A Collection of Thoughts and Findings on Affirmative Action

Abstract

During the 1980s and ′90s grassroots feminist and neoconservative movements increased in size and strength around the world. In the U.S. and globally, conservatives organized against the welfare state and against feminism. As a result, feminist social work has been constrained and enhanced by the competing claims of these divergent movements. This article presents a case study of one U.S. battered women's organization which retrenched and then reasserted its feminism in reaction to these contradictory forces. The analysis of this example explores the question of how feminist social workers can apply the capacity of feminist thinking and action, given the conservative constraints.     

Stumbling towards oblivion or discovering new horizons? Observations on the relationship between social work education and practice

What should social work education be training students for? What should the relationship be between social work education and practice? The first half of this article cautions that social work education, as currently constituted, may 'unfit' people. Principally, this is because social work practice, as envisaged by employer interests, has not been subject to the same critical scrutiny as social work education and has come to dominate perceptions of the training task. The dangers that follow from this position are outlined. The second half of the article proceeds to explore the contribution that practice teachers and tutors can make to enable practitioners to remain confident, credible, critical and creative in this practice environment. The article concludes with some observations on the future as envisaged in the proposals to modernise social services and to create a General Social Care Council.     

Teaching Note—Asserting Social Work’s Role in Developing an Interprofessional Education Project

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional (IP) education is an essential component of today’s health care education. IP education has been recognized and supported for its potential to educate workforce-ready health care clinicians with the knowledge and skills, necessary to collaboratively deliver high-quality, client-centered care. While social work’s reflective, patient-centered, and holistic approach to care is invaluable in addressing healthcare challenges at all levels, social work’s lack of involvement in IP health care team practice is evident in the development of IP education curriculum with other health care disciplines. This article describes how one School of Social Work at a regional public university became part of a longitudinal IP education project in collaboration with a large R-1 research university, creating an IP opportunity for Master’s in Social Work (MSW) students. It also discusses the process taken for social work inclusion in the IP project, an experiential elective course designed to supplement the project, as well as Transformative Learning Theory, the conceptual framework used.     

Feminist attitudes and ideologies: an examination of a Northeastern US MSW program

The relationship that Masters in Social Work (MSW) students in the United States have with feminism appears to be paradoxical, in which MSW students tend to endorse feminist principles but are hesitant to identify themselves as feminists. In an effort to better understand MSW student support of feminist principles, as well as social work students’ relationship with feminism and possible implications for social work education, a survey of MSW students was conducted at a Northeastern US MSW program utilizing an established scale, the Liberal Feminist Attitude and Ideology Scale, which is comprised of five subscales. Scores on the subscales were compared and findings indicate that MSW students were more likely to highly endorse the Gender Roles, Global Goals, and Specific Political Agendas subscales compared to Discrimination and Subordination and Collective Action subscales; suggesting that students promote gender role parity and feminist goals, but were less likely to acknowledge discrimination and the need for collective action. This article will discuss the importance of social work education as an instrument for exploring the ways in which women face gender-based discrimination and highlighting the necessity for students to take a more active role in participating in collective action to reduce gender-based oppression.     

Women Who Work: The limits of the neoliberal feminist paradigm

This article examines Ivanka Trump's Women Who Work, arguing that it represents the newest permutation of the neoliberal feminist subject. After providing an overview of the recent emergence of neoliberal feminism, I explain why the book should be considered part of the wider cultural landscape in which this variant of feminism has increasingly become commonsensical. I then turn to demonstrate how Women Who Work construes the ideal female subject not only as generic human capital but also incites her to invest in herself constantly, where activities ranging from professional workshops through hobbies to friendships are understood as practices that appreciate the value of the self. The conversion of women into generic rather than gendered human capital remains, however, incomplete, since the ideal of a happy work–family balance continues to serve as a push back to the wholesale erasure of traditional notions of sexual difference. Finally, I highlight that neoliberal feminism is erasing other long‐standing divisions and political differences. Not only does the private–public divide collapse, but so, too, does the distinction between one's private self and one's public enterprise as the self itself becomes an enterprise. This dual process of collapse and reconfiguration shapes the newest neoliberal feminist subject, the main protagonist of Trump's Women Who Work.     

