HIST/WMST 501

The Gender of Welfare – Comparative Perspectives,
19–20 Century

(Joint graduate/undergraduate course)

Karen Hagemann

The interdisciplinary course introduces students to the growing body of literature in history, political and social sciences on gender and welfare by focusing on problems of the sexual division of labor and its importance for social policy, the work-family balance, and social citizenship in a comparative perspective. The course is intended to broaden and deepen our perspectives of modern welfare states by focusing on the relations among family, work and welfare.

Juggling work and family commitments is today a major challenge for both parents and governments in all modern societies. Families looking for a work-life balance are deciding whether to have children and are making choices about when, how many, and who to care for them – and whether to work full- or part-time. Governments can potentially promote family-friendly policies for numerous reasons: to reduce poverty and promote child development and family well-being, underpin economic growth, and bolster pension systems. The family-work balance is a highly gendered problem, because until today mainly women have been responsible for the care work in the family, despite all the rhetoric about equal sharing of parental obligations. They – and not men – have difficulties combining a professional career and children. One consequence of this dilemma is for an increasing number of women in the post-industrialized Western states on both sides of the Atlantic the decision to have only one child or no child at all. This has resulted in decreasing birth rates in most European countries and North America. The birthrates in almost all of these countries are below population reproduction and they are so low in some countries, that they represent a major crisis for their pension systems and welfare states as a whole. Welfare State Policy, Family Policy, Population Policy and Gender Policy are therefore closely related political issues. Only if the governments in the post-industrialized welfare states are able to solve the problems of family-work balance their states will they have a prosperous future. The course analyzes this problem in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective: We will read and discuss texts by historians, political scientists and sociologists, which analyze the historical and contemporary development in different European Countries (mainly Britain, France, Germany and Sweden) and the United States, and explore the necessary consequences for a future oriented welfare state policy that helps families to combine work and life.

Format of the Course

The course is planned as a seminar class for undergraduate and graduate students.  The sessions will center on discussions of assigned reading. Participating in a group discussion is important both as a skill and as a learning opportunity. Preparation for and participation in the class discussions are therefore key requirements for this seminar. All students are expected as a matter of course to have read the required readings and to be ready to discuss it. Active, engaged reading is therefore a critical part of the preparation for an active, engaged discussion.