This paper illustrates how the work of feminist theorists Valerie Walkerdine, Helen Lucey and June Melody, Beverly Skeggs, and Nancy Fraser were used together to examine the lived effects of Australian government Mutual Obligations policies. As "active" welfare policies, Mutual Obligations construct particular relations between themselves and policy subjects. Those most affected are poor and working-class Australian young women and girls. This is because of their location at the margins of education and work, and their over-representation among the numbers of lone parents. An understanding of the subjectivities of contemporary young women and girls was necessary to support the analysis of Australian government Mutual Obligations policies and their lived experience among those most affected by these welfare reforms. This paper shows how the combined theoretical and conceptual resources of the above-mentioned feminists support the development of an appropriate conceptualisation of subjectivities. (Contains 8 notes.)