Whereas single parents in the UK in the late 20^th century endured high rates of unemployment and poverty, effectively abandoned by the State, those in Sweden experienced the reverse. Many working on gender mainstreaming looked to Sweden for models of parent/care employment and welfare policies to effect structural change. Now however, both countries have experienced significant shifts. Under austerity in the UK single parents are more likely to be employed, yet trapped within a pernicious intersection of welfare and employment policies leaving families vulnerable to deprivation, so regulated and controlled they have little time to care for children. Those not in employment, are more likely to be sanctioned and made homeless, especially those with children under five.

Now new patterns are emerging in Sweden in an increasingly unequal society. Since the late 1990’s fiscal crisis, and in spite of a history of gender equality policies, inequalities between single and dual-parent families have increased. Policies assume a ‘dual earner/dual carer family model’, with an ever-increasing blind spot to social and economic constraints experienced by single parents, especially new migrants. Swedish research studies now identify single mothers as disadvantaged, insufficiently safeguarded by the welfare system. Migrant single mothers are the most marginalized, abandoned on benefits for long periods of time, particularly vulnerable to absolute poverty.

The impact of persistent intersectional inequalities by reason of class, gender and ethnicity places single parents on the margins in both Sweden and the UK. This paper considers how gender mainstreaming can, and must address intersectional discriminations.