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ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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Current Sociology
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Gender, Ageing and the ‘New Social Settlement’

The Importance of Developing a Holistic Approach to Care Policies

Jane Lewis

London School of Economics

The article documents a shift in the assumptions underpinning welfare state change in Europe, towards an ‘adult worker family model’ in the context of dramatic family and labour market changes. This set of assumptions, in which all adult men and women are presumed to be active in the labour market and increasingly self-supporting, amounts to a new ‘social settlement’. The article suggests that, given the existing gendered division of paid and unpaid work, the lack of attention on the part of policy-makers to the issue of care and care work means that women are unlikely to become fully autonomous citizen workers, which will in turn exacerbate gender inequalities in later life. The article argues first, that the degree of behavioural change does not fully support the major shift in policy assumptions; second, that the assumptions being made by policy-makers about what will happen to care work are untenable; and third, reviews the existing policy logics and debates about care before sketching what is needed to secure a holistic approach to care.

Key Words: adult worker family model • ageing • care • care work • EU social policy • gender • individualization

Current Sociology, Vol. 55, No. 2, 271-286 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0011392107073314
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