Gender and Welfare Regimes: A Comparative Analysis

ARTICLE y GENDER AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WELFARE REGIMES alicy Jane Lewis, London School of Economics, UK dologicaL 'stitute of Summary wives and mothers and paid workers. Sw...

ARTICLE y GENDER AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WELFARE REGIMES alicy Jane Lewis, London School of Economics, UK dologicaL 'stitute of Summary wives and mothers and paid workers. Sweden is taken as an example of a 'weak' male- Its breadwinner country. During the late 1960s 'f This paper builds on the idea that any further and 1970s successive Social Democratic development of the concept of 'welfare governments consciously decided to move slovakia 'arsaw, regime' must incorporate the relationship towards a dual-breadwinner society, pulling between unpaid as well as paid work and women into paid employment by the tgoslavia welfare. Consideration of the private/domestic introduction of separate taxation and parental ngary is crucial to a gendered understanding of leaves, and by increasing child care provision. , Belgium welfare because historically women have While both the French and Swedish models X'arsaw, typically gained entitlements by virtue of their would seem to offer women more than the dependent status within the family as wives British, the paper concludes with a cautionary and mothers. The paper suggests that the idea note. In neither France nor Sweden did cch of the male-breadwinner family model has women's own demands playa significant role served historically to cut across established in determining their treatment. Paradoxically, typologies of welfare regimes, and further that the feminist movement has been historically ternal the model has been modified in different ways stronger in Britain. This must raise issues as (ion. and to different degrees in particular to what can be expected of the state and as to ated per- countries. the pOSSible fragility of the gains. right Box It is suggested that Ireland and Britain are , USA, examples of historically 'strong' male- :rmitted breadwinner states and that this helps to : the US account for the level and, more importantly, ties Resume the nature ofwomen's (part-time) labour mission m the market participation; the lack of child care ~s not services and ,maternity rights; and the long- NATURE ET DEVELOPPEMENT DES pying, lived inequality between husbands and wives REGIMES SOCIAUX in regard to social security. Strong maie- pnd creating breadwinner states have tended to draw a. resale. firm dividing line between public and private eet article se fonde sur l'idee selon laquelle responsibility. The picture is different in tout developpement du concept de systeme de France, which is taken as an example of a protection sociale doit integrer Ie rapport 'modified' male-breadwinner country. The entre Ie tr(:l,vail, remmere ou non, et la 11992 nature of French women's labour market protection sociale. La prise en consideration of this participation has historically been stronger in du domaine privelfamiliai est indispensable Iced, m that it has been predominantly full-time, and pour comprendre la dif(erenciation selon les by any women have benefited, ,albeit indirectly, from sexes des formes de protection sociale: en :al, a social security system that has prioritized effet, historiquement, les femmes ont acquis horizontal redistribution via the wage system des droits, en raison meme de leur situation ~ prior.lblishers between families with and without children. de dependance dans la famille en tant icted Patriarchal control has been located within qu'epouse et mere. L'article suggere que Ie 10m the family rather than in collecttve modele familIal dans lequel e'est l'homme qui ensing institutions, and unlike Britain and Ireland, apporte Ie revenu' familial, a rempli, Court France recognized women's claims as both historiquement, une fonction importante qui Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3) 159-173 © Longman Group UK Ltd 1992 0958-9287192102301159/$03.50 160 JANE LEWIS traverse les typologies etablies des systemes de s'acheve par un avertissement. Ni en France, Thus con protection socia/e, et ensuite que ce modele a ni en Suede, les revendications des femmes 'depende connu des modifications diverses et plus au n'ont joue un role significatif dans fa rarely ad mains importantes dans certains pays. determination de leur traitement. D'une fagon (1990) w L'auteur avance que I'Irlande et fa Grande- paradoxale, le mouvement (iministe a ete necessar) Bretagne sont des exemples de pays (ortement historiquement plus puissant en Grande- mobilizal marques, historiquement, par ce modele de Bretagne. Des questions s'imposent, comme male and l' homme apporteur de revenu, et que ceez' aide celle concernant les attentes que l'on peut much on a expliquer Ie niveau et, surtout, la nature de avoir vis-a-vis de l'Etat et celie de fa fragilite state poli la participation des femmes au marchi du eventuelle des acquis. is likely t travail (temps partiel), Ie manque de creches canngwi ou garderies, l'insuffisance de la protection de depender fa materniti et l'inegaliti persistante entre likely to mari et epouse face d la securite sociale. Les another'J Gender and the development of Etats fortement marques par ce modele ont eu division c tendance a tracer une ligne bien nette entre welfare regimes 1 dichoton responsabilite puhlique et responsabilite and indeJ prives. La situation se presente autrement en Recent comparative work on modern welfare decomrnc France, qui est un exemple de pays OU ce states has emphasized the importance of the As Kol modele centre sur /'homme s'est modifie. La relationship between state and economy, and between participation des femmes fram;aises au in particular between work and welfare informal marche du travail a ete historiquement d'une (especially Esping Andersen 1990). Work is the state autre nature, en particulier du fait de la defined as paid work and welfare as policies analysis. predominance de l'empLoi a temps plein, et les that permit, encourage or discourage the from Titl femmes ont beneficie, quoiqu~ indirectement, decommodification of labour. While this is a division c d'un systeme de securite sociale qui substantial advance on the older literature occupatic priviJegiait une redistribution horizontale, par which focused only on the comparative Ostner (1 Ie biais du. systeme salarial, entre les families development of policies of social from rna avec enfants et celles sans enfants. Le controle amelioration, it mi&,ses one of the central of Espin! patriarcal s'est localise au sein de la famille issues in the structuring of welfare regimes: womenc plutot que dans les institutions collectives et, the problem of valuing the unpaid work that disappea contrairement a l'lrlande et a fa Grande- is done primarily by