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Socio-Economic Review 1:185-214 (2003)
© 2003 Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics

Women as agents in welfare state development: a cross-national analysis of family allowance adoption

Joya Misra

Department of Sociology and Center for Public Policy and Administration, USA

While comparative case studies have examined the importance of women as agents in creating and transforming the welfare state, and cross-national research has confirmed that women's labour force participation appears to both shape and be shaped by welfare policies and spending, little cross-national research has explored the roles of women activists in policy adoption. This research explores the case of the adoption of family allowance policies during the interwar and World War II/post-war period in 18 large industrialized welfare states using a qualitative comparative analysis that traces different "paths" to family allowance adoption. The strength of working-class movements plays a key role in creating family allowances in almost every context, but is combined with two different factors—Catholic populations (for countries such as France, The Netherlands and Austria) and women's movements within the Left (for countries such as the UK, Sweden and Norway). This research illustrates that in certain contexts and at certain time periods, women activists played a key role in creating family policies, presenting a more complete model of women's roles in welfare state transformation.

Key Words: Class • women's movement • welfare state • family policies • JEL classification • J160 Economics of gender • H550 Social security and public pensions


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