The Impact of Social Movements on Gendered Well-Being in Europe

Abstract

This chapter examines how the movement operated during the shift from state provided welfare to the privatized services. It argues that the lasting effect of the women's health care movement has been stronger than the sense of an ending suggests. The chapter talks about the interaction of the women's health care movement with two typically Dutch phenomena: a pacified pillarized political culture and low female labour market participation. It deals with the short description of the Dutch women's health care movement, and then examines its interaction with pillarization and with the increased labour market participation by women in the Netherlands. The chapter explains the contribution of the women's health care movement to new perceptions of health and well-being is analysed in the context of the transformation of Dutch health care from a semi-public and pillarized to a privatized system. The transformation of the Dutch welfare state implied economic liberalization of health care services.