women in providing consider. Bretagne, la France a reconnu les welfare, mainly within the family, and in crucial tc revendications des femmes en tant qu'epouses, securing those providers social entitlements. position meres et travailleuses salariees a fa fois. La The crucial relationship is not just between typically Suede est un exemple de pays faiblement paid work and welfare, but as Peter Taylor of their c marque par Ie modele de l'homme apporteur Gooby (1991) recently signalled in this wives, th du revenu familial. Pendant La fin des annees journal, between paid work and unpaid work labour p' 60 et durant les annees 70, les gouvernements and welfare. capacity socio-democrates successifs se dirigerent The latter set of relationships is gendered, tended tc resolument vers un modele familial a deux because while it is possible to argue that the benefits, apporteurs de revenu, en incitant les femmes a divisions in paid work have substantially assumpti un travail remunere par [,introduction d'une diminished to the extent that gr~ater numbers male-bre imposition separee et de conges parentaux et of women have entered the labour market Furtherrr par Ie developpement des services de garderie. (although not with regard to pay, status and social se, Bien que Ie modele fram;ais et Ie modele hours) all the evidence.suggests that the msuranCi suedois semblent etre plus favorables aux division of unpaid work remains substantially itself tenl femmes que /e,modele britannique, l'article the same (see, for example, Morris 1990). (insuran< Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3)  GENDER AND WELFARE REGIMES 161 Thus concepts such as 'decommodification' or second class (welfare/assistance) benefits to 'dependency' have a gendered meaning that is women (Gordon 1990). In Britain 2.5 million rarely acknowledged. While Esping Andersen working women are excluded from the (1990) writes of decommodification as a contributory social security system because necessary prerequisite for workers' political they fall below the lower earning limit. mobilization, the worker he has in mind is The development of modern welfare states male and his mobilization _may depend as in the late nineteenth and early twentieth much on unpaid female household labour as centuries coincided with the period when the state policies. Decommodification for women boundary between the public world of paid is likely to result in their carrying out unpaid work and political participation and the caring work; in other words 'welfare private domain of the family was strongest in dependency' on the part of adult women is both the prescriptive literature and in reality, likely to result in the greater independence of at least for middle class women. In its ideal another person, young or old. The unequal form, the male-breadwinner model prescribed division of unpaid work thus blurs the breadwinning for men- and caring! dichotomous divisions between dependent homemaking for women. It was part of a and independent, commodified and much larger gendered division between public decommodified. and private that informed the work of As Kolberg (1991) has noted, the interface political philosophers after Locke, and was between the private in the sense of the taken as one of the measures of a civilized informal provision of welfare, the market and society by late nineteenth century social the state has not been subjected to close scientists such as Herbert Spencer. Working analysis. Indeed, informal care was absent within an evolutionary framework, Spencer from Titmuss's (1963) classic threefold argued that society was 'progressing' towards division of welfare into state, fiscal and a position whereby all women would be able occupational provision, and as Langan and to stay home in their 'natural' sphere. While it Ostner (1991) comment, it is just as absent may be argued that his was a shared ideal- from more recent categorizations. In the work between men and women, employees and of Esping Andersen or of Leibfried (1991) employers and the state (Lewis 1986) - it is women disappear from the analysis when they important to note that it was never disappear from labour markets. Yet completely achieved. The male-breadwinner consideration of the private/domestic is model operated most fully for late-nineteenth crucial to any understanding of women's century middle class women in a few position because historically women have industrialized countries. Working class typically gained welfare entitlements by virtue women have always engaged in paid labour to of their dependent status within the family as some degree. wives, the justification being a division of In reality, as Sokoloff (1980) and Pateman labour perceived to follow 'naturally' on their (1989) have insisted, the two spheres have capacity for motherhood. Women have thus been and are intimately interrelated rather tended to make contributions and draw than separated. Not least as a provider of benefits via their husbands in accordance with welfare the family has been central to civil assumptions regarding the existence of a society, rather than separate from it. Over male-breadwinner family model (Land 1980). time, the boundary between public and Furthermore, in welfare regimes where the private has been redrawn at the level of social security system operates a dual prescription. For example, in English the insurance/assistance model, this in and of phrase 'working mother' entered the language itself tends to be gendered, with first class during and after World War II, but wage (insurance) benefits going mainly to men and earning was always deemed a secondary Journal of European Social Policy. 1992 2 (3) 162 JANE LEWIS activity for women. Given that in modern Sweden, where it is suggested that there has Industt societies independence derives primarily from been a shift away from a strong male- decisiv. wage earning (Pateman 1988), the assumption breadwinner model towards something very in the I that women were located mainly in the different: a dual breadwinner model. It is marria: private sphere supported by a male suggested that the strength or weakness of the warkin breadwinner also meant that women have male-breadwinner model serves as an determ only been partially individualized. In regard indicator of the way in which women have exeepti to social policies, the liberal dilemma first been treated in social security systems, of the system described by Okin (1979), whereby level of social service provision particularly in low ta} individuals in fact meant male heads of regard to child care; and of the nature of of chit< families, has persisted. married women's position in the labour worner Modern welfare regimes have all subscribed market. system to some degree to the idea of a male~ The paper is intended as an exploratory that mi breadwinner model. Indeed, its persistence, to charting exercise, very little attempt has been bread~ varying extents, cuts across established made so far to gender welfare regimes. 