Kinship Care Policy: Women's Oppression & Neoliberal Familialization

Under neoliberal capitalist globalization, the deepening of women s oppression and exploitation have been notorious. Indeed, women are facing poverty all over the world, including in industrialized capitalist countries. Women living in poverty and particularly poor single mothers have been targets of the counter neoliberal reform of the capitalist welfare state. This counter reform is a gendered, classist, and complex alteration that has assaulted the social responsibilities and budgets of the welfare state. In Ontario, Neoliberal policies reinforce women s unpaid caring responsibilities and intensify the surveillance and control exerted over poor Ontarian single mothers. This qualitative case study has explored critically the role of neoliberal social policy in Ontario child welfare. Through a feminist approach and using official documentary data, the research analyzes Ontario Kinship Care Policy. The study looks at the historical and social context in which the policy was formulated, depicts the main goals of the policy, and analyzes the policy s outcomes both, for the system and for women. Possible areas of future research on this policy are presented in the conclusions.

Autorentext

Martha Susana Lara received her BSW in 1976, at Externado de Colombia University in Bogota, and completed Social Policy Studies in 1982. She received her MSW in 2011 at McMaster University. She has been a university professor, and peace activist. In Canada she has worked in VAW and Child Welfare. Now she is a Family Group Coordinator in Ontario.

Klappentext

Under neoliberal capitalist globalization, the deepening of women s oppression and exploitation have been notorious. Indeed, women are facing poverty all over the world, including in industrialized capitalist countries. Women living in poverty and particularly poor single mothers have been targets of the counter neoliberal reform of the capitalist welfare state. This counter reform is a gendered, classist, and complex alteration that has assaulted the social responsibilities and budgets of the welfare state. In Ontario, Neoliberal policies reinforce women s unpaid caring responsibilities and intensify the surveillance and control exerted over poor Ontarian single mothers. This qualitative case study has explored critically the role of neoliberal social policy in Ontario child welfare. Through a feminist approach and using official documentary data, the research analyzes Ontario Kinship Care Policy. The study looks at the historical and social context in which the policy was formulated, depicts the main goals of the policy, and analyzes the policy s outcomes both, for the system and for women. Possible areas of future research on this policy are presented in the conclusions.