Family as a Site of Gendered Inclusion? Italy’s Assegno di Inclusione and Chile’s Subsidio Único Familiar

Abstract Book of the 8th Global Conference on Women's Studies

Year: 2026

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Family as a Site of Gendered Inclusion? Italy’s Assegno di Inclusione and Chile’s Subsidio Único Familiar

Clara Lopez, Angela Patricia Navarro Arevalo

ABSTRACT:

This paper argues that contemporary welfare reforms embed gendered assumptions about care, social citizenship, and dependency by privileging the family as the primary locus of social inclusion. Through a comparative analysis of Italy’s Assegno di Inclusione (ADI) and Chile’s Subsidio Único Familiar (SUF), it examines how different welfare traditions—European “inclusive activation” and Latin American “familialist protection”—construct women’s economic and social roles in distinct yet converging ways. Drawing on doctoral research in Anthropology and Sociology, grounded in feminist and gender studies, the paper integrates different perspectives to elaborate a policy-oriented analysis of institutional design and reform trajectories. Methodologically, it adopts a qualitative comparative approach that combines feminist policy analysis and interpretive inquiry. Using documentary and statistical sources from Italy and Chile, it applies a shared analytical grid—focused on access and eligibility, implicit family configuration, conditionality, and redistributive effects—to trace how both programs frame the relationship between care, work, and social rights. The paper shows convergences in welfare trajectories that highlight the feminization of social responsibility and the reconfiguration of citizenship across diverse policy contexts.

Keywords: Comparative social policy; Family and care; Feminist policy analysis; Gendered welfare reforms; Social citizenship