Gender and Citizenship
Politics and Agency in France, Britain and Denmark

This book, first published in 2000, examines the links between women's social rights and democratic citizenship.

Birte Siim (Author)

9780521591546, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 September 2000

232 pages, 3 b/w illus. 7 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.48 kg

'… a very important and timely contribution to ongoing debates on citizenship, in particular in Europe but also beyond.' Democratization

Feminist analysis shows that the prevailing concepts of citizenship often assume a male citizen. How, then, does this affect the agency and participation of women in modern democracies? This insightful book, first published in 2000, presents a systematic comparison of the links between women's social rights and democratic citizenship in three different citizenship models: republican citizenship in France, liberal citizenship in Britain, and social citizenship in Denmark. Birte Siim argues that France still suffers from the contradictions of pro-natalist policy, and that Britain is only just starting to re-conceptualise the male-breadwinner model that is still a dominant feature. In her examination of the dual-breadwinner model in Denmark, Siim presents research about Scandinavian social policy and makes an important and timely contribution to debates in political sociology, social policy and gender studies.

Introduction: feminist rethinking of citizenship
1. Towards a gender sensitive framework of citizenship
2. Theories about citizenship
3. Feminist approaches to citizenship
4. Gender and citizenship: the French case
5. Gender and citizenship: the British case
6. Gender and citizenship: the Danish case
Conclusion: towards a contextualised feminist theory of citizenship.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Social issues & processes [JFF]