ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the part welfare state institutions play in forming and maintaining gender relations. Welfare institutions bridge the public sphere of economic and political life and the private sphere of family, parenthood, and personal life. The key ideas informing the analysis of gender and social policy derive from this interaction between the public and the private. The chapter introduces these ideas and their application to the welfare states of nations with advanced economies, primarily in Europe, North America, and Australasia. It then examines the way gender has been institutionalised in the social policy frameworks of advanced welfare states, and the way policy institutions are changing in response to the new social risks posed by post-industrial transformation.