Survivors of Woman Abuse

Abstract

The feminist social work and related literature on abused women has focused on women's processes of empowerment but has overlooked the question of women's movement from individual survival to collective resistance. In this feminist qualitative study, I explore the processes through which survivors of abuse by male partners become involved in collective action for social change. Using story telling as a research method, I interviewed 11 women about the processes, factors, insights, and events that prompted them to act collectively to address violence against women. I found that women's movement from individual survival to collective action entails significant changes in consciousness and subjectivity. Women's processes of conscientization are complex, contradictory and often painful because they involve political and psychic dimensions of subjectivity, protracted struggles with contradictions and conflict, and resistance to knowledge that threatens to unsettle relatively stable notions of identity. I suggest that feminist social work theory and practice must take into account three interrelated elements of women's transformative journeys: the discursive and material conditions that facilitate women's movement to collective action; the social, material and psychic costs of women's growth; and the multifaceted and difficult nature of women's journey in recognizing and naming abuse, making sense of their experiences, and acting on this knowledge to work for change. I recommend that feminist social work practice with survivors recognize that survivors can and do contribute to social change, and develop new, more inclusive liberatory models of working with survivors of abuse.     

What does the ‘Fourth Wave’ Mean for Teaching Feminism in Twenty-First Century Social Work?

There is no straightforward definition of feminism today. In spite of this, scholars and researchers who describe themselves as ‘feminist’ continue to produce work that both interrogates the specific and general conditions of women's lives and explores the more ubiquitous construct of ‘gender’, and in social work, feminist understandings remain central to practice, theory and research. This may, in large part, be reflective of the continuing over-representation of women as providers and users of social work services. It may also echo social work's broader emancipatory, ‘social justice’ aspirations. Whichever is the case, we are currently witnessing a resurgence of interest in feminism across the world, with a claim that we are experiencing a ‘fourth wave’ in the global North that has its birthplace primarily on the Internet. Given that this is so, this paper asks: what (if any) is the impact or possible influence of fourth wave feminism on teaching social work today?     

Education for a sustainable future? Students’ experiences of workshops on ethical dilemmas

ABSTRACT

The goal of education for sustainable development (ESD) is to promote the values, behaviors, and lifestyles that are needed to find solutions to global economic, social, and environmental challenges. Social work and social work education have an important role to play in ESD, and poverty reduction, health, and well-being are important issues for social work as well. UNESCO, as well as the provisions of the Sweden’s Higher Education Ordinance, emphasizes the importance of higher education in meeting the future challenges to creating a sustainable society. Social work education at Örebro University has a long tradition of collaboration with service user organizations, for example by holding workshops on ethical dilemmas. This article describes these workshops and explores the students’ experiences of them. Four themes were identified: the perspective of ‘the other’ (and my own role), the importance of a nonjudgmental approach, the complexity of ethical dilemmas, and awareness of the complexity of social work. The workshops give the students a platform where they can gain practical knowledge and experience. Through the workshops, the students began to reflect on their own inner ethical compass, as well as on their own role and the challenging nature of social work.     

Group Work in Graduate Social Work Education: The Price of Neglect

Abstract

Although social work practice with groups is on the rise, social work education has neglected to prepare students for group work practice. The results of a 1991 survey show that graduate education has practically eliminated group work as a specialized area of study. Most schools offer group work only as an elective, and few students graduate with a course in this subject. Additionally, students in foundation courses learn little about group work theory and have limited or no group field work experience in which to develop practice skills. The authors discuss the consequences of this lack on student learning, faculty development, field education, and the social work curriculum. They make recommendations for schools and CSWE to revitalize group work in the curriculum.     

