For many people activation, helping people move from welfare to
work, is like mother hood and apple pie and therefore difficult to
argue against. However badly designed activation policy and/
or poorly implemented policy can have unintended and negative
consequences. This is particularly so for women. They struggle to
move from a familial welfare system, which still reinforces women’s
role as carers and risk moving into a still gendered and segregated
labour market where women are more likely to work in low paid, part
time and precarious work. This implies many potential traps. In the
worst case scenario activation could force women into a triple lock
where domestic work, care obligations and low paid employment
combine to decrease quality of life and standard of living
