ABSTRACT
The unifying theme of the feminist critiques of social policy has been a critique of the 'patriarchal' family in modern society and an analysis of the Welfare State as supporting relations of dependency in that family. This chapter argues that this analysis presents a challenge which none of the major traditions of social administration has been able to meet at all adequately. Sylvie Price has written a fascinating account of women's responses to Beveridge report in the 1940, in which she shows that not all women were grateful for the benefits brought to them as housewives and dependents. Feminist analysis has to begin with the family, and feminist analysis of the Welfare State has to begin with the relations between social policy and the family. 'The personal is political' is a good slogan for social administration, as well as for Women's Liberation.
