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The article revisits comparative research on gender relations and the welfare state through the lens of the tensions between paid work and care. It discusses how these tensions shaped the intellectual enterprise of gendering welfare state analysis and women’s political activity in the welfare state, as well as the emergence of normative perspectives to overcome divisions between care and paid work. It concludes by identifying three challenges for future research posed by intersectionality, immigration and the gender implications of long-term welfare state change. Nonetheless, the greatest cross-cutting challenge remains the need to balance care and paid work in feminist analysis of welfare states.
Scholars have often oscillated between celebrating the transformative potential of solidarity and recognising the ambivalent nature of cooperation for disadvantaged and marginalised groups. How can we make sense of these differences? This article addresses this question by unpacking intersectional solidarity along two dimensions: the ways issues are framed; and the extent to which organisations adopt a transformative praxis to redress disparities in resources and representation. By focusing on the interplay between discursive and material dimensions of power, we identify four types of intersectional solidarity, with different transformative potential. The usefulness of this typology is illustrated by means of secondary analysis of coalition work developed around reproductive justice and domestic workers’ rights. It shows that only an ideal form of transformative solidarity reflects feminist normative theorising of an alliance across differences.
