ABSTRACT
The policies of the welfare state actively shape gender relations by transforming working conditions and employment opportunities for women in the health care workforce. These policies frequently incorporate significant, though implicit, assumptions about gender roles. The ease or difficulty with which women can enter paid work, the way in which the unpaid work of caring for others is treated, and the regulation of marital and family relationships are all central arenas where gender relations are constituted, and these are influenced in significant ways by the nature and extent of state intervention (Orloff 1993).
