Introduction

Women routinely hold a disadvantaged position in the UK social security system. This position is related to the dominant gendered concept of citizenship in the UK. The gendered citizenship framework in the UK marginalises and excludes women, and attempts to create a concept of citizenship that is more inclusive of women have encountered difficulty. This chapter details gendered aspects of the 1940s welfare reforms, shows how demographics have changed considerably since these reforms were introduced and explains that there has also been a shift in the UK social security system's treatment of women, with women increasingly expected to undertake paid work. It then shows that a key dilemma facing feminists seeking to create a more gender-inclusive citizenship framework is whether to position women as ‘workers’ or ‘carers’, and discusses the difficulties with the social policies that arise from these two different routes to citizenship. The chapter ends by describing a more gender-inclusive citizenship framework and explaining how policies can be implemented that help develop this framework, with a specific focus on the importance of promoting women's agency.

Gender social security and changing demographics

Historically, and currently, women have held an inferior position in the UK social security system (Lister, 2003; Pascall, 2012). The Beveridge reforms of the 1940s have particularly attracted criticism for the gendered assumptions underpinning them (Sainsbury, 1996; Pascall, 1997, 2012; Lister, 2000b). These criticisms show a lack of recognition of the ways in which the post-World War Two welfare state was beneficial to women (Blackburn, 1995); nevertheless, the welfare reforms established a social security system that was based on masculine interactions with the paid labour market (Lister, 2001), which resulted in inferior social security rights for women. For example, there was an assumption that men would undertake paid work and women would be responsible for unpaid care and domestic labour (Sainsbury, 1996; Pascall, 1997). While Beveridge described women's unpaid care as ‘vital work’ (1942, p 53), under the welfare reforms and most notably the National Insurance Act 1946, men made contributions through paid employment, and when husbands were unemployed, benefits were paid to them on behalf of their wives (Pascall, 1997). Single parents were provided for under the National Assistance Act 1948; however, these social security payments were considerably lower than the contributions-based payments of the National Insurance Act.