Women and Pensions in Britain and Hungary: A Cross-National and Comparative Case Study of Social Dependency

This study offers a unique comparison of the situation of older women and their pension outcomes in Britain and Hungary between 1945 and 1990. It argues that in both West European capitalist and Central European (former) state-socialist societies, the dependent status of the older population should be viewed as socially constructed. The study considers the impact and central role of patriarchy within the production of welfare and seeks to develop a concatenation between partiarchy and dependency, viewing them both as the operation of power relations within welfare. In addition, this analysis uniquely utilizes and develops Ferge's conceptualization of "societal policy". For Britain, this is employed in an implicit sense, for Hungary in an explicit sense. It is postulated that each employed "planning" but for different ends; one for the maintenance of capitalism, the other for the transition through socialism to the ultimate goal of communism. Building upon two detailed case-studies, a new framework or typology for theorizing "welfare states" is tentatively suggested which allows for new theoretical insights into patriarchy and dependency to be expounded.