Welfare States, Cultural Values and Women's Precarious Work:

Abstract

While it is well-established that Canadian women are more likely to experience precarious work and the prevalence of this is increasing, greater attention needs to be paid to the contributions that social theory can make to both understanding and responding to this issue. This paper considers recent developments in both welfare state and cultural values theory to provide a framework to explain and respond to women's precarious work situations. Canada's being a liberal welfare state contributes to this problematic situation, but cultural values concerning women's roles may also shapes and maintains this condition. Drawing upon theoretical insights from Esping-Andersen on the welfare state and Pfau-Effinger on cultural values, various means of both understanding and improving the situation are presented.