Poor Women's Moral Economies of Nonprofit Social Service Use: Conspicuous Constraint and Empowerment in the Hollow State

Abstract

This article explores the moral economy through which poor women apply shared understandings of what is fair, just, and appropriate to their use of nonprofit services. The findings suggest that such women perceive that others are needier than they, avoid undeserving opportunist labels (yet apply them to others), and complain that nonprofits routinely violate their moral obligations by withholding services or not affording respect. These views lead to “conspicuous constraint,” or service use only in the direst of circumstances, in which women claim to reject help, in part, so that needy others might receive aid. The author argues that this allows them to construct an image of themselves as self-reliant, morally empowered, benevolent actors in line with neoliberal rhetoric. Given that the public welfare system has transferred more responsibility for delivery of services to the nonprofit sector, the very sector that many poor women avoid, their well-being is of great concern.