Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the personal and the intellectual, fragments and order, international trends and national specificities -- Part one: The modern state and contemporary society-new insights and new contradictions -- Crazy quilts: rethinking the welfare state debate from a woman's point of view / Laura Balbo -- Women and the welfare state: the transition from private to public dependence / Helga Maria Hernes -- Confusing concepts - confusing reality: a theoretical discussion of the patriarchal state / Drude Dahlerup -- Women and the advanced welfare state - a new kind of patriarchal power? / Anette Borchorst and Birte Siim -- Women's new social role: contradictions of the welfare state / Anne Showstack Sassoon -- Part two: Inside and outside the home: Women's experience and the transformation of public and private -- Division of family labour and gender identity / Chiara Saraceno -- On the rationality of caring / Kari Waerness -- The circular trap: women and part-time work / Vicki Smith -- Between public and private: the birth of the professional housewife and the female consumer / Gabriella Turnaturi -- Inside and outside the home: how our lives have changed through domestic automation / Helene Strohl.