Gender Inequalities, Family and Social Welfare: Continuity and Change

Until the 1990s, comparative work on the gendered dimensions of systems of social provision in Southern Europe was rather scarce. The short-sightedness of male-centred approaches has contributed to mystifying the bases of male domination and female subordination in these societies. Recent years have seen the proliferation of single-country studies, formulating generalisations and thus overlooking differences in the form and degree of gender inequality within these countries. In this chapter we shall show how the triad of institutions — the welfare state, the family and the labour market in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal — interact, shaping the specific gender orders by which relationships between men and women are constructed. Taking into account cultural assumptions and legal stipulations about the rights and obligations attributed to men and women, we will look at the different aspects through which gender inequality is manifested (especially, participation in the labour market, women’s role in the family and household, the discrimination of women within social security), touching upon themes of change and continuity across systems of social provision. As Orloff (2000: 2) put it, ‘the relationship among welfare states, families and labour markets provides an explanation for the prevailing “gender cultures” in Southern Europe’.