A Gender Glance at the Concept of "welfare":Et kønsblik på velfærdsbegrebet

The article argues that welfare is satisfying human needs. It is a multidimensional Phenomenon and is constructed through gendered processes. The Finnish sociologist Erik Allardt distinguishes three dimensions of welfare: "having", which refers to basic physiological needs, "being", which refers to community, care and recognition,"being", which refers to identity building. These classic dimesnions of welfare have different meanings for women and men, because they relate differently to the family, the state and the market. Rethinking the gendered processes of welfare in a post-industrial, knowledge-based society calls for adding two new dimensions: doing, which refers to the relation between paid and unpaid work,and deciding, which refers to the ability to have a say in your own life and influence political decisions. These dimensions are illustrated by four key debates in international gender research connected to the five dimensions above. The debates are: 1) the public-private divide, 2) the distribution between care work and wage work, 3) welfare models and inequality regimes, 4) social and political citizenship. The article discusses the implications of the new challenges and dilemmas related to multiculturalism, migration and globalisation for the intersections of gender, class and ethnicity