Women and the Canadian Welfare State: Challenges and Change (1996. Sixth Series; V.7)

## CANADIAN WELFARE STATE CHALLENGES AND CHANGE Canadians can no longer expect as much from their governments. Rights formerly guaranteed by our 'welfare state' are disappearing. Social spending has been cut drastically in an attempt to combat recession, globalization and restructuring, and the deficit. The decline of the welfare state poses special risks for women. The policies, benefits, and services of the welfare state are directly linked to women's basic freedoms. The welfare state employs women to deliver services such as child care, home-help, nursing, and social work. In turn, these services have meant that women can enter the paid labour force, provide for dependants, and leave abusive relationships. Access to political resources has helped women to form solidarities, alliances, and organizations. In Women and the Canadian Welfare State, scholars from environmental studies, law, social work, sociology, and economics explore the changing relationship between women and the welfare state. They examine the transformation of the welfare state and its implications for women; key issues in the welfare state debates such as social rights, family and dependency, and gender-neutral programs and inequality; women's work and the state; and the role of women as agents of change. Women and the Canadian Welfare State explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes. It bridges an important gap for scholars and students who are interested in gender, public policy, and the welfare state. ## This page intentionally left blank 'From the Welfare State to Vampire Capitalism' (chapter 2) explores the roots of the deficit crisis and the shift in power to the corporate sector. She critiques the perceived inevitability and apolitical nature of the processes of globalization and economic restructuring and its supporting pillars, such as NAFTA. Arguing that the deficit is a problem, but more of a political problem than an economic one, Cohen makes the point that feminists must more effectively tie their analytic understanding of the importance of economic policy in the modern capitalist state to the politics of their activism. In Part II, 'Challenging the Bases of Claims,' the authors focus on the key issues in current welfare state debates: social rights and changing conceptions of citizenship; redefining family and dependency; how gender-neutral programs can perpetuate gender inequality. Hester Lessard's chapter 3, 'Creation Stories: Social Rights and Canada's Constitution/ outlines the contradictions for women of pursuing the rightsbased strategy of entrenching social rights through constitutional changes which leave intact existing relations of subordination. Drawing upon the example of the Charlottetown proposals, social charters are critiqued for their problematic imagery of 'contract/ the assumption of a split between public responsibility and private economic interactions, and the myth of state neutrality. Lessard concludes that proposals for the constitutional entrenchment of social rights may perpetuate existing inequalities unless they are linked to issues of political participation and empowerment. Patricia M. Evans's chapter 4, 'Divided Citizenship? Gender, Income Security, and the Welfare State/ focuses on the changes to the 'dual' welfare state in which women have tended to rely more heavily on a social assistance system which recognizes them as 'mothers' and 'wives/ while men have drawn upon the employment-related social insurance benefits. However, the bases of claims are changing. In social assistance, 'gender-specific' policies are giving way to 'gender-blind' policies as mothers are redefined as 'workers.' Meanwhile, the gender-blind policies based on a 'citizen-worker' model continue to disadvantage women by failing to address their caring responsibilities within the household or the gender-segregated labour market. The formulation of gender-sensitive policies, Evans argues, requires moving beyond the dichotomy of either 'sameness' or 'difference.' Mary Jane Mossman and Morag MacLean, in 'Family Law and Social Assistance Programs: Rethinking Equality' (chapter 5), contrast the principles that define the 'private' financial responsibilities in divorce with

Canadians can no longer expect as much from their governments. Rights formerly guaranteed by our 'welfare state' are disappearing. Social spending has been cut drastically in an attempt to combat recession, globalization and restructuring, and the deficit.

The decline of the welfare state poses special risks for women. The policies, benefits, and services of the welfare state are directly linked to women's basic freedoms. The welfare state employs women to deliver services such as childcare, home-help, nursing, and social work. In turn, these services have meant that women can enter the paid labour force, provide for dependants, and leave abusive relationships. Access to political resources have helped women to form solidarities, alliances, and organizations. In Women and the Canadian Welfare State, scholars from environmental studies, law, social work, sociology, and economics explore the changing relationship between women and the welfare state. They examine the transformation of the welfare state and its implications for women; key issues in the welfare state debates such as social rights, family and dependency, and gender-neutral programs and inequality; women's work and the state; and the role of women as agents of change.

Women and the Canadian Welfare State explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes. It bridges an important gap for scholars and students who are interested in gender, public policy, and the welfare state.

