Beginning in the late 19th century, competing ideas about motherhood had a profound impact on the development and implementation of social welfare policies. Calls for programmes aimed at assisting and directing mothers emanated from all quarters of the globe, advanced by states and voluntary organizations, liberals and conservatives, feminists and anti-feminists - a phenomenon that scholars have since termed 'maternalism'. This volume reassesses maternalism by providing critical reflections on prior usages of the concept, and by expanding its meaning to encompass geographical areas, political regimes and cultural concerns that scholars have rarely addressed. From Argentina, Brazil and Mexico City to France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Soviet Ukraine, the United States and Canada, these case studies offer fresh theoretical and historical perspectives within a transnational and comparative framework. As a whole, the volume demonstrates how maternalist ideologies have been employed by state actors, reformers and poor clients, with myriad political and social ramifications.

"A welcome addition to the literature on gender and social policy, this anthology addresses critical issues regarding women and the welfare state. Recognizing that maternalism is more diverse and nuanced than the simplification initially posed as a critique of the paternalist welfare state, the editors explore ways in which women's circumstances varied globally during the 20th century through chapters on the US, France, Fascist Italy, the Netherlands, Soviet-era Ukraine, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico...Highly Recommended." . Choice

Beginning in the late 19th century, competing ideas about motherhood had a profound impact on the development and implementation of social welfare policies. Calls for programmes aimed at assisting and directing mothers emanated from all quarters of the globe, advanced by states and voluntary organizations, liberals and conservatives, feminists and anti-feminists - a phenomenon that scholars have since termed 'maternalism'. This volume reassesses maternalism by providing critical reflections on prior usages of the concept, and by expanding its meaning to encompass geographical areas, political regimes and cultural concerns that scholars have rarely addressed. From Argentina, Brazil and Mexico City to France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Soviet Ukraine, the United States and Canada, these case studies offer fresh theoretical and historical perspectives within a transnational and comparative framework. As a whole, the volume demonstrates how maternalist ideologies have been employed by state actors, reformers and poor clients, with myriad political and social ramifications.

Marian van der Klein is Senior Researcher at the Verwey-Jonker Institute. Her historical research focuses on gender, social history and welfare states, especially the impact of social policy on the socioeconomic position of women.

Rebecca Jo Plant is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America (2010).

Nichole Sanders is Associate Professor of History at Lynchburg College in Virginia. She recently published Gender and Welfare in Mexico: The Consolidation of a Postrevolutionary State (2011).

Lori R. Weintrob is Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at Wagner College in New York City. Her research focuses on immigration, gender and public policy in France and the United States.

The twentieth-century "Mexican Miracle," which solidified the dominant position of the PRI, has been well documented. A part of the PRI's success story that has not hitherto been told is that of the creation of the welfare state, its impact (particularly on the roles of women), and the consequent transformation of Mexican society. A central focus of the PRI's welfare policy was to protect women and children. An important by-product of this effort was to provide new opportunities for women of the middle and upper classes to carve out a political role for themselves at a time when they did not yet enjoy suffrage and to participate as social workers, administrators, or volunteers. In Gender and Welfare in Mexico, Nichole Sanders uses archival sources from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and contemporary periodical literature to explain how the creation of the Mexican welfare state was gendered--and how the process reflected both international and Mexican discourses on gender, the family, and economic development.

This book reinvigorates the debate on the Mexican Revolution, exploring what this pivotal event meant to women. The contributors offer a fresh look at women's participation in their homes and workplaces and through politics and community activism. They show how women of diverse backgrounds with differing goals were actively involved, first in military roles during the violent early phase of civil war, and later in the state-building process. Drawing on a variety of perspectives, the volume illuminates the ways women variously accepted, contested, used, and manipulated the revolutionary project in Mexico. All too often, attention has been limited to elite, pro-revolutionary women's formal political activities, particularly their pursuit of suffrage. This timely volume broadens traditional perspectives, drawing on new scholarship that considers grassroots participation in institution building and the contested nature of the revolutionary process. Recovering narratives that have been virtually written out of the historical record, this book brings us a rich and complex array of women's experiences in the revolutionary and post-revolutionary era in Mexico.