2 While reform typologies of welfare regimes. Leira (1989), it is impossible to come to any definitive Until 1 for example, has shown that Esping conclusion as to where women 'do best', both rates 0 Andersen's identification of a Scandinavian France and Sweden would seem to offer benefit welfare regime breaks down as soon as gender women more than Britain. However the paper unemp is given serious consideration. The Norwegian concludes with a cautionary note. In neither been tl system, which has continued to treat women France nor Sweden did women's own depend primarily as wives and mothers, is closer in demands playa significant role in determining wife is many respects to that of Britain than it is to their treatment. Paradoxically, the feminist Brita Sweden. But just as the male-breadwinner movement has his~orically been stronger in commi model has not existed in its'pure form, sathe Britain. This must raise issues as to what can which, model has been modified in different ways be expected of the state and as to the possible modifi( and to diffe~ent degrees in particular fragility of the gains. moree countries. In its pure form we would expect to positio find married women excluded from the labour the lab market, firmly subordinated to their husbands In iiI for the purposes of social security entitlements cenrur) Strong male-breadwinner states - Ireland and tax, and expected to undertake the work their iii and Britain of caring (for children and other dependants) 1991), at home without public support. No country worke has ever matched the model completely, but Ireland has been historically, and"'lnore and du some have come much closet than others. unusually, has remained well into the late operat! This paper looks at the way in which twentieth century an extremely strong rnale- was pu twentieth century·welfare states have treated breadwinner state. Despite the choice of wives ~ women as wives and mothers and as paid export led development during the 1960s and and inl workers, comparing Britain (with reference 1970s, the labour market participation of female also to Ireland) as historically strong male- women remained virtually the same at just mereas breadwinner states with, first, France, where under 30 per cent. Incoming electronics firms empla) it is argued that the male-breadwinner model that employed 80 per cent female workers This remained implicit in sociaJ policies because of elsewhere in the world, employed 51 per cent meant the focus on children rather than on women in Ireland; in manufacturing more generally contra! and where women's historically stronger 30 per cent of the labour force was female. wives;: position in the labour market also modified Pyle (1990) has argued convincingly that policie: the operation of the model; and second, government policy, particularly that of the man's Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3)  GENDER AND WELFARE REGIMES 163 s Industrial Development Authority, played a dependants. Thus, national health and decisive role in ensuring that men had priority unemployment insurance introduced in y in the labour market. In the civil service, a Britain in 1911 did not cover women and marriage bar prevented married women from children unless the woman was in full-time the working until 1977. Those married women insurable employment (only 10 per cent were determined to enter the labour market faced so placed). Nor was much protection offered exceptionally harsh treatment under the tax the married woman as worker; Britain failed 1e system, with high marginal rates and a very to implement paid maternity leave and never in low tax free allowance, and the lowest levels ratified the ILO Washington Convention of child care provision in Europe. Married provision for six weeks paid leave (Lewis and women's treatment under the social security Davies 1991). Again the argument was that system has· also exhibited the kind of features the father must support his family and that that might be hypothesized for a strong male- women's waged work was detrimental to the en breadwinner country until very recently, when welfare of children and to the stability of the.lile reform was prompted in large part by EC law. family. In Britain, protective labour legislation Until 1984 married women received lower was, as Mary Poovey (1989) has commented, Jth rates of benefit, shorter length oj payment of the obverse of control. The concern was not benefit, and were not eligible for so much to maximize the welfare of working per unemployment assistance. Indeed, Ireland has women as mothers, but to minimize their r been the only European country to pay labour market participation, a position that dependents benefits regardless of whether the was shared by male and female trade mg wife is in paid work (Callender 1988). unionists and by middle class women social Britain has also shared an historical reformers. The position of women workers commitment to the male breadwinner model, was more complicated in that while there is In which, while it has been substantial-Iy evidence that they supported the family wage )le modified i'n the late twentieth century, makes ideal, their material circumstances dictated more explicable some of the differences in the their need to earn. position of British women, especially vis-a-vis Under the post-war Beveridgean settlement, the labour market. women continued to be treated as dependants In line with the dominant turn of the for the purppses of social security century view of gender roles in the family and entitlements. Beveridge (PP. 1942) wrote at nd their link to social stability and welfare (Lewis length of the importance of women's role as 1991), one Cabinet minister tried to ban the wives and mothers in ensuring the work of married women during the 1900s, continuance of the British race (at a time of and during the inter-war years a marriage bar fears about population decline) and insisted operated in the professions. A parallel effort on marriage as a 'partnership' rather than a was put into the education of working class patriarchal relationship (Wilson 1977; Lewis wives and mothers in household management 1983). It was, however, a partnership in nd and infant welfare, using the small army of which the parties were to be equal but female visitors attached to charities and different. Hence women were defined as wives increasingly by World War I, health visitors and mothers and therefore as dependent on a ns employed by local authorities (Lewis 1980). male wage. Married women were accordingly This pattern of thinking about the family invited to take the 'married women's option', nt meant that policymakers faced a number of paying less by way of contributions and contradictory