Gendered Experiences of Poverty and Recognition in the Finnish Welfare State

We examined experiences of recognition in the accounts of poverty of 25 women and 25 men, using directed content analysis and the concepts of recognition and gender contract. Irrespective of gender, poverty causes various harms. The Finnish welfare state, which rests on standardized universalism and a social security system based on predefined risks, is particularly sensitive to economic inequality. It fails to grant recognition to poor people in an increasingly polarized society. We found that poor men's perspectives were a lot shorter than poor women's. Poor men also experienced more profound worthlessness than women did. We argue that, even when men are poor and unemployed, their recognition and role in the gender contract is tied to work, money, and markets. Women, however, have more means to attain a sense of worth outside the economic realm. Therefore the source for recognition is more fluid for women, enabling them to shift between the contract of social motherhood and the working female citizen. The choice is, however, not always free but dictated by the economic preconditions. For both, the transformative potential of the welfare state is being insufficiently utilized.