7. Gender, Class, and Citizenship in the Comparative Analysis of Welfare State Regimes: Theoretical and Methodological Issues

Abstract

This paper focuses on theoretical and methodological issues associated with the incorporation of gender into the comparative analysis of welfare states. The impetus for this project arises from a number of concerns related to welfare state research: First, there is an absence of gender analysis in almost all comparative research while most studies that focus on gender are not comparative. Second, while change in the principle of distribution from class to citizenship is analyzed in much comparative research, it is not self-evident that citizenship rights are gender-neutral. Consequently, the incorporation of gender into the analysis raises questions concerning taken for granted assumptions about the meaning of citizenship and, in particular, concerning the relationship between formal citizenship status and the exercise of citizenship rights. The premise on which this paper is based is that we