This book explores the complex, evolving relationships between men, masculinities, and social welfare in contemporary context. It is inspired by themes examined in ‘Men, Gender Divisions and Welfare’, an edited collection published in 1998 by Popay, Hearn, and Edwards. While international policy agendas reflect a growing commitment to critically addressing the relations between men, masculinities, and policy, in policy and popular discussions, societies continue to grapple with the question of ‘what to do with men?’ This question reflects an ongoing tension between the persistence of men’s power and control over welfare and policy development, alongside their ostensible avoidance of welfare services. The collection constitutes an up-to-date account of the gendered and social implications of policy and practice change for men, and their inherent contradictions and complexities, tracing both stability and change over the past 25 years. This book will appeal to students and scholars in diverse fields, particularly in sociology, social policy, applied social sciences, gerontology, gender studies, youth studies, welfare studies, politics, and social geography. Given the volume’s empirical attention throughout to both policies and practice developments, it will also be of interest to those training in applied and vocational degrees such as health and social care, social work, family support, and health visiting.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Though women’s employment patterns in Europe have been changing drastically over several decades, the repercussions of this social revolution are just beginning to garner serious attention. Many scholars have presumed that diversity and change in women’s employment is based on the structures of welfare states and women’s responses to economic incentives and disincentives to join the workforce; How Welfare States Care provides in-depth analysis of women’s employment and childcare patterns, taxation, social security, and maternity leave provisions in order to show this logic does not hold. Combining economic, sociological, and psychological insights, Kremer demonstrates that care is embedded in welfare states and that European women are motivated by culturally and morally-shaped ideals of care that are embedded in welfare states—and less by economic reality.

In the ten years after President Clinton made good on his promise to "end welfare as we know it" by signing the reform act of 1996, the number of families on welfare dropped by over three million. This hotly contested legislation has fueled countless hyperbolic arguments from both sides of the political spectrum rather than a clearheaded examination of the actual results of the reform. Robert Cherry steps into the fray with a story that differs sharply from both conservative and liberal critiques. He portrays the women who left welfare as success stories rather than victims, and stresses the many positive lessons of the policy initiatives that accompanied the reform without downplaying the problems it created. The result is an eye-opening look at the ground-level repercussions of welfare policy changes, developments that have been overshadowed by partisan politics for too long. Anchored by solid economic research and policy background, Welfare Transformed comes alive with revealing interviews of key members of the Clinton Administration, directors and staff at welfare-to-work programs and community colleges, and - most importantly - welfare leavers themselves. Cherry carefully explains the factors (racial, social, economic, generational) that spurred and shaped the reform, and moves past partisan rhetoric in his review of its effects. Instead, he pays attention to concrete data and real people's experiences that combine to provide a full account of the legislation's aftermath. Armed with this new view, Cherry offers a range of strong suggestions for transforming successful welfare policies into universal family policies, from strengthening federal economic supports for working families to improving our community colleges. A refreshing take on a lightning-rod subject, this book is certain to foment heated discussions among all who read it.

Developing the new framework of ‘life-mix’, which considers the mixed patterns of caring and working in different periods of life, this book systematically explores the interplay of productivism, women, care and work in East Asia and Europe. The book ranges across four key aspects of welfare — childcare, parental leave, employment support and pensions — to illustrate how policies affect women in various periods of their lives. Policy case studies from France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, South Korea, Sweden and the UK, show how welfare could support people’s caring and working lives. This book forms a prescient examination of how productivist thinking underpins regimes and impacts women’s welfare, care and work in both the East and West.

This book examines the conceptual, historical and practical implications that various social policies in the United States have had on ethnic minorities.