pulls. While women's welfare as collecting less in benefits. The married wives and mothers was paramount, social women's option was not abandoned until the policies were not permitted to undermine the middle of the 1970s, with the passing of equal man's responsibility to provide for opportunities legislation. From the mid- Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3) 164 JANE LEWIS 19705, Britain offered an allowance for the (with full benefits), but are exercising their warne unpaid work of caring for infirm dependants right to work a three-quarter time day while warne (the invalid care allowance) within the social their children are small. In Britain, the despit security system, but, at the very same time inheritance of the male-breadwinner model is emplo that legislation was being passed to provide reflected in the nature rather than the level of time,] women with the means of legal redress on an women's labour market participation. (1990 individual basis against sex discrimination in In particular, Britain has large numbers of earnin pay, promotion, hiring and other mainly non-working mothers of below school age two 0 workplace related issues, the invalid care children. This is related to the low level of Britail allowance was denied to married women on child care provision, which is especially at 50 the grounds that caring was part of the striking compared to France, where some 95 Swed, 'normal' duties of such women. per cent of 3-5 year aids are in publicly per ce The strong male~breadwinner model also funded child care and 25 per cent of 0-2 year predicts relatively low levels of female labour aids. The figures for Britain are 44 per cent market participation and of social services and 2 per cent respectively (Phillips and Moss such as child care. All northern European 1988). It is also significant that Britain tends countries (except Ireland) have experienced a to make less provision (thereby arguably Modi Fran, significant increase in women's labour market giving less encouragement) to women workers participation rates, particularly for married who become mothers. Women with two years women. In Britain, married women's continuous service have the right to eleven Thep participation increased from 10 per cent in weeks leave before the birth of a child and 29 natun 1931 to 26 per cent in 1951,49 per cent in weeks afterwards at 90 per cent replacement partic 1971 and 62 per cent in 1981. On the face of income for six of those weeks, and the right that it it, British married women's labour to reinstatement, but, given the precarious where participation rates have much' in common labour market position of British women, indire with those of France. Dex and Walters' only 60 per cent qualify. has pI (1989) analysis of two samples of French and Strong male-breadwinner states have betwe British women with dependent children tended to draw a firm dividing line between rather drawn during the early 1980s found identical public and private !esponsibility. If women rich a: participation rates of 51 per cent. However, it enter the public sphere as workers, they must out in is important that virtually the whole of the do so on terms very similar to men. It is insura post-war expansion in married women's work assumed that the family (that is women) will famil) in Britain is accounted for by part-time provide child care and minimal provision is in Brit employment (44.5 per cent worked part-time made for maternity leaves, pay and the right allow; in 1987, compared to 22.5 per cent in to reinstatement. During the 1980s in Britain, 121 sl France). Sweden also has high levels of part- the publidprivate divide has been drawn more the FI time work (43 per cent in 1989), but here tightly. Thus eligibility for unemployment media again it is important to distinguish the benefit has been linked much more firmly to in fan meaning of 'part time'. In Britain part-time recent employment and to availability for (Daw, work tends to be 'precarious' (following the work, with attendant problems for women Fan OEeD definition), with short hours and few who interrupt paid work to care or who need Frenc' benefits. While, in 1979, 29.8 per cent of to find child care. The maternity rights to Bri women in part-time manual jobs and 23 per women won under the equal opportunities confli, cent in non-manual jobs worked less than legislation of the mid-1970s have also been 1987) sixteen hours, by 1990 thes~ figures had significantly weakened. Indeed, Britain is the seeun become 43.7 per cent and 31.8 per cent only European Community member state in the cc (Lister 1992). In Sweden most women which maternity rights diminished during the systen working part-time are in fact in full-time jobs 1980s. While no effort is now made to stop (1991 Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3)  GENDER AND WELFARE REGIMES 165 women working, the assumption is that century development of French family policy women will be secondary wage earners and, as following a 'parental', as opposed to a despite the large numbers of women in paid male-breadwinner model. Historically, family employment, they tend to be in short part- benefits have been financed in large measure time, low status work. Davies and Joshi's by employers and must therefore be see'n as (1990) econometric analysis of gross cash part of the wage system. The family earnings foregone by a woman bearing one, allowances paid by employers during the two or three children shows the costs in 1930s were in some regions used as a means Britain (and Germany) to be similar and high of controlling the labour force. Allowances at 50 per cent of income. In France and were forfeit if work was missed for any Sweden the costs ate similar and low at 10 reason, including strikes, and were also used per cent or less. as a means of attaching other family members, including women, to a particular firm. In other occupations the aim was less labour force control and more straightforwardly wage control during the Modified male-breadwinner countries - Depression (Pedersen 1991; Thibault 1986). France s While rewarding women for the unpaid work of caring for children therefore had nothing to The picture is different in France, where the do with the introduction of family benefits in nature of women's labour market France, the nature of the redistribution from participation has historically been stronger in wage earners to non-wage earners did benefit that it has been predominantly full-time, and women as well as children, especially given where women have benefited, albeit that some benefits were increasingly paid indirectly, from a social security system that directly to women. Unlike Britain, there was has prioritized horizontal redistribution no debate about this, family allowances had between families with and without children, never been viewed as a feminist demand