This volume represents the present state of the art in theoretical debate in welfare state scholarship, drawing on research from western Europe, North America and Japan.

Introduction: Gender, welfare state and the market: towards a new division of labour? Thomas P. Boje and Arnlaug Leira Section 1: Women's Employment and Welfare Systems 1. Paid work, unpaid work and welfare: towards a framework for studying welfare state variation Mary Daly 2. Citizenship, family policy and women's pattern of employment Thomas P. Boje and Anna-Lena Almqvist 3. Variation within post-fordist and liberal welfare state countries, women's work and social rights in Canada and the United States Cecilia Benoit 4. Family policy and mothers' employment: cross-national varitions Janet Gornick Section II. Family Policy - Work and Care in Different Welfare Systems 5. Gendered Policies: family obligations and social policies in Europe Chiara Saraceno 6. Combining work and family: Nordic policy reforms in the 1990s Arnlaug Leira 7. Child care policies in Japan: post-war developments and recent reforms Ito Peng 8. Changing obligations and expectations: lone parenthood and social policy Jane Millar 9. Solo mothers - how do they work and care in different welfare state regimes? Jørgen Elm Larsen 10. Labour, gender, and the state Evelyn Mahon

Thomas P. Boje is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the University of Umeå, Sweden. He is currently editor-in-chief for the ESA journal European Societies., Arnlaug Leira is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway.