Amount of welfare received depends on national insurance contributions throughout the year from the recipient. Women are disadvantaged as the contributory system does not account for any leave women may take from work for pregnancy. Women may need to stop work for long periods of time to look after their children or other members of the family. Women’ as care givers is an on going issue even today. In terms of welfare, women are expected to have the role as carers for the young sick and elderly. Women are far more likely to look after a sick or elderly relative than a man, even if it is a joint responsibility between herself and male siblings or her ‘In-laws’. If women have commitment to these roles, there is the importance of self help amongst women. They don’t usually have much support and it is a huge responsibility to look after themselves and another person, so women will talk to other women. If they do take the primary carer role for someone, they will use female members of the extended family to confide in and gain support. Another Feminist issue about the divide of the family; is the gendered construction of the welfare state. There’s a divide between the public and private domain which was created by traditional ideas about the separate roles of men and women. Women were confined to the private sphere (the family). This left them dependant on men who were able to operate in the private and public sphere. This idea meant that women who were without a man to rely on were forced into poverty as they cannot leave the home because of their carer and secondary responsibilities. This pattern may be caused by the lack of universal provision such as childcare facilities. Without these facilities been adequate, having children requires at least one partner giving up work for a considerable period of time.
As a consequence of the state providing inadequate childcare facilities, more women are choosing childlessness, as is the number of women living alone. This lifestyle may be the most sensible option for them as it is the only way of living comfortably and avoiding poverty. The patriarchal nature of the state is dated in the number of women being in paid employment, moreover the number of women childless. The number of women who go out to work relying no the informal sector for childcare support is increasing, this may be due to the independence of women trying to become more established, there is not usually many other alternative but for mothers to have to rely on the informal sector as the state is not always especially reliable.
Martin and Roberts (1984) published one of the most important sociological findings about the distribution of unemployment. In a survey they found that wives of unemployed men were much more likely to be unemployed themselves than the wives of employed men. The problem here is the benefits system, it seems to be not making enough incentive for women to find full employment, if the couples benefits are reduced by the levels of the woman’s earnings then this will discourage unemployed women to find work whose husbands are also unemployed.
Feminists argue that women are being used as cheap labour; this is an example of women being exploited in out patriarchal society. The welfare state is unequal as an employer, since the majority of its employees are men, but men usually are found to be in the higher positions in jobs, women tend to be found more in the basic positions. Overall, the welfare state may of lead to ‘some’ improvements through laws and welfare acts such as New Labours ‘minimum wage’ etc. However, gender assumptions are still embedded in society, if these employers assumptions do not change then it could still affect women in the future.
Some feminists argue that if women are made to feel excluded from paid employment then they will have to turn to their husbands for support financially, and keep that dependency on them. This idea means that men’s role still won’t have changed and husbands will still be responsible for providing, much like in the past where women and men were segregated roles and responsibilities in the home.
The Beveridge report was clear that pre-concepted idea’s assumed that women’s place was in the home and that they would be provided for via their husbands earnings. The ‘family wage’ dictated the levels of benefits and earnings that were paid mainly to the man on the assumption that they provide for their wife and children. Still, in today’s society benefits such as child benefit are paid to the mother. This is very gender biased in the assumption that mother is responsible for feeding and clothing the child, and will be the main provider of that child’s welfare, even if the mother does not live with the child then she will still receive this benefit unless under special circumstances.
However there are some benefits that are for the welfare of women. Bryson argues that although the Welfare State looks at men’s interests better than women’s, women do nonetheless gain because of three factors. Women live longer than men on average; parental support is largely given to mothers, especially when it comes to issues such as custody of the child and access rights. Also because of men’s superior position in the occupational structure, they are less likely to need the support of the welfare state unless a lone mother. However this view is once again based on the traditions of the nuclear family, it does not account for women in different situations such as a gay relationship or a successful career which are both issues that are far more common in today’s society. Far more women really do use the state as a last resort these days, it was always New Rights aim to encourage the residual model of welfare and New Labour have promoted this to create independence in as many groups as possible in society.
