The two‐child limit and fertility decision making: When policy narratives and lived experiences collide

Patrick, Ruth; Andersen, Kate

doi:10.1111/spol.12877

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Four post-show discussions were convened immediately after the performance of the play. Post-show discussion questions focused on four topic areas: sex work, substance use, media portrayals and the two-child limit to social security benefits (see Patrick and Andersen, 2023). The panel facilitator introduced the themes as subjects for discussion.…”

Section: Post-show Discussion With Panel Guests and Audience Membersmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A Tale of Gin and Prostitution’: Using Community Theatre to Explore Attitudes Towards Sex Work in Northern Ireland

Campbell,

Jordan,

Blair

et al. 2024

Affilia

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Sex work, encompassing the exchange of sexual services for material gain, presents a complex and sensitive research terrain, associated with stigma and entrenched debates within feminism. This evaluation's central objective was to engage in a community-based dialogue, eliciting perspectives from a diverse range of participants, including audience members, women with lived experience of sex work, users of addiction services, and expert commentators, in response to the themes explored in the play ‘Madame Geneva: A Tale of Gin and Prostitution’. This article delves into the study's findings, with a particular focus on the portrayal of sex work in contemporary Northern Irish society. The study demonstrates how the arts, particularly dramatic representations, serve as a potential catalyst for instigating essential and pragmatic policy discussions on issues that impact women and society at large. The findings shed light on the ongoing challenges faced by women in Northern Ireland within the context of sex work, revealing persistently high levels of oppression and discrimination. These issues often remain entangled within a male-dominated political discourse and structural frameworks, underscoring the urgent need for critical examination and reform.

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Section: Post-show Discussion With Panel Guests and Audience Membersmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘A Tale of Gin and Prostitution’: Using Community Theatre to Explore Attitudes Towards Sex Work in Northern Ireland

Campbell,

Jordan,

Blair

et al. 2024

Affilia

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show abstract

“…This article examines the impact of two such policies: the two-child limit, which restricts means-tested benefits to two children in the family only, and the benefit cap, which imposes an overall cap on the amount of support available if no-one in the household is in paid work. Introduced under the Conservative-led Governments of 2010-2017, both policies create a sharp and historically significant break in the relationship between need and entitlement in social security provision (Patrick & Andersen, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘It's the kids that suffer’: Exploring how the UK's benefit cap and two‐child limit harm children

Andersen,

Redman,

Stewart

et al. 2024

Soc Policy Adm

Self Cite

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The benefit cap and the two‐child limit reduce entitlement for households claiming means‐tested benefits and disproportionately affect households with dependent children. This article explores the harms the policies are doing to children through drawing upon data collected from interviews with parents affected by the benefit cap and the two‐child limit. To investigate the impacts of these policies we draw on the Investment Model and the Family Stress Model, models principally developed by quantitative scholars seeking to understand how economic disadvantage adversely affects children over the longer‐term. While there has been frequent quantitative analysis of these models, there has been very little qualitative engagement with them: this article directly addresses this gap in the literature. We show that the benefit cap and the two‐child limit cause multiple and severe overlapping harms to children, principally by exacerbating and deepening financial economic disadvantage. Our research evidence illuminates causal processes underpinning both the Investment Model and the Family Stress Model, but also reveals additional harms that are not foregrounded by either model. We conclude by calling for the removal of both policies as a vital first step in reducing child poverty, and further reflect on the need for greater recognition of the harm child poverty does to experiences of childhood; as well as to their future selves.

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

Hewer

2024

Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State &Amp; Society

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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.”

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The two‐child limit and fertility decision making: When policy narratives and lived experiences collide

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

‘A Tale of Gin and Prostitution’: Using Community Theatre to Explore Attitudes Towards Sex Work in Northern Ireland

‘A Tale of Gin and Prostitution’: Using Community Theatre to Explore Attitudes Towards Sex Work in Northern Ireland

‘It's the kids that suffer’: Exploring how the UK's benefit cap and two‐child limit harm children

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

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