Incomplete Revolution: Adapting Welfare States to Women's New Roles by Gosta Esping-Andersen (24-Jul-2009) Paperback

by Gøsta Esping-Andersen

Our future depends very much on how we respond to three great challenges of the new century, all of which threaten to increase social first, how we adapt institutions to the new role of women - the ‘incomplete revolution' of our time; second, how we prepare our children for the knowledge economy; and, third, how we respond to the new demography, in particular low fertility and an ageing population.In this new book Gøsta Esping-Andersen - the leading analyst of the welfare state - examines how different societies have responded to these challenges. It focuses especially on the quest for gender equality, on the role of families in the reproduction of social inequalities, and on major inequities associated with an ageing population. Through comparative analysis he seeks to identify the kinds of welfare state reform that can optimize not only individuals' life chances but also collective welfare. The intellectual ambition is, in other words, to identify the mainsprings of a new and superior form of social equilibrium.This book will be of great interest to anyone concerned with gender and the changing role of women, with social and public policy, and with the future of the welfare state.

Genres: Sociology, Feminism

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[David S · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads more like a factsheet than a well constructed argument. However, the ideas are well connected at the end. But still, I didn't enjoy reading the book, because it was simply too vague.

[Miriam]

- "I shall argue that the human capital deficit in advanced nations extends beyond the confines of formal education. Cognitive as well as non-cognitive skills are essential to a knowledge intensive system of production, and these are largely acquired very early on in childhood. The welfare of families is therefore the mainspring of a well-functioning economy. For equity reasons there are no doubt very strong reasons for why we need welfare state reform. Children's opportunities remain far
too conditioned on the luck of birth. This certainly implies inequity but also wasted human capital"

- "social inheritance continues to exert a powerful effect on children's life chances. Rising social inequalities are bound to worsen this. There are two issues at stake. For one, the persistence of unequal life chances implies that, so far, the modern welfare state has been rather unsuccessful in its promotion of more equality of opportunity. For another, failure to ensure maximum productivity in today's children will endanger their own individual future but also that of society at large."

- The major challenge lies in forging a reform that addresses the much more important intragenerational inequalities that prevail. And as I maintain in chapter 4, these are as much the outgrowth of inequalities in childhood. I should therefore perhaps rephrase my slogan to: 'all good reforms begin with babies.

- "...atypical family forms we register in contemporary society represent the unstable equilibrium rather than any future normative order. The fact that divorce and single parenthood are increasingly biased towards the working class and not towards the vanguard of the gender-equality equilibrium suggests this may be the case."

- "The masculinization of women's economic life should have major repercussions on decisions regarding family and motherhood.... A very large body of literature has linked falling marriage rates, increased family instability, the emergence of 'atypical' families and also low fertility to women's new roles. Statistically speaking, the association. Changing marital behaviour seems to coincide with women's increased economic independence (Cherlin, 1992; Fuchs, 1988; McLanahan and Casper, 1995). But when we examine the trends more But when we examine the trends more closely, the direct link between female autonomy and marriage and divorce appears far less obvious. There is, to be sure, a decline in marriage among very dedicated career women, but the phenomenon is far more concentrated among less educated women. The same obtains for divorce and single motherhood. In other words, the break with conventional marital patterns appears especially acute among those women whose employment status has changed the least. Generally speaking, the old convention of marriage followed by childbearing has been replaced by a proliferation of alternative biographical paths, including cohabitation and births outside wedlock."

[Rob Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely interesting to get a sociologist's perspective on welfare state issues. While Esping-Andersen lays some groundwork in the first half of the book, the real strength of the book is in chapters 3 and 4 where he focuses on welfare state analysis. He makes the important point that welfare state effectiveness is in the interest of economic efficiency as well as equity, a topic economists need to put more work into.

[Ariane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has a very clear, interesting and compelling thesis: because of demographic changes (he focueses on women's new role in scociety and the consequences of that), we are moving from a "traditional family" equilibrium towards a "gender equality" equilibrium. According to the author, we are now in the middle of both, something which is triggering a series of inequalities and problems which can only be solved by the welfare state, paying special attention to children.

Personally, I couldn't agree more with the statement above. The main problem the fook has, for me, is that it doesn't fully succeed in developing it. The two first chapters provide a very good overlook of the transition that is happening between equilibriums, and helps to understand the so-called "female revolution". However, I don't think the author gives a very accurate picture of the current state of things. The unfortunate consequence of that would be that the argument doesn't really explain what is failing now, and so the reader doesn't really have the impression that we are in a desequilibrium. That kind of weakens the whole thesis of the book: if the current situation is apparently ok, why would we need the welfare state to change it?

Luckyly, Part II is so brilliant it kind of makes you forget the missing ideas from part I. The justification given for investing in children, reforming family policies & pensions is great not only from an "ensuring equality of opportunities" point of view, but also from an efficiency-investing in our human capital angle.

One last, quite annoying for me, remark: the author speaks a couple of times about the state needing to help women to combine "moderhood" and work. That, for me, lies at the core of the problem, perpetuating the idea that kids are still a women's issue. Not nice.