Protecting Clients From Harm: The Role of Continuing Professional Education

Abstract

In the absence of professional regulation and in the context of a changing and competitive environment, the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) encourages member commitment to self-regulation and continuing professional education (CPE). Continuing professional education is promoted as the platform upon which the credibility of the entire profession of social work and the maintenance of high-quality standards of practice rest. High practice standards are integral to the protection of vulnerable people from potential unethical, inappropriate and harmful practice. The present article asserts that Australia's changing and competitive environment, driven by prevailing ideologies and policies, has an impact on social work practice and is harmful to vulnerable clients. In order to protect vulnerable clients from harm and to maintain high standards of practice, the AASW's CPE programme arguably needs to include topics that enhance professional knowledge of current ideologies and policies and their impact on social work practice and clients.     

Gendered Perceptions of Community Needs and Concerns

Abstract

Acentral tenet of feminism is that women engage in community practice differently than men. This study explores whether gender differences exist in perceptions of community needs, strengths, problems and responsibilities. Also examined are differences within male and female groups along the dimensions of race, location, years at current address and ownership status. This analysis is based on survey responses from 191 residents in one urban community. Contrary to feminist theory, findings reveal strong agreement between men and women. There were, however, numerous differences within gender groups, especially among women. Implications for feminist scholarship, community practice, and social work education are discussed.     

Emotional Themes in Cross-Faith Encounters Among MSW Students

Abstract

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, graduate students in an elective course on “Spirituality & Social Work” were given an optional assignment to attend services at another faith for three weeks and keep a journal of their experiences. Most allowed the author to conduct a content analysis of these journals for emotional themes. The most common themes were anxiety, surprise, and appreciation for the assignment. Lesser themes included excitement, empathy for minorities, anger, and embarrassment. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for social work education. Recommendations include better preparation through requiring research and clarification of the student's role, debriefing students about counter-transference issues, and achieving spiritual empathy through the recognition of spiritual similarities despite religious differences.     

Feminism and casework

Abstract

In my casework with women I have been impressed by the striking similarities in their experiences, particularly as wives and mothers, and in their feelings about themselves. Even more surprising has been the fact that most of the women I have worked with have considered themselves 'unique' in these feelings and deficient because of them. Feelings of low self-esteem, of failure in their socially ascribed roles and confusion about these feelings are common. In trying to understand the difficulties and conflicts confronted by these women (and the similarities I find they bear to my own feelings) I have found the feminist analysis of women's psychology and a feminist approach to therapy most informative. I present here my early attempts to integrate a feminist theory into my psychodynamically oriented casework.     

Insider-allies: The precarious politics of men in identity-fluid feminism

Academic and activist conversations about the position of men in feminism often operate under the assumption that women are the movement's key beneficiaries and men are privileged outsiders lending their support. I use 59 interviews from a broader project on feminist and LGBTQ+ activism in the United States to illustrate how men's orientation to feminism is shaped by whether social movement organizations adopt what I call woman-centered or identity-fluid politics. While woman-centered politics treat men as allies whose intentions must be vetted by women, identity-fluid feminism imagines men as insiders with their own independent investment in the movement. I argue that the tension between these two models of identity politics gives men a liminal “insider-ally” position within feminism. Although feminist men are given a tentative authority to speak for the movement, the persistence of woman-centered understandings of feminism means men's insider status is contested, especially when they dominate feminist spaces, compromise women's sense of safety, and seek leadership.     

