Most European countries with liberal and social democratic welfare regimes have redesigned their social policy in recent years, adopting a social investment perspective. In doing so, they often target children and young people, and redeploy policy instruments to achieve goals for the future. There is a growing commitment by the European Union to this supply-side understanding of social policy. This article describes two mechanisms at one work in the social policy field within the institutions of the Eu: one of writing women out of the plot and folding gender into other stories.only subscribers can see the full article