La logique sexuée de la réciprocité dans l'assistance

This article takes a gender approach to the analysis of changes in the relationship of reciprocity that links the State and people receiving social benefits targeted at poverty reduction. The counterpart required in exchange for national solidarity is not the same for men and women beneficiaries and varies with family status, which induces a discrimination. Whereas what is important for women has long been their role as ?mothers above all?, for men it is their integration into the world of work. The integration in 2009 of the French minimum income benefit (RMI) and the lone parent allowance (API) into what is now called the active solidarity income (RSA) led to strengthening job integration requirements for beneficiaries. Nevertheless, the traditional model seems to have been spared by the tightening of requirements, as women with children who live in a couple do not have their employability questioned to the same extent as other beneficiaries. Their role as housewives excludes them from a logic of employment at any cost. But as soon as they are separated from their partner, they once again become a target of activation policies. JEL classification codes: I31, I38, J2, B52.