ABSTRACT
This chapter presents part of a research project entitled 'Solo Mothers in the context of active citizenship'. The first stage in the project had as its comprehensive aim to examine and analyse, in a cross-national comparative legal study, social assistance regulations in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. This chapter shows how solo mothers are at risk of being excluded from the concept of citizenship when it is understood as 'active' citizenship and argues that a more pluralistic notion of citizenship is required if the EU is to meet its social inclusion objectives. The inspiration to compare social assistance in four Nordic countries arises from the EU policies that have been adopted in the EC Treaty. The welfare system is based on an employment strategy and has required workforce participation from women as well as men. Feminist critiques of Scandinavian welfare states have brought woman-friendliness into question and made use of the term 'public patriarchy'.
