The Future of Social Protection. Towards an integration of gender as a fundamental dimension of variation in welfare state reform. The case of Spain

de Leon, Margarita (2000) The Future of Social Protection. Towards an integration of gender as a fundamental dimension of variation in welfare state reform. The case of Spain. In: UNSPECIFIED, Corfu, Greece.

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Abstract

[From the Introduction]. European social protection systems are facing new challenges that impose an urgent need for adaptation. The economic and social conditions under which social protection systems developed have experienced profound transformations. These changes at both the macro and the micro levels of society are creating unknown patterns of social inclusion and exclusion, with which social protection systems are currently confronted. Gender is a variable that cuts across any other dimension of welfare state variation. I argue that any analysis of social protection reform, and more broadly of welfare state reform will have to take into account, in a systematic way, its gender dimension. Gender relations influence any process of social change and equally, any societal change challenges pre-existent gender relations. In the present paper, I will first describe the changes with which European social protection systems are confronted. Secondly, I will attempt to analyse the capacity of the Spanish social protection system, integrated within the southern European model to adapt itself in order to face the new challenges.

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