At the
same time, family policies should solve the risk of new trends which leads to poverty situations
that affects children development. Therefore, it is also necessary to determine measures to improve
the understanding of a working family life.