as rather than vertical redistribution between they were in Britain during the 1920s (Land rich and poor. In 1945 twice as much flowed 1975; Lewis 1980; Pedersen 1991) and, given out in family allowances as in social French family law, which vested complete insurance. The ailowances enabled a French parental authority in the husband (until family of four to double its income, whereas reform in 1970), it was assumed that the in Britain it received 15 shillings from family interests of husband and wife would be as allowances when the average male wage was one. In fact, all the research on the division of 121 shillings (Pedersen 1991: 447). In 1971 resources within the household during the last e the French three and four child family on decade (e.g. Pah11990) has revealed the median earnings received four times as much existence of substantial inequalities between in family benefits as its British counterpart family members and in so far as family (Dawson 1979: 203). allowances, the most substantial of the many Family POlicy has been dominant within the family benefits (which have included pre- and French social security system and in contrast post-natal allowances, family supplements, to Britain its goals have been clear (on the payments to single-earner families, and conflicting goals of British policy, see Brown payments in respect of child care) have been 1987). The primary aim of French social linked firmly to wages and thus to the wage security has been to compensate parents for earner, it is of course impossible to be sure the costs of children and to this extent the how far they actually benefited women and system has been gender-neuttal; Pedersen children in practice. (1991) has described the early twentieth The case for generous family benefits was Journal of European Social Policy 19922 (3) 166 JANE LEWIS legitimated in France by pronatalist concern. unemployment insurance (see also Deacon commitl This resulted in substantial emphasis on the 1976). Only during the Vichy regime were women' importance of good mothering and the efforts made actively to prevent married in both pioneering French efforts to improve maternal women's employment and the mere au foyer during t and child welfare in the early twentieth allowance was extended and uprated. mixed f( century by, for example, the Gouttes de Lait Thus the French model recognized the was roll were exported to Britain. Nevertheless, the reality of women's claims as both mothers wageea percentage of women in full-time paid work and workers. In this sense it was, as Douglas allowan increased during the late nineteenth and early Ashford (1982) has argued more generally in During 1 twentieth centuries in France (from 30 per regard to French politics, more pragmatic measure cent in 1866 to 37 per cent in 1911), in than the British. As the labour force firmly: ' contrast to Britain where the percentage fell. participation rate of married women aussi bit This was in large measure attributable to the increased, from 34 per cent in 1968 to 40 per celles qc different occupational structure in France and cent in 1975 (Hantrais 1990), so French Cette ne the large number of women employed in policy documents addressed the reality of equitabl family businesses; as late as 1968, 20 per cent changes in women's labour market behaviour 4/76: 6( of French women were employed in the rural and their implications for family policy. As neutrali' sector (Silver 1977). While in Britain it Rodgers (1975) noted, this approach stands in to work became part of the badge of working class marked contrast to the tendency of British policies male respectability to keep a wife, enforced by policymakers to ignore changes in family roles to coml: a strong trade union movement as well as by and structures (see, for example, Land and familialt the discourse of social reform, so in the Ward's (1986) comments on the Fowler the repe French context this was neither so possible Review of British social security system). In Popular nor desirable. Patriarchal control was firmly 1972 the frais de garde was introduced How( located within the family rather than in specifically for families with working mothers pointed collective instit~tions, and for a significant and a number of articles began to question continuo number of husbands it was not in their self- the social justice of paying benefits to women than tw interest to exercise their legal right (which staying at home when they might be better off because they held until 1965) to prevent their wives than women in the workforce. One of the introdu, working. Thus, in France, there were no early most forceful contributions came from aecorda twentieth century attempts to push women Rolande Cuvillier in an article republished in vertical out of the labour market and paid maternity the Joumal of Social Policy in 1979. This line 1980s (, leave was introduced in 1913. of argument played, in the manner of many workin, During the 1930s, pronatalist concern Anglo-Saxon contributions ofthe 19805 (e.g. toward~ deepened and gave rise to increased pressure Murray 1984; and Mead 1986) on the operatic for an allowance for la mere au foyer (women rhetoric of equality in the sense of treating to pena' at home raising children). Such an allowance women the same as men, but also within the account was introduced in the 1930s, although under French context reflected the increasing work al the 1939 Code de la Famille it was paid only preoccupation of the 1970s and 1980swith Hantrai to urban families, the reasoning being that in achieving vertical as opposed to horizontal interact rural areas women could engage in both farm redistribution. This was promoted by means system ~ work and mind children (Laroque 1985). The testing and by reducing the importance of families allowance was thus conceptualized more as a family benefits - by 50 per cent between 1955 women compensation for earnings foregone and, as and 1985 (Questiaux, 1985) - within the forthco Pedersen has argued, stood in stark contrast social security system. Prost (1984) has family I to the British treatment of married women suggested that French family policy had lost enfant ~ workers under the 1931 Anomalies Act, its coherence by the 19'805. giving ~ which effectively deprived them of the right to French governments stated their explicit longer I Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3)  GENDER AND WELFARE REGIMES 167 commitment to policy-neutrality regarding During the 1980s, while French women women's role, but the outcomes of the shifts have done somewhat better than British in both family and labour market policy women relative to men in terms of both pay during the late 1970s and 1980s have been and measures of vertical segregation (Hantrais mixed for women. In 1977 the frais de garde 1990) and ten times as many work was rolled up with the allowance