Positioning of women within capitalist welfare societies

Abstract

The connection between the different economic modes, such as the household economic mode and the market mode, has changed considerably in recent decades. Citizens’ engagement in the various modes has shifted, as have the resources flowing within them. A restructuring of labour markets, households, and, since the 1990s, of the welfare economic modes can be observed in all European countries. The point of departure for these changes has, roughly speaking, been the emerging demand for more economic autonomy for citizens (Clasen 2002, Lessenich 2008, Schmid 2005) and cost-containment considerations in social policy (Bonoli, George & Taylor-Gooby 2000, Hills 2004, Hyde, Dixon & Drover 2003, Mossialos & Le Grand 1999, Myles 2002, Sinn 2000). Welfare reforms have, since then, emphasised individual responsibility, on the one hand, and the financial sustainability of public budgets, on the other. As a consequence, social rights have undergone substantial change: they have been partly individualised, and certain elements that used to fall under public social provision have been shifted to market-based provisions (Barr & Diamond 2009, Bonoli & Martin 2007, Frericks, 2011, Frericks, Maier & De Graaf 2006, 2008, Gilbert 2002, Meyer, Bridgen & Riedmüller 2007, Seeleib-Kaiser 2008). Both these shifts are singularly relevant to the economic and societal positioning and the social rights of women, as this chapter demonstrates.