ABSTRACT
The objective of this chapter is to involve gender issues in the study of citizenship, and to compare the recent changes in the fulfilment of women’s citizenship in Denmark, France and Britain. The argument is that developing a gender-sensitive framework for citizenship necessitates a rethinking of the interplay between two aspects of citizenship, the social and the political. There are three key questions in the comparative analysis of gender and citizenship in Denmark, France and Britain. How is the meaning of key concepts of citizenship, such as the distinctions between public and private arenas and active and passive conceptions of citizenship, transformed when viewed from the perspective of gender?; What has been the relationship between welfare and political agency?; What are the implications of the on-going changes in women’s social and political citizenship for gender relations and for the citizenship discourses in European welfare states in transition?2