for single continuously through the childbearing and wage earners ·(the extended mere au foyer childrearing years as in Britain (Crompton, allowance) into the compliment familial. Hantrais and Walters 1990), the percentage During the course of the Senate debate on this of French women working part time has measure, the minister, Simone Weil stated increased significantly due to conscious efforts firmly:, 'Le complemeht familial serait versait to restructure the labour market. Between aussi bien aux meres restant a leur foyer qu'a 1982 and 1986, 13,000 women lost a full- celles qui exercent une activite professionelle. time job, while at the same time 450,000 Cette neutralite nous a semble egalement part-time jobs were created (Jenson and equitable' (Journel Officiel, Senat Debats, 221 Kantrow 1990: 113). Thus Jenson (1988) and 4176: 609). The commitment both to Mazur (1991) have pointed out that while the neutrality regarding women's choice to go out 1983 Loi Roudy represented a strong measure to work or not and explicitly to seeking of 'equality" legislation that notably provided policies that would help them (but not men) for action to counter sex discriminatioI). and to combine 'la vie professionnelle and la vie segregation at the workplace level, familiale' persisted throughout the 1980s (e.g. government action also encouraged part-time the report of the Haur Conseil de la work, albeit regulating it to ensure the Population et de la Famille 1985). payment of pro-rata benefits. French women However, as Pierre Laroque (1985) has giving birth to a child get between 16 and 26 pointed out, the complement familial weeks maternity leave at 84 per cent continued to benefit one-earner families more replacement income and 90 per cent of than two-earner families. This was in part working mothers qualify. There is a tax because the benefit (like all benefits allowance for child care, and public child care introduced after 1970) was means tested in provision is among the best in Europe. Within accordance with the new priority given the EC, France was one of only three vertical redistribution. Research during the countries in 1988 where more than 50 per 1980s (e.g. Ekert 1983) has also shown that cent of wom~n with children under the age of working wives pay a disproportionate amount five were in employment. towards the funding of family benefits. The Thus pronatalist inspired social policies operation of the joint tax system also works resulted in generous benefits to compensate to penalize married women's work and may for the costs of children and the way in which account for the greater incidence of part-time they have been financed also benefited women work among higher paid women (Crompton, as mothers. These benefits 'have been diluted Hantrais and Walters 1990), while the by more recent moves towards giving greater interaction of the tax system with a benefit priority to vertical redistribution and to system that gives significantly more to large means testing, and also serve to penalize families may also encourage lower income women workers. Nevertheless, compared to women to stay at home (Hantrais Britain or Ireland, France's modified male- forthcoming). Third children attract more breadwinner model - in which patriarchal family benefit via the allocation au jeune control has been vested in husbands more enfant and more tax relief; working women than in trade unions, employers or giving birth to a third child are entitled to governments, while state policy has longer maternity leave. recognized the reality of women's roles as Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3) 168 JANE LEWIS both mothers and paid workers - has offered policies to encourage a higher birth rate, they from 1 real gains to women. also insisted that state policies should aim to the m. realize the potential of each individual. Thus worh while women's roles as mothers acquired unpal' 'national' significance, so it was also insisted comm that women had the right to develop their The Weak male-breadwinner countries - talents in other fields, particularly that of paid promc Sweden 3 employment. The Myrdals argued that if the introd state wanted babies, it must also make it This, 1 Sweden was not always a weak male- possible for mothers to work, albeit hasm breadwinner state. Pre-World War II Swedish sequentially (Kalvemark 1980). During the favoUl social democracy embraced the idea of late 1940s Alva Myrdal developed with Viola out to difference in its thinking about the Klein her influential idea of 'women's two overtil relationships between men and women, roles', whereby women should be encouraged 1988) largely as a result of the great influence to enter the labour market until the birth of a was in wielded by Ellen Key. Her ideas inspired the first child, returning when the child left school effects social democratic movement as to what was (Myrdal and Klein 1954). The state and progre 'good and rightful' in everyday life (Key 1912, employers were asked to support motherhood major 1914). The most powerful image in Swedish and married women's role as workers, albeit of pIa, social democracy has been that of building the that these would be, much more than was cent 0: 'people's home', which encompasses the envisaged in France, sequential and therefore places. double idea first, of society and state as a separate endeavours. It was not envisaged per eel good family home, where no one is privileged, that workers would also be the mothers of insura all co-operate and no one tries to gain small children. In terms of Myrdal's policy being I advantage at another's expense; and seeanq, inheritance in Sweden, it was important first, werec of ensuring that productive capacity is used to that she sought to reconcile women's claims earnin the advantage of people and their families. both as workers on equal terms to men and as per cel Whether in the big 'people's home' of state mothers within a single strategy; second, that to can and society, or the small people's home of her main justification for such a strategy was, a parel individual household and family, women's not unlike the French, the n'ation's need for before contribution (and rewards) were allocated on women's labour power and for more babies, with a the basis of wife and motherhood in line with rather than women's expressed needs; and leave \i the family wage model (Hirdman 1989). third, that she was content to change in 198 During the 1930s and 1940s, the situation women's lives without pressing for 60 day in Sweden changed to resemble the French, concomitant changes in those of men. Not albeit that the policy logic was somewhat During the 1950s and 1960s, the labour partici different. During t~is period, the Social force participation rates of women over 15 increa~ Democrats' conceptualization of women's remained constant at about 30 per cent, with the 19. place in society was significantly influenced by the low participation rates for married many< the writings of Alva and Gunnar Myrdal, women in the childbearing years that were 89.8 P' themselves members of the Party. Picking up consistent with the dual roles model. But per cer the common theme of national suicide in the during the late 1960s and early 1970s, wereu face of falling birth rates, the Myrdals insisted Swedish Social Democratic governments took ofwoll on 'democratic' population planning (which conscious steps to bring all adult women into compa differentiated them from the extremes of the workforce and to make 'the two- 1984,.' national socialism) and the importance of breadwinner family the norm' (Hirdman betwee society investing in the welfare of families. 