Gender Equality In The Welfare State

The Handbook provides a broad introduction to Swedish politics, and how Sweden's political system and policies have evolved over the past few decades.

Gender equality has been one of the defining projects of European welfarestates. It has proven an elusive goal, not just because of political opposition but also due to a lack of clarity in how to best frame equality and take account of family-related considerations. This wide-ranging book assembles the most pertinent literature and evidence to provide a critical understanding of how contemporary state policies engage with gender inequalities.

What differences do welfare state variations make for women? How do women and men fare in different welfare states? Diane Sainsbury answers these questions by analysing the situation in countries whose welfare state policies differ in significant ways: the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Building on feminist criticisms of mainstream research, Professor Sainsbury reconceptualises the crucial dimensions of variation, notably those relevant to gender. She determines the extent to which legislation reflects and perpetuates the gendered division of labour in the family and society, as well as what types of policy alter gender relations in social provision. She thereby increases our understanding of how policy mechanisms, especially the bases of entitlement, exclude or incorporate women and offers constructive proposals for securing greater equality between women and men.

This timely and accessible textbook analyses the male breadwinner model in terms of care, work, time, income and power, providing a framework which asks about policies and practices for gender equality in each of these. This new approach contextualises national policies and debates within comparative theoretical analysis and data.

The politics of the Third Way reflects an attempt by many contemporary social democracies to forge a new political settlement which is fitted to the conditions of a modern society and new global economy, but which retains the goals of social cohesion and egalitarianism. It seeks to differentiate itself as distinct from the political ideologies of the New Right and Old Left. Though commonly linked to the US Democratic Party in the Clinton era, it can also be traced to the political discourses in European social democratic parties during the mid-1990s, most notably in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In social policy terms the model attempts to transcend the old alternatives of the state and the market. Instead, civil society, government, and the market are viewed as interdependent and equal partners in the provision of welfare, and the challenge for government is to create equilibrium between these three pillars. The individual is to be 'pushed' towards self-help, and independent, active citizenship, while business and government must contribute to economic and social cohesion. This book provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of 'Third Way' social policy and policy processes in the welfare systems of industrialized economies, and examines the extent to which 'Third Way' ideology and institutional structures converge or vary in different national settings. It examines substantive areas of public policy in a broad comparative context of key trends and debates. By assessing the extent to which the post-war social contract in developed welfare states is being renegotiated, the text contributes to a better understanding of the current restructuring and modernization of the State. Finally the book explores the implications of the new politics of welfare for theorizing inequality, social justice, and the future of welfare.

Gender and Welfare State Regimes focuses on the interrelationships between aspects of the welfare state and labour market policies in structuring and transforming gender relations across a broad spectrum of countries. The book examines the construction of gender in various government welfare policies and illustrates how the specific qualities of the welfare state reinforce or counteract gender inequalities. The book argues that policy variation across the countries surveyed can be attributed to a variety of factors, including differing strategies and demands of the women's movements, the organisational strength of labour movements and industrial relations frameworks, the constellation of parties supporting equality measure, traditional values and state structures. Series Gender and Politics edited by Professor Karen Beckwith at the Department of Political Science, College of Wooster and Professor Joni Lovenduski, Department of Politics, University of Southampton.

This book examines the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today, and raises the question whether the hallmark of the Scandinavian welfare model is a special combination of gender equality and gender differentiation.

Academic experts review the impact of neoliberal politics and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. They explore different understandings of the care crisis, the consequences for gender equality and the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states.

Contributors address questions about gender equality in a Confucian context across a wide and varied social policy landscape, from Korea and Taiwan, where Confucian culture is deeply embedded, through China, with its transformations from Confucianism to communism and back, to the mixed cultural environments of Hong Kong and Japan.

This volume represents the present state of theoretical debate in welfare state scholarship, drawing on research from western Europe, North America and Japan. It therefore provides a valuable balance of breadth and detail from the broad international overview to comparisons between specific welfare states and national case studies.