Changing relations of welfare : family, gender and migration in Britain and Scandinavia

212 Pages·2010·2.89 MB·English

by  Janet Fink

Changing Relations of WelfaRe
For Leonore Davidoff
Changing Relations of Welfare
family, gender and Migration in Britain and scandinavia
Edited by
Janet fink
The Open University, UK
Åsa lundqvist
University of Lund, Sweden
© Janet fink and Åsa lundqvist 2010
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Janet fink and Åsa lundqvist have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
Wey Court east suite 420
union Road 101 Cherry street
farnham Burlington
surrey, gu9 7Pt vt 05401-4405
england usa
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Changing relations of welfare : family, gender and
migration in Britain and scandinavia.
1. family policy--great Britain. 2. family policy--
scandinavia. 3. gender-based analysis--great Britain.
4. gender-based analysis--scandinavia. 5. equality--great
Britain. 6. equality--scandinavia. 7. immigrants--great
Britain--social conditions--20th century. 8. immigrants--
scandinavia--social conditions. 9. great Britain--social
policy. 10. scandinavia--social policy.
i. fink, Janet. ii. lundqvist, asa, 1968-
361.6’1’0941-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Changing relations of welfare : family, gender and migration in Britain and scandinavia /
[edited] by Janet fink and asa lundqvist.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.

isBn 978-0-7546-7893-9 (hbk) -- isBn 978-0-7546-9764-0 (ebook)
1. family policy--great Britain. 2. sex discrimination--great Britain. 3. great Britain--social
policy. 4. family policy--scandinavia. 5. sex discrimination--scandinavia. 6. scandinavia--
social policy. i. fink, Janet. ii. lundqvist, asa, 1968-
hv700.g7C53 2010
361.6’10941--dc22
2009045787
isBn 978-0-7546-7893-9 (hbk)
isBn 978-0-7546-9764-0 (ebk)
Contents
List of Abbreviations vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xiii
1 introduction 1
Janet Fink and Åsa Lundqvist
PaRt I: FaMILy, GenDeR ReLatIonS anD the WeLFaRe State
2 overshadowed by the Male Breadwinner:
Care in 20th Century Britain 17
Hilary Land
3 Competing Meanings of gender equality:
family, Marriage and tax law in 20th Century denmark 39
Anna-Birte Ravn and Bente Rosenbeck
4 the institutionalization of family and gender equality Policies
in the swedish Welfare state 65
Åsa Lundqvist and Christine Roman
5 Paradoxes of gender and Marital status in mid-20th Century
British Welfare 87

Janet Fink and Katherine Holden

PaRt II: GenDeR, MIGRatIon anD SoCIaL InequaLItIeS
6 Migration, family and British social Policy in the late 20th Century:
British Pakistani Perspectives 111
Kaveri Harriss and Alison Shaw
7 the Multicultural Challenge to the danish Welfare state:
tensions between gender equality and diversity 133
Birte Siim and Anette Borchorst
vi Changing Relations of Welfare
8 Postcolonial encounters: Migrant Women and swedish Midwives 155
Diana Mulinari
9 afterword 179
Janet Fink and Åsa Lundqvist
Index 189
list of abbreviations
Ca Carers allowance
CedaW Committee on the elimination of discrimination against Women
dhss department of health and social security
dfes department for education and schools
ds departementsserien [Ministerial report]
eC european Council
eeC european economic Community
eu european union
hMt her Majesty’s treasury
iCa invalid Care allowance
lpo Läroplanen för förskolan och skolan [national school
Curriculum]
MWa Moral Welfare association
MWC Moral Welfare Council
nCuMC national Council for the unmarried Mother and her Child
nhs national health service
nsPa national spinsters’ Pension association
ONS Office for National Statistics
oeCd organization for economic Cooperation and development
sfi danish institute for social Research
sou Statens Offentliga Utredningar [government commission
reports]
tuC trade union Congress
WtC Working tax Credit
This page has been left blank intentionally
notes on Contributors
anette Borchorst is a political scientist and Professor in gender studies at the
department of history, international and social studies, aalborg university.
her research has focused on changes in welfare and gender equality policies
and variations in policy logics in different countries. her publications include
‘danish childcare policies within path-timing, sequence, actors and opportunity
structures’ in Childcare and Preschool Development in Europe – Institutional
Perspectives (edited by h. Willeken and k. scheiwe, Palgrave Macmillan 2008);
‘Women-friendly paradoxes? Childcare policies and gender equality visions
in scandinavia’ in Gender Equality as a Perspective on Welfare: The Limits
of Political Ambition? (edited by k. Melby et al., the Policy Press 2008); and
‘Woman-friendly Policies and state feminism: theorising scandinavian gender
equality’ in Feminist Theory (2) 2009 (with B. siim).
Janet Fink is a senior lecturer in social Policy in the faculty of social sciences
at the open university. her main research focuses on the historical and
contemporary intersections of social policy, family life and popular culture and
she has particular interests in the representations of ‘social problems’. she has
recently published work related to these interests in Women’s History Review,
Cinemascope, Cultural Studies and Paedagogica Historica. in 2009, together
with colleagues at the university of hertfordshire and the open university, she
was awarded a grant from the esRC Research seminars Competition to explore
the value of visual resources as ‘evidence’ in the policy arena.
Kaveri harriss is a post-doctoral research fellow at the sussex Centre for

Migration Research. With a background in sociology, anthropology and public
health, her research interests focus on the impact of transnationalism on the
links between migration and health. her doctoral research, at the london school
of hygiene and tropical Medicine, was a study of the material contexts and
consequences of long-term ill health among Pakistani migrants in the uk,
examining transnational household economies of production, consumption and
reproduction.
Katherine holden is a senior lecturer in the faculty of social science and
humanities at the university of the West of england, Bristol. her main research
interests are in historical perspectives on the family, with a particular focus on
singleness and the care and welfare of children. her current research is in the
history of paid childcare in the parental home. she has published widely with