Welfare Reform with a Familial Face

In the last decade, the welfare state has come into scholarly focus for analysts of East Central Europe. After years of neglecting the welfare state, area specialists have begun to document the policy shifts underway in the region. ¹ In tracing these shifts, scholars tend to lump the countries of Eastern Europe together as examples of a “post-socialist” welfare regime change. To some extent, this common grouping is warranted, as similar re/distributive trends have emerged across East Central Europe. With the end of full employment, East Europeans had their first experience with large-scale unemployment. With economic marketization and privatization, regional class structures became increasingly stratified and bifurcated. ² With the disappearance of price subsidies and socialized services, poverty rates soared—especially among the working class, the Roma, and women. ³ And with the state's withdrawal of many maternity and childrearing benefits, reproduction became privatized, thus increasing women's workloads and undercutting their ability to combine work and family. ⁴