ABSTRACT
The welfare state functions identified by socialist feminists are carried out, in part, by the codification of the family ethic or the ideology of women's roles in its rules and regulations. Indeed, the family ethic is one way in which the welfare state regulates the lives of women. It is well-known that social welfare laws categorize the poor as deserving and undeserving of aid based on their compliance with the work ethic, but, as this book suggests, the rules and regulations of social welfare programs also treat women differentially according to their perceived compliance with the family ethic. Assessing women in terms of the family ethic became one way the welfare state could mediate the conflicting demands for women's unpaid labor in the home and her low-paid labor in the market, encourage reproduction by "proper" families, and otherwise meet the needs of patriarchal capitalism.
