Whether childcare is seen as part of society's educational policy, welfare policy, or employment policy affects not only its form and content but also its public image. The contributors in this volume use current polices for the care of infants and preschool children to analyze debates and track the emergence of new state welfare practices across a variety of social and political configurations-and offer some conclusions about which methods work the best.

Introduction: Gender and Welfare State Restructuring: Through the Lens of Child Care, Rianne Mahon I. The Consequences of Weak Feminism 1. Gender and Generation: Japanese Child Care and the Demographic Crisis, Ito Peng 2. The Value of an Educational Emphasis: Child Care and Restructuring in Spain since 1975, Celia Valiente 3. Ideology, Economics and the Politics of Child Care in Poland before and After the Transition, Jacqueline Heinen II. The Power of Choice 4. Australia: Child Care and State-Centered Feminism in a Liberal Welfare Regime, Deborah Brennan 5. The Illusion of Free Choice: Ideals of Care and Child Care Policy in the Flemish and Dutch Welfare States, Monique Kremer 6. Does Anyone Have a Libre Choix?: Subversive Liberalism and the Politics of French Child Care Policy, Kimberly Morgan III. The Impact of Neoliberalism 7. Modernization and Welfare-State Restructuring in Italy: The Impact on Child Care, Vincent Della Sala 8. Dual-Earner Families Caught in a Liberal Welfare Regime? The Politics of Child Care Policy in Canada, Rianne Mahon and Susan Phillips 9. Child Care in Britain, or, How Do You Restructure Nothing?, Vicky Randall 10. More Can Be Less: Child Care and Welfare Reform in the United Stated, Denise Urias Levy and Sonya Michel IV. Preserving/Creating Universalism 11. Danish Child Care Policy: Continuity Rather than Radical Change, Anette Borchorst 12. Alive and Fairly Well: Welfare State Restructuring and Child Care in Sweden, Christina Berqvist and Anita Nyberg 13. Against the Current: Child Care and Family Policy in Quebec, Jane Jenson Afterword, Sonya Michel Notes On Contributors Index

Sonya Michel is Associate Professor of History and the Director of Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author or editor of seven books including: Children's Interests/Mother's Rights and Mothers of a New World. Rianne Mahon is Professor of Public Administration and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at Carleton University.