For decades, the UK has occupied a male breadwinner and female carer model due to men and women conforming to stereotypical gender forms (Price, 2006:3) within their marriage partnerships and the labour force. However recent progressions have seen these traditional models disintegrating as there has been an increase in modern family types (e.g. lone parents) and an increase of womens participation in the labour force; as society is becoming more gender equal. Traditional scholars believe that these stereotypical functions were due to distinctive innate differences between males and females, however it was questioned whether these ideas were biological or physical as society became more advanced. Cultural differences also played a role in how gender roles were seen, as caregiving was seen as a feminine task in western society (Paquette, 2004).
However, contrary to popular scholar belief, the evidence they use is nothing more than social norms. Nevertheless, previous policy reinforced these stereotypes for example through The Family Wage. This blind sighted society in to thinking that policy makers were ensuring equality, however it instead reinforced gender roles in confirming that the male bredwinner should make a sufficient amount of money to support his family, thus making women inferior to men. The policy was greatly opposed by feminists as they
believed that the wage has detrimental effects on society as a whole as it inscribed the structure of most industrial era welfare state (Fraser, 994:25). With inequalities in the previous Conservative government becoming clear, Nancy Fraser developed the models of equality, which she believed are possible aims that policy makers should use to move towards a more gender equal society (Fraser, 994). This includes the Universal Breadwinner Model (UBM) which advocates that there is a need for policies that make women equal to men, whereas the Caregiver Parity Model (CPM) extended the focus of womens care by enabling it to be highly respected, and thus resulting it in costing less for women taking up care roles. However, both models are greatly focused on womens caregiving, which is far from gender parity being achieved. She proposed the radical Universal Carer Model (UCM), which reversed traditional roles making men more like women, with such models evident in the Netherlands. Whilst Frasers work was based in the US, concepts around gender equality can easily be adapted to policies in the UK. This is evident in Sweden for example, where a CPM is adopted to attempt to achieve equality. Other western countries have clearly been more successful than the UK in achieving gender equality this is apparent through research into the history of policy in the UK.