Welfare-state change, the strengthening of economic principles, and new tensions in relation to care (original) (raw)
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Arguing for a universal caregiver model of welfare provision and assessing alternative incarnations1
fondazionefeltrinelli.it
A feminist approach to political philosophy and policy-making, as I understand it and endorse it, is one that aims to spell out a theory of justice that is not built on the consideration of male experiences and life patterns alone (defining work as paid work, social contribution as contribution through paid work, workers as free from caring responsibilities, etc.) and that is attentive to (and adequately deals with) the special obstacles women face in trying to pursue a life plan of their own making. In many countries (not exclusively northern Atlantic ones), women have now won equal legal rights to further their education, hold property and participate in the realms of politics and paid work. This does not mean, as has been repeatedly noted by feminist scholars, that they now have the same opportunity men have to make effective use of these rights. The reasons are manifold and relate, for the most part, to the history of women's subordination and the multiple shadows it still projects, and in particular, to the long shadows of the separate spheres model of family and social organization 2 . The gendered division of labour (henceforth GDL) assigning different spheres of activity to men and women has thus come to be considered by many feminists as a (if not the) central source of women's continuing inequality in the present world , Bubeck 1995a.
Just Policy: A Journal of …, 2009
Debates concerning the organisation of care are now firmly on the public agenda, most obviously through ongoing controversy over the tensions between the demands of the labour market and those of the household. Recent social and political changes have important implications for the family's, especially women's, capacity and preparedness to provide the care that is essential to human wellbeing and social life. In what is variously referred to as the ‗new economy' or the ‗new capitalism', and accompanying ‗postwelfare' state, a major shift in social policy has been premised on the superiority of the social relations characteristic of the market. Yet as leading feminist theorists have pointed out for years (Waring 1988, Kitttay 1999, Folbre 2004, Fineman 2004, both economy and state are not only enmeshed with each other but each is highly dependent on the unpaid household and caring labour largely undertaken by women in families and communities.
Woman 2000 Journal for Women's Studies , 2016
We witness women labour rendered worthless and secondary against that of men's, which gained acceptance as a norm, within the historical process of articulation of patriarchy as a set of social relations to capitalism with masculine types of solidarity as well as unequal power relationships between women and men. Gendered division of labour in patriarchal capitalism being a system of this historical process serves to render women responsible primarily with reproductive works, whereas rendering men as actors of the social and economic system. Cooperation of capitalism with patriarchy generally shapes policies with neoliberal economy, enabling inclusion of conservative discourse and practices. Therefore, with respect to care policies, on one hand there is the state's withdrawal on public services and marketisation of care services; on the other hand there is the idealisation of the family, and dissemination of practices that transfer all the load to the household, at the absence of related public services. These care policies in question lock women indoors, and are reflected as women to be recognized as relatives and to undertake the heavy burden of care, unpaid and unshared. In Turkey, usually care services are conceptualised as an inherent responsibility of the family; thus, with the overt articulation of conservative policies to neoliberal economic policies, now care responsibility has moved out of political arena and completely become a private practice, rather than being societal. Therefore, in a male dominant society, locking care labour in the household leads to consolidated dependency of women to the household rather than equally sharing of the load together by women and men, as the latter being the 'breadwinner'. From the theoretical context, this study will tackle with partial results of the field study focusing on the effects of home care practices enacted in 2006 in Turkey, projecting home care of people with ‘severe disability’ report, on female members of the family, who undertake home care responsibilities in general and make implementation of such practices possible.
Rethinking Care: a critical analysis of family policies and the negotiation of dependency
maternalhealthandwellbeing.com
Debates concerning the organisation of care are now firmly on the public agenda, most obviously through ongoing controversy over the tensions between the demands of the labour market and those of the household. Recent social and political changes have important implications for the family's, especially women's, capacity and preparedness to provide the care that is essential to human wellbeing and social life. In what is variously referred to as the ‗new economy' or the ‗new capitalism', and accompanying ‗postwelfare' state, a major shift in social policy has been premised on the superiority of the social relations characteristic of the market. Yet as leading feminist theorists have pointed out for years (Waring 1988, Kitttay 1999, Folbre 2004, Fineman 2004, both economy and state are not only enmeshed with each other but each is highly dependent on the unpaid household and caring labour largely undertaken by women in families and communities.
Focusing on Care: Family Policy and Problems of Analysis
WiP, 2006
This paper addresses problems of analysis in family policy and suggests new standards of examination. The first part of the paper outlines Esping-Andersen’s interpretation of family policy and its functions within the wel-fare state from his 1999 work “Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies.” I explain how the terms defamilialization, familialism and non-familialism and their influence on other authors incompletely address families with regard to current issues. I show that the conceptualization, measurement, and interpretation of family policy are lacking. This has consequences for addressing and interpreting overall welfare state development. In the second part of my paper, I propose a conceptualization to interpret family policy which especially addresses the perspective of the general carer in the welfare state. Here is a focal point that gives better insight into the welfare state crisis and how a welfare state could be more adequately conceptualized. The issue of care, I argue, is very much part of what has become a question of the welfare state function and the problems faced by the welfare state. The terms that I have coined to capture family policy functions in the welfare state with an analytical focus on care are carer-commodification and carer-stratification. They have their theoretical roots in empirical studies on family policy developments in the U.S. and the U.K. Finally, I extend these terms to interpret other European welfare states and their family policies.
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society
The European Union is facing a crisis of care due to demographic shifts, policies aimed at driving up women’s employment while cutting state care expenditures, and marketizing public care provisions. This article combines feminist political economy approaches to reproductive labor as an essential part of the economy with theories of care ethics to explore the European Union’s role in deepening this crisis. It concludes that the European Union fails to recognize the importance of care or address it holistically and is more preoccupied with the potential impact on public finances than finding a solution to the care crisis.