Abstract
In this article, Jing Guo and Neil Gilbert are trying to assess the different types of welfare under the prism of the gender issue, widening Esping-Andersen's perspective which was focused on the male bread-winner; such analysis seems to be no more relevant given the recent move toward gender equality in the Western countries. They will thus assess the efficiency of gender equality-oriented policies in the midst of the welfare state. They first distinguish three models within Western Europe: the strong male-breadwinner model (e.g. Britain), the modified male-breadwinner model (e.g. France) and the dual-breadwinner model (e.g. Sweden). The difference is made according to the degree of difference between the genders in terms of State help to work.
It is interesting to notice that such map is actually very similar Esping-Andersen's one, what he managed to prove by adding the criteria of de-familialisation. The authors then move on to Worpi's classification which is actually very similar to the first one. Those attempts to classify the welfare states according to the gender criteria actually teaches us that two ways of gender welfare are currently in use in Western Europe. One way tends to support the nuclear family without gender distinction but with only one breadwinner, while the other stands for a dual-earner model which implies a deep modification of the pre-existing social standards.
