The 20th century witnessed two major transformations: the development of the Welfare State and the Gender Revolution. One dominant feature of this process was the rise in women’s participation in paid work while simultaneously remaining responsible for the family’s well-being. The gendered division of labor is thus one crucial obstacle to Gender Equality which the Welfare States have been targeting through reconciliation policies, mediators of the work and family spheres. Informed by mainstream welfare policies research and feminist approaches, we aim at explaining why the welfare regimes produce distinct outcomes in gender equality levels in the spheres of work and family, despite many similar conditions found in the four countries.
