Finnish welfare service system from the standpoint of women in vulnerable life situations
Virokannas, E., Salovaara, U., Krok, S., & Kuronen, M. (2021). Finnish welfare service system from the standpoint of women in vulnerable life situations. In M. Kuronen, E. Virokannas, & U. Salovaara (Eds.), Women, Vulnerabilities and Welfare Service Systems (pp. 26-38). Routledge. Routledge Advances in Social Work. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276910-4
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Routledge Advances in Social WorkDate
2021Copyright
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Marjo Kuronen, Elina Virokannas and Ulla Salovaara; individual chapters, the contributors
In this chapter, the authors analyse how the Finnish welfare service system, as it consists of different institutions and professionals, meets or fails to meet the needs of women in varying vulnerable life situations. The participants are women with severe substance abuse problems, women sentenced for committing a crime and poor lone mothers living on basic social benefits. The findings show that women’s experiences of encounters with welfare professionals as well as their access to and use of the services share a number of characteristics. They described several barriers and problems related to the complexity of the service system. These included receiving only limited support for basic needs combined with the experiences of stigmatisation and the lack of trust in professionals and problems with face-to-face interaction with them. There is a moral stigma on these women, who have failed both as ‘active citizens’ and as ‘decent women’. The welfare system does not recognise their specific needs as women. The guiding principle of the Finnish welfare service system is gender equality rather than a feminist or gender-sensitive approach, and women-specific welfare services are rare.
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RoutledgeParent publication ISBN
978-0-367-22802-6Is part of publication
Women, Vulnerabilities and Welfare Service SystemsKeywords
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https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/41586722
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Research Council of FinlandFunding program(s)
Academy Project, AoFLicense
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