What does the term 'family' mean today? How are roles and relationships changing in family life? What is 'family support'? How can feminist ideas help to address such questions? Exploring these issues, this book examines the changing lives of men, women and children. Providing a constructively critical analysis of contemporary debates and developments around family support, it highlights why and how gender divisions matter in understanding caring practices and abusive behaviour. Brid Featherstone argues that feminist ideas can help us to understand the complexities of contemporary gender relations and offer new insights into family support -- opening up debates about alternative possibilities for policy and practice. Family Life and Family Support offers practical guidance for those working with families and emphasises the importance of making policy that engages with the lived experiences of men, women, boys and girls. The insights that feminist analysis can add to this debate have until now been under-represented and neglected. This book is therefore essential reading for students and practitioners interested in work with children and families. Book jacket.