Taking Feminist Violence Seriously in Feminist International Relations

In this article we explore questions about feminism and violence to constructively complicate understandings about this relationship. Feminism is conventionally positioned as oppositional to direct and structural violences, importantly so, as this has been seen key to feminism's viability as a constructive knowledge project. Yet there are increasingly persistent concerns about epistemic, juridical and other violences circulating around feminism, which render feminism's role in the production of oppositional knowledge and politics suspect. This is especially the case where western feminist ideas have been problematically taken up in neoliberal global policy making and for militarized human rights interventions. As feminist international relations scholars troubled by such associations, we investigate – via an exploration of three provocative feminist texts – how feminism is perceived to be both violated and violating by its contemporary imbrication in the violences of neoliberalism and global governance. We further suggest that metaphors of feminized corporeality, which infuse representations of feminism in these texts (especially in its western homogenized governance form), inhibit the destabilizing potential of feminism through its harmful associations with the ‘failing’ female body. This bodily shaping of feminism, which we examine by following a ‘trail of blood’, tells us something important about the relationship between feminism and violence, about recurring discursive and theoretical closures around feminism and about the possibilities for reinventions of feminism to unsettle the violent degradations, which feminists insistently reveal and decry.     

Predictors of Feminist Activism among Social Work Students in the United States

While social workers advocate against domestic violence, sexual harassment, and restrictive reproductive practices, there have been virtually no studies on the reasons behind their feminist activism. To address this oversight, this study documented the extent of feminist activism among American undergraduate social work students (n = 159). When moving to explanatory analysis, our data suggest that feminist activism was related to greater educational attainment, knowing activist peers, recognizing heterosexism, and internalizing a commitment to social justice. Moreover, electoral activism was tied to the rejection of traditional gender norms in the family and perceptions of social movement tactics were crucial to protesting for women's rights.     

Nothing to give at all

Abstract

Adlerian psychology has been publicly neglected for many years but has been used covertly in many modern psychologies. Social work theory owes much to Adler's philosophy and many social workers probably unknowingly use it — in whatever guise — as their starting-point. But if Individual Psychology is their spring-board, the casework relationship may be their life-raft — to the detriment of creative and therapeutic work with people. Adler's ideas and social work theory are of value only in so far as they are expressed in the relationship of the worker with the client. For the most part, certainly in statutory agencies, other demands make it difficult for workers to operate from anything other than a defensive position. Therapeutic community practice, in contrast, reflects both Adlerian psychology and the best of social work theory: an egalitarian approach springing from a commitment to self-determination for both clients and workers.     

The Family and Medical Leave Law

Abstract

This essay asks whether the Family and Medical Leave Law (1993) is feminist social policy, as it was touted to be by its political supporters. The study takes three approaches to feminism outlined by Lorber in her 2001 text, Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics, which considers women in their roles as mothers and workers. Data taken from a Department of Labor FMLA utilization study are then analyzed in the context of these three approaches to feminism. I conclude that the FMLA is not feminist in a substantive way despite its symbolic value.     

Shifts of students' learning styles on a social work course

Social work education involves knowledge, skills, attitude and feelings, and its multidimensionality should be recognised. Kolb's Model of Experiential Learning which conceptualises learning as a four-mode cyclic process is proposed as a compatible model in the study of social work education. Using Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, the shifts of the learning styles of 64 students on a social work course were measured. The expectations of subject teachers and practice teachers concerning students' learning styles were also measured. They are discussed in relation to one another and also compared with another set of US findings. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Effective relationship-based practice: A theoretical exploration

This paper looks at the importance of a relationship-based approach within social work. It explores past writings on the social worker-client relationship, why the relationship was seen to be central to effectiveness and good practice, and why this perspective fell out of favour. It revisits the importance of a relationship-based approach, within a psychosocial perspective, in relation to eight areas of practice. These include the assessment task and process; relationship difficulties; people who are vulnerable or reliant on others for their well-being; situations that require practitioners to be able to hold and contain anxiety; the relationship as a foundation for capacity building, empowerment and developing people's potential; and in relation to disadvantaged and marginalised sectors of the population, how social workers can use the 'front-line' knowledge they have gained through the relationships they have created in political ways--to bear witness and report on 'social ills' as they impact on the lives of service users. A final section looks briefly at how the service user-social worker relationship is perceived and described in the Benchmarking Statement, National Occupational Standards and the General Social Care Council's Rules and Requirements and their implications in terms of the new social work degree.