Gendered States : : Women, Unemployment Insurance, and the Political Economy of the Welfare State in Canada, 1945-1997 / / Ann Porter.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Porter, Ann,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

In the period since the Second World War there has been both a massive influx of women into the Canadian job market and substantive changes to the welfare state as early expansion gave way, by the 1970s, to a prolonged period of retrenchment and restructuring. Through a detailed historical account of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program from 1945 to 1997, Ann Porter demonstrates how gender was central both to the construction of the post-war welfare state, as well as to its subsequent crisis and restructuring. Drawing on a wide range of sources (including archival material, UI administrative tribunal decisions, and documents from the government, labour and women's groups) she examines the implications of restructuring for women's equality, as well as how women's groups, labour and the state interacted in efforts to shape the policy agenda.Porter argues that, while the post-war welfare state model was based on a family with a single male breadwinner, the new model is one that assumes multiple family earners and encourages employability for both men and women. The result has been greater formal equality for women, but at the same time the restructuring and reduction of benefits have undermined these gains and made women's lives increasingly difficult. Using concepts from political economy, feminism, and public policy, this study will be of interest across a range of disciplines.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Gender and the Political Economy of the Welfare State: Theoretical Considerations -- PART I: Contradictions and Transformations in Families, Markets, and the Welfare State, 1940-1971 -- 2. Gender and the Construction of the Postwar Welfare State -- 3. From Exclusion to Entitlement: Pregnancy, Maternity, and the Canadian State -- 4. Women into the Labour Force, UI Review, and Expansion -- PART II: On the Path to Neoliberalism: Gender, Crisis, and Restructuring -- 5. Social Reproduction in a Transition Period: Maternity, Rights, and Conceptions of Equality -- 6. Gender, Economic Crisis, and Welfare State Restructuring in the 1970s -- 7. The Conservatives in Power: A Polarized Debate and the Shift to a Market-Based Approach -- 8. Consolidating Neoliberal Reforms: Globalization, Multi-Earner Families, and the Erosion of State Support for the Unemployed -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index