ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the part played by welfare state institutions in forming and maintaining gender relations. Welfare institutions bridge the public sphere of economic and political life and the private sphere of family, parenthood and personal life. The key ideas informing the analysis of gender and social policy are derived from the interaction between the public and the private. The chapter introduces these ideas and their application to the welfare states of nations with advanced economies, primarily in Europe and Australasia. It examines the way gender has been institutionalised in the social policy frameworks of advanced welfare states, and the way policy institutions are changing in response to the new social risks posed by post-industrial transformation. Feminists argue for understanding the welfare state in terms not simply of state and market but of state, market and family. This brings into the theoretical frame the largely unpaid work of social reproduction such as domestic labour, childcare and the provisioning of the household.
