Casting a critical eye over feminist and comparative literature on the welfare state, Daly and Rake elaborate a new theoretical framework for understanding how gender relations are shaped by national welfare states. They argue that the welfare state reaches deep into people’s lives and that its effect is to be seen in the relative resources and power relations of women and men. The book traces the relationship between national welfare state configurations and care needs and care provision, the division between paid and unpaid work, the conditions of women’s and men’s participation in the labour market and gender differentials in access to the resources of money and time.

Written in an accessible style, Gender and the Welfare State brings together wide-ranging information from the major European Union countries as well as from the USA, providing the reader with essential reference material. It will be welcomed by all those interested in gender, social policies and the comparative study of welfare states.

"Mary Daly and Katherine Rake have produced a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between gender and the welfare state – through the integrated lenses of care, work and welfare. They combine expert syntheses of several literatures with their own empirical work, using a unique blend of quantitative and qualitative methods. Gender and The Welfare State will surely become a standard text for all scholars of comparative social policy – generalists and gender specialists alike." Janet C. Gornick, City University of New York

"A significant account of how gender relations are shaped by national welfare states and how the welfare state reaches deep into the society." International Journal of Contemporary Sociology

"This excellent book is a comparative study of gender relations and care, work and welfare in eight countries...Gender and the Welfare State provides us with comprehensive reference material that will prove a valuable book for students..." Lavinia Mittin, Work, employment and society

Mary Daly is Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University, Belfast; Katherine Rake is Director of the Fawcett Society.