Path Dependence Regained: Crisis and Family Policies in Spain

For quite some time, the Spanish welfare state lagged behind other European welfare states in family and gender equality related policies. However, changes introduced since the beginning of 1990s and especially in the years preceding the outbreak of the financial crisis have challenged to a large extent this previous situation through: new legislation on the right to and for care; improvement in work/family balance packages; and new legislation enforcing gender equality. These changes were accompanied by deep shifts in underlying cultural values and attitudes with regards the role of women and equal parenting and were certainly influenced by processes of European convergence. This ‘path departure’ has been critically undermined by current austerity plans. By looking at welfare outputs in the fields of family and gender policies over the last two decades, this paper aims at exploring the breath and length of the austerity plans in these policy domains and the extent to which the explanatory frameworks found in the literature on welfare change might help to understand these policy and politics dynamics.