The Comparative Women's History
Workshop
The Value of Comparison
The Welfare State
In "Womanly Duties: Maternalist Politics and the
Origins of Welfare States in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United
States, 1880-1920" Seth Koven and Sonya Michel examine the connections
between the rise of women's social action movements and the emergence of
large-scale state welfare programs in France, Germany, Great Britain,
and the United States. Their research on the political initiatives of middle-class
women found that in all four countries the growth of welfare bureaucracies
between 1880 and 1920 led to the 1) expansion of care-taking professions
dominated by women, 2) competing maternal discourses in the debates about
the role of women, and 3) the creation of charitable organizations by women.
Using comparative analysis they found that women had more political space
in "weak states" like the U.S and Great Britain where charitable associations
flourished than they did in "strong states" like Germany and France with
long traditions of governmental intervention. This finding led to
their conclusion that "the power of women's social action movements was
inversely related to the range and generosity of state welfare benefits
for women" (1079).
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