The Welfare State, Family and Gender Relations

Question 1

Welfare state

Answer 1

• Citizens economic and social wellbeing is secured by the government
• Governmental legislation to guarantee income maintenance and other support for citizens in case of occupational accidents, disease, old age or unemployment
• Public assistants not to be limited and citizens that experience insecurity or financial need have right for support

Question 2

Gender

Answer 2

• Important part in organizing social activity, mainly through gendered division of paid/unpaid work
• Continually (re)created and reconstitued by activities of women/men and social institutions (family, labour market, welfare state)
• Global Gender Gap Index (Based on economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, health and survival, …): Nordic countries very good (Norway on 2, Denmark exception)

Question 3

Family Practices

Answer 3

• Family: Sets of practices which dea with ideas of parenthood, kinship and marriage and the obligations which are associated with these practices
• Family practices: Intimate realtionship betwee ncouples, parents and children or other persons who see themselves as belonging to the same family
• Family practices: Focus on everyday activities and regularities (active rather than passive)

Question 4

Social Rights

Answer 4

• Most have been developed basedon achievement of civil/political rights
• Foundation of welfare state in Western Europe

Three types of rights associated with the growth of citizenship:
- Civil Rights: Rights of the individual (freedom of speech, religion, justice before law, …)
- Political Rights: Right to participate in exercise of political power/Rights to participate in elections and stand for public office
- Social Rights: Right of every individual to enjoy a certainn minimum standard of economic welfare and security

Question 5

The Nordic Model

Answer 5

• “State-friendly” societies
• Broad public participation in economic and social life
• Higher commitment to universalism and equality of status to achieve solidarity
• High benefit levels and social standards to sustain and institutional kind of welfare
• All benefit, all are depndent, all will be obliged to pay

Question 6

Broad political consensus

Answer 6

• Broad political coalitions on party and public level who support the welfare state
• Key challenges: Ageing population, increasing relative poverty (especially some migrant goups)

Question 7

The institutional legcy

Answer 7

• Dominant role of state and public sector (total amount spent on social security has increased)
• Principle of adjusted taxes, producing strong egalitarian distribution of income
• full employment as overall goal (with active labour market programs)

Question 8

Women-friendly welfare states?

Answer 8

• Division of labour between family, market and state is decisive for welfare and social power of women
• Nordic solution has been incorporated into public sector
• Women’s employment has been faciliated (e.g. by daycare of children, service for elderly, helath/welfare services, …)

Women friendly policy:
- Affordable daycare, paid parental leave, provisions for work absence when children are ill

Question 9

Three phases of equality policies

Answer 9

• Encouragement of women to join the labour market
• Adressement of problems of unequal treatment
• Encouragement of men to take over their share of family work (Parental leave)
• Goal: Gender neutrality within family and society

Question 10

Welfare State, Family and Labour Market

Answer 10

• Should be seen as overlapping spheres
• At intersection where life course and wellbeing of men and women is constituted
• Focus on interaction between paid work, unpaid work and welfare (Under which conditions, with which consequences, who does what)

Question 11

Gender equality legislation in Scandinavian countries

Answer 11

• Primarily aimed at labour market and embraces advertising practices, employment, promotions, equal pay, …
• Allows preferential treatment of underrepresented sex
• Application of quota systems in education, representation on public committees and public appointments

Question 12

Norwegian Family Practices

Answer 12

• Family as institutional form has lost dominant position
• Marriage one of several forms of cohabition
• Back then: Married, bread as bread winner, woman housewife
• Nowerdays (important changes 1970s): More cohabiting without marriage, fewer children, more births outside marriage, more single parents
• Fathers quota: Paid leave that cannot be transferred to mother (After introduction, percantage of ftahers taking parental leave dramatically increased)

Question 13

Foundations of Family Policies in the Nordic Countries

Answer 13

• Support for Dual-earner families
• Flexibility: Possibility to combine parttime work with leave over a longer period
• institutional Childcare: access to childcare as a social citizenship right

Question 14

History of the Welfare State

Answer 14

• Became important after WW2
• All parties wanted to give the state responibility for social development (Joint Programme)
• State was to provide conditions neccessary for economic growth and improving the standart of living
• Fighting unemployementand equalizing living conditions