The Second Time ’Round: Gender Construction in Remarried Couples’ Wedding Planning

Humble, Zvonkovic, and Walker (2008 Humble, A. M., Zvonkovic, A. M. and Walker, A. J. 2008. “The royal we”: Gender ideology, display, and assessment in wedding work. Journal of Family Issues, 29(1): 3–25. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) studied division of labor in first-time marriages, finding a range of gender construction. This study applied their conceptualization to remarried couples, for whom little is known about division of labor or wedding experiences. Fourteen couples in which at least 1 spouse had recently remarried were interviewed about their wedding planning. Data analysis consisted of direct content analysis, rank order comparison, and matrix analysis. Contrasting Humble et al.'s findings, traditional and egalitarian couples were more common than transitional couples. Although remarriages tended to involve smaller and less complicated weddings, the majority of the couples replicated gendered patterns from their first weddings in subsequent weddings.     

How Much Does the Distance in Distance Education Matter? Our Students Speak

Distance learning programs in social work education have been growing exponentially throughout the United States. This study interviewed Master of Social Work (MSW) students enrolled in two synchronous distance-learning courses that employed a blended pedagogy, and evaluates their insights about the learning experience. For these two courses, material was presented via video conferencing and supplemented with online media at two campuses at a large school of social work. In order to give students a voice about their experiences, data were collected using semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Common themes included: autonomy, emotional connectedness, technological challenges, and knowledge acquisition. Both the strengths and challenges related to distance learning are discussed.     

How Does Premarital Cohabitation Affect Trajectories of Marital Quality?

We investigate the link between premarital cohabitation and trajectories of subsequent marital quality using random effects growth curve models and repeated measures of marital quality from married women in the NLSY‐79 (N = 3,598). We find that premarital cohabitors experience lower quality marital relationships on average, but this is driven by cohabitors with nonmarital births. Premarital cohabitors without nonmarital births report the same marital quality as women who did not cohabit before marriage. Nonmarital childbearing is more strongly associated with lower subsequent marital quality for White women than for Black or Hispanic women. Marital quality declines at similar rates for all couples regardless of cohabitation or nonmarital childbearing status. These findings are robust to numerous alternative model specifications.     

Premarital Cohabitation and Direct Marriage in the United States: 1956–2015

Cohabitation rates and durations increased rapidly beginning in the late 1960s, and by 2011–2015, 70% of first marriages among women under age 36 began in premarital cohabitation lasting an average of 32?months before marriage. The National Survey of Families and Households (n?=?3,594) and the National Survey of Family Growth (n?=?9,420) are analyzed to estimate selection into direct marriage and premarital cohabitation from 1956–2015, and long- and short-term premarital cohabitations from 1971–2015. Early premarital cohabitors were more likely to be women of color and had the same education as direct marriers. Later cohorts of premarital cohabitors were less educated, from lower class backgrounds, more likely to have experienced a parental divorce/separation, less religious, and long-term premarital cohabitations were more common among women of color.     

Teaching Note—Teaching Intersectionality: Transforming Cultural Competence Content in Social Work Education

Intersectionality has been gaining momentum among social workers as a framework to allow a fuller understanding of the complexity of diverse social identities and the impact of social structures on power, privilege, and oppression. However, the application of intersectionality to teaching in social work education has been relatively absent in the literature. This article describes a 3-hour graduate-level classroom exercise designed to increase knowledge and proficiency of intersectionality. Critical self-reflections of the participants’ experiences are provided to illustrate the evolving growth and awareness that can result from the educational process using this framework. Examples and suggestions for reading assignments and classroom activities are offered. Implications for social work education and future directions are discussed.     

Variation in the Relationship Between Education and Marriage: Marriage Market Mismatch?

Educational expansion has led to greater diversity in the social backgrounds of college students. We ask how schooling interacts with this diversity to influence marriage formation among men and women. Relying on data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 3208), we use a propensity score approach to group men and women into social strata and multilevel event history models to test differences in the effects of college attendance across strata. We find a statistically significant, positive trend in the effects of college attendance across strata, with the largest effects of college on first marriage among the more advantaged and the smallest-indeed, negative-effects among the least advantaged men and women. These findings appear consistent with a mismatch in the marriage market between individuals' education and their social backgrounds.     

Controversy in the Curriculum: What Do We Know About the Content of the Social Work Qualifying Curriculum in England?

This article reports the results of a scoping review into the content of the social work qualifying curriculum in England exploring whether recommendations made by the Social Work Task Force and the Social Work Reform Board for an ‘overhaul of the content and the delivery of the qualifying curriculum’ were grounded in published research. The review found that rigorous research-based published evidence about the qualifying social work curriculum was lacking. In particular, most material dated from the early years of the social work degree and did not appear to have been replicated more recently to see if the original findings held true. Other subjects, such as how students are taught about older people's human development, had been considered by researchers but were not addressed by the Task Force and the Reform Board. The implications of this are that, while the content of the social work qualifying curriculum needs to adapt to reflect changing professional contexts, there is a need for greater consensus and clarity about what should be taught and how. The development of an evidence-based curriculum in terms of course content and delivery remains a priority for social work education in England.     

