In the period since World War II there has been both a massive influx of women into the Canadian job market and substantive changes to the welfare state as early expansion gave way, by the 1970s, to a prolonged period of retrenchment and restructuring. Through a detailed historical account of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program from 1945 to 1997, Ann Porter demonstrates how gender was central both to the construction of the post-war welfare state, as well as to its subsequent crisis and restructuring. Drawing on a wide range of sources (including archival material, UI administrative tribunal decisions, and documents from the government, labour and women's groups) she examines the implications of restructuring for women's equality, as well as how women's groups, labour and the state interacted in efforts to shape the policy agenda. Porter argues that, while the post-war welfare state model was based on a family with a single male breadwinner, the new model is one that assumes multiple family earners and encourages employability for both men and women. The result has been greater formal equality for women, but at the same time the restructuring and reduction of benefits have undermined these gains and made women's lives increasingly difficult. Using concepts from political economy, feminism, and public policy, this study should be of interest across a range of disciplines.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of Toronto Press
ISBN-13
9780802084088
eBay Product ID (ePID)
95980476
Product Key Features
Subject Area
Social Services
Author
Ann Porter
Publication Name
Gendered States: Women, Unemployment Insurance, and the Political Economy of the Welfare State in Canada, 1945-1997
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Subject
Government, Zoology
Publication Year
2003
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
336 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
228mm
Item Width
152mm
Item Weight
558g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Ann Porter
Series Title
Studies in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy
Country/Region of Manufacture
Canada
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