... whose role was that of homemaker and mother within the domestic sphere, and their children. This breadwinner model was associated with the notion of the 'family wage', from which the husband was to pay into a system of social insurance, and the state in turn would provide financial support to the worker and his dependants, in times of unemployment, sickness, disability through industrial injury, and old age. These financial benefits were set at subsistence level, in order to provide both an incentive to work, and also to encourage families to pay for private welfare provision. Thus it is clear that there was an expectation that the 'the family' and the market would meet individual need with regard to income maintenance and caring responsibilities, with state intervention only in exceptional circumstances. As well as being strongly gendered, with the construction of women's dependency on the male breadwinner, together with the promotion of ...

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