ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the institutional factors and the political struggles at the level of the state that affect the position of women. It looks at the new challenges and the shift in the balance of power in view of the growing contradictions and expansion of or cuts in the welfare state in Sweden, Germany and the United States. The chapter describes the broaden analysis to include the structures and institutional context that shape and are shaped by individuals who exert influence and take collective action. It analyses how the women's movement has sought to influence the way the state regulates gender relations and how the state has regulated gender relations in the spheres of production and social reproduction in different countries. The chapter discusses a historical approach because social relations such as gender relations are a process shaped by the outcomes of past conflicts as well as present ones and institutional arrangements.