A Match Made in Heaven? Career Development Theories and the School-to-Work Transition

This article discusses the major contributions (Krumboltz & Worthington, 1999; Lent, Hackett, & Brown, 1999; Savickas, 1999; Swanson & Fouad, 1999) to this special issue of The Career Development Quarterly on the application of career development theories to the school-to-work transition. Common thematic elements in these 4 articles include a focus on the individual who faces the transition from high school to work and an emphasis on the developmental aspects of the transition. The article concludes with a cautionary recommendation that theory-building efforts derived from the individual experiences of work-bound youth ought to be included in theoretical and intervention initiatives to facilitate the school-to-work transition.     

Sexual Dynamics of Iranian Remarried Women in Blended Families: A Qualitative Study on Remarried Women’s Life

Despite the indispensable importance of the sexual relationship to the family dynamics, there has never been a study on remarried Iranian women in blended families. For the purpose of this study, 52 divorced women, who married for the second time, were interviewed. The data were codified line by line using thematic content analysis. Six main themes were identified from the interviews: (a) intrapersonal effects, (b) interpersonal effects, (c) attachment-based sexual relationships, (d) a new start, (e) family-related stress, and (f) pregnancy-related issues. Many of these women reported they were still thinking about their previous relationship and were influenced especially by how their ex-husband evaluated their body image. These findings presented a relatively clear image of the impact of remarriage on the sexuality of Iranian remarried women in blended families. These findings suffer from some constraints, such as generalizing of the data due to the small sample size.     

A Comparative Study of Agencies Assisting Domestic Violence Victims: Does the South Asian Community Have Special Needs?

This paper presents the results of a questionnaire of 12 South Asian agencies nationwide that work predominantly with domestic violence victims of South Asian origin. Based on the analysis of their responses to questions that compare their strengths, ideology, ethnic specific intervention approaches, and challenges they face, this article demonstrates their relevance and the role they play in meeting the needs of a growing number of women who seek help.     

Social Enterprise in Higher Education: A Viable Venture?

Social enterprise is a burgeoning, although nebulously defined, strategy for linking market-based revenues with social good in nonprofit, for-profit, and public organizations. This article offers a unifying definition of social enterprise, tracks its development throughout traditional sectors, and takes a first step in extending the concepts of social enterprise to the higher education sector. We argue that administrators of university centers associated with schools of social work should employ social enterprise principles. Key benefits would be to gain revenue for the centers, break down disciplinary silos in the university, better link social work schools to the world outside academe, help train students in an emerging organizational model, and increase civic engagement in the university.     

Women in Social Work Education: Progress or Promise?

Abstract

The literature on the status of female social work educators has addressed the problems these educators face in the areas of salaries, academic rank and tenure, publication rates, and level of decision making. Given this attention to the status of these educators, one might expect positive resolutions to these problems. This article, which is based on a review of both the current literature and statistics on US social work faculty, evaluates the status of women faculty in social work academia to determine if progress has been made. Findings reveal that female educators are seeing slow improvment in some areas; however, inequalities continue. The authors suggest strategies for supporting the development and retention of women faculty.     

How Effective is Peer Education in Addressing Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs in Developing Countries?

This review article questions the assumptions at the core of peer education interventions adopted in young people’s sexual and reproductive health programmes in developing countries. Peer education is a more complex and problematic approach than its popularity with development agencies and practitioners implies. Its rise to prominence is more indicative of the desire to find effective tools to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, than of peer education’s proven effectiveness. The often simplistic model of social relations that underlies peer education interventions leads to the reinforcement of gendered power relations, and a failure to take account of the social dynamics of poverty. The dominant rationales for peer education are examined and contested. In spite of the mismatch between rhetoric and experience, the appeal of the approach remains powerful, stemming largely from the objective of engaging young people in health interventions in a way that increases their autonomy and capacity .     

Has Social Work Heeded the Call? Sex Offender Content in Social Work

The relationship between theory, research and practice in the contemporary UK social work curriculum is examined in the context of the New Labour Government's insistence on making explicit the connections between knowledge, research, standards and ‘best practice’ in its regulatory discourse. The argument suggests that far from being obvious, settled or predictable in the way in which this discourse suggests, the relationship between research, theory and practice is highly contentious and certainly unresolved. The article then goes on to look at concepts of theory and research. ‘Theory’ is seen as having evolved with little reference to evidence and ‘research’ is seen as having established a new intellectual hegemony without having engaged with or contributed significantly to the development of practice theory. The article concludes that the trend towards a professional and intellectual fragmentation of the social work discipline needs to be reversed if students are to develop their own ‘research mindedness’.     

Crafting the Elastic Self? Gender and Identities in Senior Appointments in Irish Education

This article considers the impact of new managerial reform on the recruitment and retention of women into senior management posts across the Irish education sector. In Ireland as elsewhere, the rhetoric of gender equality permeates new managerial reforms. Yet our data suggest that an emphasis on performativity and an intense commitment to paid work consolidates masculinist management cultures disguised through the ideology of choice. This works to the detriment of women, especially those with caring responsibilities. Drawing on studies of 23 top‐level educational appointments in primary, secondary and higher education, we show how the relentless crafting of an elastic self is required for both those who remain in management positions in education and those who seek them.