1989, my emphasis). As a result, the basis for 'house' But alongside this rnaternalist politics and women's social entitlements was transformed having Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3)  GENDER AND WELFARE REGIMES 169 :y from that of dependent wife to worker. Since breadwinner model towards treating women the mid-1970s women have been treated as as well as men as citizen workers, and then workers and have been compensated for their grafting on women's claims as mothers unpaid work as mothers at rates they could through parental leave schemes and the like. command as members of the labour force. This dual-breadwinner model which makes The most important changes designed to social entitlements for all adults dependent on id promote women's market work were first, the their labour market status would seem to introduction of separate taxation in 1971. offer more in terms of benefit levels (paid at This, together with high marginal tax rates, market rates) and the level of social service has meant that it has been generally provision, particularly in respect of childcare, favourable for family income if a woman goes than strong family-breadwinner models. It is la out to work rather than the man adding extra easier to combine paid and unpaid work in overtime hours (Gustafsson and Stafford Sweden, but this is not to say that it is easier :d 1988). In Britain, where separate taxation for women to 'choose' to engage in paid was introduced in 1989, the labour market work. Women have been 'forced' into the effects are not the same because of low labour market, but they have retained their progressivity in the tax system. The second re~ponsibility for the unpaid work of caring; major change was the increase in the number men's behaviour has not been changed. In of places in public day care: in 1.968 10 per terms of their labour market position, cent of all children under school age had Swedish women are better off in the sense of e places, in 1979 27 per cent and in 198747 finding themselves in less precarious per cent. Finally, in 1974 a scheme of parental employment than British women, for insurance was introduced, rather than women example. But it has been argued that the being given flat rate maternity benefits, they reorganization of women's labour together were offered compensation for loss of market with policies such as parental leaves, which earnings. Men were also offered the same 90 are taken by women rather than by men, have as per cent replacement of earnings if they chose served to reinforce the sexual segregation of.t to care for children. The 1974 legislation gave paid labour, which is among the worst in the ;, a parental leave of six months to be taken western world (Jonung 1984). In this sense, before the child reached four years together the Swedish model has less to offer than that with a ten day per year child sick leave. The of strong male-breadwinner states and leave was extended again in 1975 and again considerablx less to offer than France, which in 1980 to twelve months parental leave and provides almost as much for the working 60 days child sick leave. mother (parental leave is unpaid, but child Not surprisingly the labour market care provision is better) and has also taken participation rate of women in Sweden equal opportunities legislation further than increased dramatically. Participation rates in either Sweden or the strong male-breadwinner the 1950s and 1960s were lower than in ~ountries. many other western countries, but by 1986 The various ways in which modern welfare 89.8 per cent of women aged 25-54 (only 5 states have treated women as unpaid carers per cent less than men of comparable age) and as paid workers have thus been were in the labour market and 85.6 per cent complicated and no one policy logic can be k of women with children under 7 worked said to have the undisputed advantage. The ) compared with 28 per cent in Britain. By outcomes for lone mother families provide a 1984,.only 7 per cent of Swedish women useful summary illustration of this point. between 25 and 54 were classified as Women with children and without men have r 'housewives'. Thus Sweden may be seen as historically posed a particularly difficult j having moved away from the male- problem for governments. In Britain, policies Journal of European Social Policy 19922 (3) , 170 JANE LEWIS have tended to oscillate ovec time between way towards solving the first issue (because Leagw treating these women primarily as workers women get compensated at market rates for the lat (under the nineteenth century poor law) or caring work), but not to have touched the imporl primarily as mothers (under post~war welfare second. France has also provided women with dayw: state legislation), Predicting the treatment of substantial, albeit indirect, rewards for thattr lone mothers in strong male-breadwinner mothering as a by-product of the priority it partici' countries is virtually impossible because their has accorded family policy, and arguably trade l position defies the logic of the system, but women have greater choice than in Sweden as well h, governments have tended historically to to whether to work at home or in the labour paid" categorize lone mothers firmly as either market. other I mothers Of workers. In late twentieth century Many English speaking feminists have SUppOl Britain no lone mother with a child under 16 remained at best ambivalent as to their moder who is claiming income support is obliged to expectations as to what state policy can female register for work and they have the lowest deliver. While recognizing that the outcomes parliar labour market participation in the European of social policies have changed familial and have n Community. While 47 per cent of lone other structures in society such that male wornel mothers were in paid work during the period power has been challenged, they have argued led to 1977-9, this figure actually dropped to 39 that the state has also served to perpetuate the rol per cent for the period 1986-8 (Millar 1989). patriarchal structures (Pateman 1988; Siim percen Indeed, Britain is the only EC country where 1987). On the other hand, Scandinavian 1991, lone mothers have a lower employment rate feminists have insisted on the possibility of a wornel than mothers in two parent families. In 'woman friendly' state (Hernes 1987). eight.) France, as Baker (1991) has pointed out, lone Kolberg (1991: 144) has gone one step other ( mothers reap the advantage of generous further and dismissed any idea that the France family benefits paid to all families with Scandinavian welfare state might be labour children, and while they have the highest patriarchal, insisting that it has increased Politic: labour force participation rate in the EC next women's 'independence, empowerment and so mll( to Denmark and Luxembourg, France is emancipation'. for pU1 unusual in that the incomes of employed and Yet it is noteworthy that in both France womel unemployed lone mother families are very and Sweden women·played little part in of unp similar (Millar 1989). In Sweden, as might be securing such advantages as accrued to them expected, 87 per cent of lone mothers are in from the respective welfare regimes. In pre- the labour force and for the most part work war Franee feminists were forced to couch Note! full-time. In material terms they are the best their claims in pronatalist terms. Pedersen off, but at the price of being particularly time (1991) suggests that paradoxically it was in I am poor. large part the strength of British feminism the ( compared to the French in putting forward a 2 The and claim to family allowances as a means of both 3 The paying women as mothers (as well as piece What can be hoped for from the state? providing for children) and securing equal pay Gert for women at work (by abolishing the The position of women within different grounds for men's claim to a family wage) welfare regimes revolves around two related that resulted in such a weak measure. In Refer issues, the valuing of unpaid work and the France, family allowances were never sharing of it. Nowhere have these issues been conceptualized as a gender i~sue and the Ashford addressed directly. In moving from the male- matter of redistribution ,between men and Pragr. breadwinner to a dual-breadwinner model, women was never articulated. State, Baker,] Sweden may be judged to have gone a long In Sweden, the Social Democratic Women's Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3)  GENDER AND WELFARE REGIMES 171 League was an active campaigning force in measure, in M. Hardey and G. Crow (eds) Lone Parenthood, Brighton, Harvester Wheatsheaf. the late 19605 and 1970s, but one of its most Balbo, L. (1987) Family, women and the state: notes important original qemands for the six hour toward a typology of family roles and public day was not met by the body of legislation intervention, in C. S. Maier (ed.) Changing that transformed women's labour market Boundaries of the Political: Essays on the Evolving Balance Between the State and Society, Public and participation because of opposition from the Private jn Europe. Cambridge, Cambridge trade union movement. Such a measure may University Press. well have served to redistribute unpaid and Brown,). C. (1987) The Future of Family Income paid work between men and women. On the Support, London, Policy Studies Institute Studies of other hand, the Swedish case may lend the Social Security System, No. 15. Callender, R. (1988) Ireland and the implementation of support to Balbo's t1987) argument that Directive 7917/EEC, in Gerry Whyte (ed.) Sex modern welfare states call forth greater Equality, Community Rights and Irish Social female public participation. All Nordic Welfare Law, Dublin, Irish Centre for European parliaments with the exception- of Iceland Law. Crompton, R., Hantrais, L. and Walters, P. (1990) have reached a critical mass (30-40%) of Gender relations and employment, British Journal of women members and it is in part this that has Sociology, 41 (3) 329-49. led to Scandinavian women's optimism about Cuvillier, R. (1979) The housewife: an unjustified the role ofthe state. (In Sweden the financial burden on the community, Journal of percentage fell from 38 to 28 as.a result of the Social Policy 8 (3): 1-26. Davies, H. and Joshi, H. (1990) The Foregone Earnings 1991 election, although the number of of Europe's Mothers, Discussion Papers in women ministers has remained the same at Economics, 24/90, Birbeck College, University of eight.) What is secured as a by-product of London, London. other concerns, for example pronatalism in Dawson, P. E. (1979) Family benefits and income redistribution in France and the UK, 1891-1971, France, or the desire to increase the size of the unpublished PhD thesis, York, York University. labour force as in Sweden, can be reversed. Deacon, A. (1976) In Search of the Scrounger. The Political and institutional power is crucial not Administration of Unemployment Insurance in so much for securing material well-being, as Britain, 1920-1931, Occasional papers in Social for putting issues that are central to enlarging Administration, No. 60, London, London School of Economics. women's choices, like the division and valuing Dex, S. and Walters, P. (1989) Women's occupational of unpaid work, onto the political agenda. status in Britain, France and the USA: explaining the difference, Industrial Relations Journal, 20 (3): 203- 12. Ekerr, O. (1983) Activite Feminine, Prestations Notes Familiales et Redistribution, Population 38 (3): 503-26. I am indebted to Ilona Osmer for her ideas about Esping Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of the concepts developed in this paper. Welfare Capitalism Cambridge, Polity. 2 The most significant attempts to date are by Langan Gordon, L. (ed.) (1990) Women, The State and and Osmer (1991) and by Shaver (1990). Welfare, Madison, Wisconsin, University of 3 The material in this section is drawn from a larger Wisconsin Press. piece of work carried out in co-operation with Gustafsson, S. and Stafford, F. (1988) Daycare Gertrude Astrom. Subsidies and Labour Supply in Sweden, Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Papers, No. 279, London. Hantrais, L. (1990) Managing Professional and Family References Life. A Comparative Study of British and French Women, Aldershot, Dartmouth Publishing Ashford, D. (1982) British Dogmatism and French Company. Pragmatism: Central-Local Relations in the Welfare Hantrais, L. (forthcoming) Women, work and welfare State, London, Allen and Unwin. in France, in J. Lewis (ed.) Women, Work and the Baker,]. (1991) Family policy as an anti-poverty Family in Europe, Aldershot, Edward Elgar. Journal of European Social Policy 1992 2 (3) 172 JANE LEWIS Haut Consei! de 1a Population et de la Familie (1985) Experience, Oslo, Institute for Social Research. Pp. 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