Women and Welfare Conditionality: Lived Experiences of Benefit Sanctions, Work and Welfare

Recent welfare reforms, based on austerity narratives and a gender-neutral rationale, have failed to recognise the ways in which women and men experience the different demands and rewards of paid employment and unpaid care. This book draws on a wealth of qualitative longitudinal evidence to cast light on women's and men's lived experiences of claiming benefits and looking for work. Giving voice to social security recipients, this book uncovers the hidden gendered impacts of conditional welfare reforms to challenge dominant gender-blind political discourses, policy design and practice norms. It combines and develops three interdisciplinary perspectives - gender analysis, lived experience and street-level bureaucracy - to offer a new understanding of British welfare reform policies and practice.