Vocabularies of citizenship and gender: Sweden

In: Critical social policy: a journal of theory and practice in social welfare, Band 18, Heft 56, S. 397-415

Abstract

This article focuses on the gendered dimensions of the contradictions within the welfare state. It argues that there is an inherent dilemma between recognizing women's unpaid caring functions, on the one hand, and in providing for opportunities for women to influence and contribute in the economic and political spheres of life, on the other. The article focuses on the development and the framing of what we call 'the social service state' and 'the social insurance state' in Sweden from a gender perspective. The article asks whether women benefit from a neutral system of rules or whether there should also be formal attention paid to gender inequalities.