Constituting 'Post-Welfare State' Welfare Arrangements: The Role of Women's Movement Service Groups in Quebec‪.‬

This article retraces the involvement of women's shelters, rape crisis centres and women's centres in the restructuring of health and social services in Quebec over the past two decades. The study shows how women's movement service organizations have contributed to the constitution of new "post-welfare state" welfare arrangements, and to the shaping of a distinct, sectoral path to restructuring that averts the marginalization of feminist activism associated, thus far, with restructuring in Canada. Arguing that "politics matters" and that movements can "make a difference," the author suggests that different versions of restructuring coexist that are contingent on more localized interplays of politics and, thus, have the potential to bear different consequences for the pursuit of feminist politics. Cet article retrace l'engagement des maisons d'hebergement, CALACS et centres de femmes dans la restructuration de la sante et des services sociaux au Quebec au cours des deux dernieres decennies. L'etude montre comment les groupes de services du mouvement des femmes ont contribue a la constitution de nouveaux arrangements "post-providentiels", ainsi qu'a la formation d'un modele sectoriel de restructuration distinct qui evite la marginalisation de l'action feministe associee jusqu'ici a la restructuration de l'etat Canadien. Affirmant l'importance des luttes politiques et soutenant que l'action des mouvements peut "faire une difference", l'auteure suggere que la restructuration prend des formes diverses, conditionnelles a l'issue de jeux de pouvoir et de rapports politiques plus "localises" dont les consequences pour l'avenir des luttes feministes sont potentiellement variables.