This book considers the influence of women's movements on the emergence of Europe's welfare states and the limits to that influence. It reveals how these organizations influenced and promoted new welfare policies, particularly in relation to the needs of women and children. It not only examines these developments in the different countries, but explores state attitudes towards gender before and after the rise of the dictatorships in Germany, Italy and Spain, in comparison to democracies in Britain, France, Sweden and Norway. These studies go further than revealing how European women sought to obtain more rights. By exploring how they sought to make effective use of them, they show that this widespread struggle for mother's welfare was not a diversion from feminist goals, but intrinsic to the transformation of the gender-based distribution of resources and power in society. It emphasizes the role of women's history within a political, rather than a social context, especially in the inter-war period. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of European history and women's history.