ABSTRACT
In Greece, the family remains the most important provider of welfare. Since the process of welfare state economic redistribution is not enough to explain gender relations, studying the family as a locus of welfare activities and of important processes of redistribution – influenced by state provisions and practices – becomes increasingly essential. Within a rapidly changing social environment, there is a discrepancy in that on the one hand, there is a social restructuring influenced by market forces and on the other, ‘at the level of political rhetoric’ there is an insistence that the family not follow the same trend and be based on client/provider exchanges (Smart, 1997, p. 302).
