States, Markets, Families

The 1990s have seen dramatic restructuring of state social provision in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. This important book examines the impact of changes in social policy regimes on gender roles and relations. Structured thematically and systematically comparative, it analyses three key policy areas: labor markets, income maintenance and reproductive rights. Largely driven by issues of equality, it considers the role of the state as a site for gender and sexual politics at a time when primacy is given to the market, developing an argument about social citizenship in the process. Eminent scholars in the field, Julia S. O'Connor, Ann Shola Orloff and Sheila Shaver, make a landmark contribution to debates about social policy and gender relations in this era of economic restructuring and deregulation.