Double jeopardy: Gendered social policy for two risky life periods in six welfare state contexts

Abstract

This study adopts a cultural gendered perspective to examine policy in two financially risky periods in women's life course: when raising young children and in post-employment in old age, when income is mainly from pensions. Specifically, we look at the intersection of social policy and cultural schemas of motherhood in relation to two policy axes: family policy and old age policy. The analysis is based on a cross-national comparison of social policies in six countries with significantly different welfare state and cultural traditions: Germany, France, Israel, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Data are gleaned from document analysis of care and pension policies and the database of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The policy analysis revealed nuanced differences between countries that are captured through a typology composed of the level of generosity in family policy and the level of generosity in old age policy. The analysis addresses a research lacuna regarding the intersection between gendered cultural schemas and the generosity of socialpolicies and its plausible relation to the genderedness of old-age vulnerability.