What Gender-Neutral Activation? Understanding the Gender Sanction Gap in Germany’s Welfare System

Abstract

Abstract Women are half as likely to be sanctioned as men in Germany’s means-tested welfare system, despite sanctions not explicitly being a gendered activation measure. I investigate the reasons underlying the “gender sanction gap” with a decomposition analysis on a sample from registry data. Findings show differences between women and men in their distributions on family-related and human-capital-related variables explain much of the gap. Results further suggest gender differences in behavior and treatment by public employment services also contribute to the gap, with women more frequently being exempted from sanctions due to childcare responsibilities.