ABSTRACT
No one who listens to contemporary social policy debates—for example, about what is the proper balance between work and parenting for sole mothers receiving state pensions (“welfare mothers,” in American parlance)—could doubt the importance of gender in the welfare state. While disagreement continues about the root cause of women’s oppression, few would deny that the character of welfare states affects men’s and women’s material situations, shapes gender relationships, structures political conflict and participation, and contributes to the formation and mobilization of gendered identities and interests.
