Gender and European Welfare States

How can we understand the varied ways in which gender assumptions underpin welfare states across Europe and how they are changing? Do the Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism encapsulate differences between gender regimes, or do we need a more targeted gender analysis, differentiating male breadwinner from dual earner models? And how do these models relate to those post-state socialist countries which have joined the EU since 2004? In academic debate and political reality, ‘Europe ’ has tended to mean ‘Western Europe’; but 10 of the 27 member states are now former state socialist countries, with profoundly different social, political and gender histories from those in Western countries. One argument is of a shift in Western Europe towards women’s increasing labour market participation, away from a male breadwinner model, albeit in most countries more a one-and-a-half model and far from gender equality, and at most a one-and-three quarter. Another sees post-state socialist countries ‘re-traditionalising’ towards a male breadwinner model, as supports for mothers in the labour market have been reduced under social and economic transformation since 1989. Does this mean that there are contrasting trajectories East and West? Or should they be better seen a