“Uphill All the Way”: Grace Abbott and Women’s Work in Building the Welfare State

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-561
Author(s):  
Anya Jabour
Author(s):  
Paul M. Sniderman ◽  
Michael Bang Petersen ◽  
Rune Slothuus ◽  
Rune Stubager

This chapter presents a theory of the covenant paradox, i.e., the moral covenant underpinning the welfare state that simultaneously promotes equal treatment for (some) immigrants and provides a platform for discrimination against (other) immigrants. It first discusses under what conditions and why the moral premises of the welfare state favor the equal treatment of immigrants. It then considers under what conditions and why the very same moral premises open the door to discrimination against immigrants. It shows that the key to these contradictory outcomes is the temporal logic of evaluative judgments. Prospective judgments of benefits and obligations favor equal treatment. Retrospective judgments, again of benefits and obligations, pave the way for discriminatory treatment.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Moss

This final chapter returns to Ford, Dagenham to analyse the second strike that was organised by female sewing-machinists for skill recognition in the winter of 1984-1985. Whilst the 1968 strike analysed in chapter 2 was optimistically hailed as a turning point symbolising a new era of gender equality, the sewing-machinists were dissatisfied because the skilled nature of their work was not recognised. For the women at Ford, the underlying grading grievance and the sense of injustice that led to the 1968 dispute continued to shape their experiences of work and trade unionism for the next 17 years. This dispute marks an appropriate place to begin to draw some broader conclusions about women’s experiences of workplace activism between 1968 and 1985. The Ford sewing-machinists’ eventual success in winning their grading intimates a transition had occurred in the way women’s work was valued in the intervening 17 years between the strikes – at least within the Ford factory. Drawing upon contemporary representations of the dispute and interviews with women involved, this final chapter considers whether the women themselves believed the strike represented a change in attitudes towards female workers.


1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 193-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Wærness

Analysing welfare in terms of Allardt's three dimensions – Having, Loving, and Being – women's unpaid work at home seems particularly important for securing the welfare of the children, the sick, and the old on the Loving dimension. Increasing employment outside the home is necessary for increasing women's welfare on the Being dimension and their independence on the Having dimension. This cannot be realized without reducing the amount of women's unpaid work in the home. A dilemma of the welfare state is how women's equality on the Having and Being dimensions can be realized without the dependent population becoming worse off on the Loving dimension.


2019 ◽  
pp. 225-240
Author(s):  
Leirvik Oddbjørn

In this paper the author describes and analyzes central features of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations in Norway. By close observation of the tension between interreligious solidarity and aggressive identity politics, the author highlights some central features of the trust-building Christian-Muslim dialogue in Norway. He also notes how anti-Islamic sentiments in part of the majority population are reflected in radicalization among some Muslim youths. However, the situation in general is described in more optimistic terms. He also identifies two examples showing that the majority of the Muslim population seem to endorse strong values evident in society in general– such as the welfare state and gender equality. Finally, the author poses the question pertaining to the way in which Christians and Muslims may adopt a unified stance against extremism.


2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 484
Author(s):  
Katherine Covell ◽  
Jane Jenson ◽  
Mariette Sineau

Author(s):  
Ido de Haan

One of the most striking features of Europe's postwar history is the emergence of the welfare state. Even though the first social policies had already been introduced in the 1880s, and while many of the organisational forms that became entrenched after 1945 were initiated in the first half of the twentieth century, the size and impact of the postwar welfare state was unprecedented. Even more remarkable was the widespread consensus with which structural social and economic reforms were implemented. The deep political and social rifts of the 1920s and 1930s and the lack of trust in democratic means to overcome these confrontations had been replaced by the acceptance of an interventionist state and parliamentary democracy as the way to solve conflicts about the way in which this state distributed social goods. The swift and consensual growth of the welfare state is also remarkable because most western European countries were governed by conservative governments, or coalition governments in which Social Democrats had to share power with conservative Christian Democrats and Liberals.


Author(s):  
Ann Oakley

In this ground-breaking book, the author undertook one of the first serious sociological studies to examine women's work in the home. She interviewed 40 urban housewives and analysed their perceptions of housework, their feelings of monotony and fragmentation, the length of their working week, the importance of standards and routines, and their attitudes to different household tasks. Most women, irrespective of social class, were dissatisfied with housework — an important finding which contrasted with prevailing views. Importantly, too, the author showed how the neglect of research on domestic work was linked to the inbuilt sexism of sociology. This classic book challenged the hitherto neglect of housework as a topic worthy of study and paved the way for the sociological study of many more aspects of women's lives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (100) ◽  
pp. 769
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Maestro Buelga

Resumen:El trabajo analiza las tensiones entre los elementos propios del Estado social insertos en las diversas constituciones de los Estados europeos y los condicionantes económicos impuestos por la Unión europea, especialmente en los últimos años de crisis económica. Uno de los ejemplos estudiados es el de la constitucionalización del principio de estabilidad presupuestaria. Se sostiene en el texto que se ha «desconstitucionalizado» el estado social en España, como consecuencia de estas reformas acometidas en los años de la crisis económica, de manera que se han vaciado de contenido las cláusulas del Estado social previstas en nuestra Constitución.Summary:1. Introduction 2. The meaning of the welfare state clause in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. 3. The rupture in the way social status. 4. The global form of market and the deconstitucionalization of the welfare state.Abstract:The paper analyzes tensions between elements of the Welfare State inserts in the various constitutions of the European States and the economic conditions imposed by the European Union, especially in the last years of economic crisis. One of the studied examples is the constitutionalization of the principle of budgetary stability. It says in the text that it has «deconstitutionalized» the Welfare State in Spain, as a result of these reforms undertaken in the years of the economic crisis, so have emptied of content clauses of the Welfare State provided for in our Constitution.


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