Purpose – One of the most successful labour market programmes in Sweden is a start-up subsidy programme for job seekers registered at the public employment service. The purpose of this paper is to examine if there are gender differences in outcomes of this programme.

Design/methodology/approach – The analysis compares the outcome for female participants of the start-up programme with that of four other matched groups: male and female non-participants, male non-participants, female non-participants, and male participants.

Findings – The authors' results indicate that females entering the programme have a higher success rate than both female and male non-participants; however, the impact is less in comparison with male than with female non-participants. Compared to a matched sample of males in the start-up scheme, female participants are less successful.

Originality/value – The paper concludes is that it is essential to find evidence regarding which programmes work for which target groups and to find out why effects differ by categories. Such knowledge could be used for fine-tuning labour market policy programmes.