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.