Afterword

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book emphasis on many contradictions and conversations that have had to be managed and negotiated as policy and legislation targeted at the family was made and re-made through the 20th century has offered a very particular view of how the welfare states of Denmark, Sweden and Britain have developed. It has exemplified some of the reasons why the institution of the family at the beginning of the twenty first century features so centrally in welfare policy and practice. The emphasis has pointed to another dynamic of change by demonstrating the different ways in which social movements and political actors have challenged and shaped the nature of policy reforms. Such struggles also continue and, to our concerns, can be understood as the product of earlier and unresolved debates and conflicts about the inequalities of gender relations.