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.