Canadians can no longer expect as much from their governments. Rights formerly guaranteed by our 'welfare state' are disappearing. Social spending has been cut drastically in an attempt to combat recession, globalization and restructuring, and the deficit.

The decline of the welfare state poses special risks for women. The policies, benefits, and services of the welfare state are directly linked to women's basic freedoms. The welfare state employs women to deliver services such as childcare, home-help, nursing, and social work. In turn, these services have meant that women can enter the paid labour force, provide for dependants, and leave abusive relationships. Access to political resources have helped women to form solidarities, alliances, and organizations. In Women and the Canadian Welfare State, scholars from environmental studies, law, social work, sociology, and economics explore the changing relationship between women and the welfare state. They examine the transformation of the welfare state and its implications for women; key issues in the welfare state debates such as social rights, family and dependency, and gender-neutral programs and inequality; women's work and the state; and the role of women as agents of change.

Women and the Canadian Welfare State explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes. It bridges an important gap for scholars and students who are interested in gender, public policy, and the welfare state.

Canadians can no longer expect as much from their governments. Rights formerly guaranteed by our 'welfare state' are disappearing. Social spending has been cut drastically in an attempt to combat recession, globalization and restructuring, and the deficit. The decline of the welfare state poses special risks for women. The policies, benefits, and services of the welfare state are directly linked to women's basic freedoms. The welfare state employs women to deliver services such as childcare, home-help, nursing, and social work. In turn, these services have meant that women can enter the paid labour force, provide for dependants, and leave abusive relationships. Access to political resources have helped women to form solidarities, alliances, and organizations. In Women and the Canadian Welfare State , scholars from environmental studies, law, social work, sociology, and economics explore the changing relationship between women and the welfare state. They examine the transformation of the welfare state and its implications for women; key issues in the welfare state debates such as social rights, family and dependency, and gender-neutral programs and inequality; women's work and the state; and the role of women as agents of change. Women and the Canadian Welfare State explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes. It bridges an important gap for scholars and students who are interested in gender, public policy, and the welfare state. Contents 5 Acknowledgments 7 Tables 9 Contributors 11 Part I: Welfare State in Transition 15 1. The Shifting Terrain of Women's Welfare: Theory, Discourse, and Activism 15 2. From the Welfare State to Vampire Capitalism 40 Part II: Challenging the Bases of Claims 83 3. Creation Stories: Social Rights and Canada's Constitution 83 4. Divided Citizenship? Gender, Income Security, and the Welfare State 103 5. Family Law and Social Assistance Programs: Rethinking Equality 129 6. Migration Policy, Female Dependency, and Family Membership: Canada and Germany 154 7. The Shift to the Market: Gender and Housing Disadvantage 182 Part III: Women's Work and the State 209 8. Double, Double, Toil and Trouble , Women's Experience of Work and Family in Canada, 1980-1995 209 9. Towards a Woman-Friendly Long-Term Care Policy 234 10. The State and Pay Equity: Juggling Similarity and Difference, Meaning, and Structures 258 Part IV: Women Challenging the Welfare State 281 11. Challenging Diversity: Black Women and Social Welfare 281 12. Women, Unions, and the State: Challenges Ahead 303 13. Institutionalizing Feminist Politics: Learning from the Struggles for Equal Pay in Ontario 322 "In Women and the Canadian Welfare State, scholars from environmental studies, law, social work, sociology, and economics explore the changing relationship between women and the welfare state. They examine the transformation of the welfare state and its implications for women; key issues in the welfare state debates such as social rights, family and dependency, and gender-neutral programs and inequality; women's work and the state; and the role of women as agents of change."--BOOK JACKET. "Women and the Canadian Welfare State explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes. It bridges an important gap for scholars and students who are interested in gender, public policy, and the welfare state."--BOOK JACKET. "In Women and the Canadian Welfare State, scholars from environmental studies, law, social work, sociology, and economics explore the changing relationship between women and the welfare state. They examine the transformation of the welfare state and its implications for women; key issues in the welfare state debates such as social rights, family and dependency, and gender-neutral programs and inequality; women's work and the state; and the role of women as agents of change." "Women and the Canadian Welfare State explains not only how women are affected by changes in policy and programming, but how they can take an active role in shaping these changes. It bridges an important gap for scholars and students who are interested in gender, public policy, and the welfare state."--Résumé de l'éditeur