The economic crisis of 2007/08, related to problems of global finance markets, caused strong impact on welfare systems in Europe. This is true in various ways for Western and Northen welfare systems as differently for Southern European countries like Spain and Greece.

The article of Katharina Puhl, researcher for feminist sociology and capitalism analysis at RLS Berlin, will explore risks and challenges for social security policies and politics with regard to gender-sensitive effects and outcomes during crisis-related austerity politics in German context, framed by European politics. They intensify around developments of re-provatization of care obligations and costs of care activities a challenge to families and especially women who are still mostly the care-givers in private contexts.

What could be done to develop new perspectives of change with regard to these challenges in social policy, divisions of work and gender-just arrangements of care-provision?