Reconfiguring Women's Social Citizenship in Germany: The Right to Sozialhilfe; the Responsibility to Work

Abstract

Unemployment and demographic change are placing a great burden the German welfare state and on Sozialhilfe (Social Assistance) in particular. As in many other advanced capitalist states, this pressure has highlighted the issue of what duties should be attached to social rights. Increasingly, claimants are being expected to offer work in return for their benefit entitlement. This article assesses the significance of this trend in Germany and questions whether recent developments can be read as a mere revival of a 'dormant' aspect of an existing system or whether they are substantially reconfiguring the balance of rights and responsibilities in the field of welfare. These issues are approached from both a mainstream and a feminist citizenship perspective and this article analyses what impact a heightened emphasis on the principle of the duty to accept employment might have on the traditional gendered structure(s) of the German welfare state.