Gender Equality at the Margins of the Labour Market? A Gendered Perspective on Social...

Gender Equality at the Margins of the Labour Market? A Gendered Perspective on Social Investments and Capabilities

Abstract

Labour market access is a core issue for gender equality. With data from ethnographic case studies, this paper analyses the impact of the social investment policy on the capabilities of unskilled unemployed women. Activating measures of the unemployment insurance and welfare turn out to be merely “replacement investments” that cannot compensate for structural disadvantages, but reinforce inequalities. However, some of the interviewed women were for the first time in their lives offered a chance to reflect on their occupational future and were assisted in first steps to realise their plans.

Keywords

• social investments
• activation
• gender
• capability approach
• equality