Three Social work and women’s oppression today
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Laura Penketh
Abstract
This chapter explores social work and women’s oppression, with a focus on gender and class. It discusses the lives of poorer working-class women, who are overrepresented as service users in the social-work sector, particularly in relation to childcare and child-protection work. The chapter also assesses the discrimination faced by women in the labour market and from the state, as well as its impact on levels of poverty, inequality, health, and wellbeing. In addition, it considers how welfare developments linked to the marketisation and privatisation of social provision have had a negative impact on the lives of poorer women. Throughout, the chapter challenges stereotypes of poor women that focus on individualistic and moralistic character deficiencies, and highlights the key role of poverty and inequality in shaping their lives. Finally, it examines how sexual objectification of women and young girls has reinforced discrimination within and outside the workplace, and how it negatively has affected women’s self-image and self-worth.
Abstract
This chapter explores social work and women’s oppression, with a focus on gender and class. It discusses the lives of poorer working-class women, who are overrepresented as service users in the social-work sector, particularly in relation to childcare and child-protection work. The chapter also assesses the discrimination faced by women in the labour market and from the state, as well as its impact on levels of poverty, inequality, health, and wellbeing. In addition, it considers how welfare developments linked to the marketisation and privatisation of social provision have had a negative impact on the lives of poorer women. Throughout, the chapter challenges stereotypes of poor women that focus on individualistic and moralistic character deficiencies, and highlights the key role of poverty and inequality in shaping their lives. Finally, it examines how sexual objectification of women and young girls has reinforced discrimination within and outside the workplace, and how it negatively has affected women’s self-image and self-worth.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors iv
- Acknowledgements vii
- Foreword ix
- Introduction 1
- Case Con and radical social work in the 1970s: the impatient revolutionaries 11
- The best and worst of times: reflections on the impact of radicalism on British social work education in the 1970s 27
- Social work and women’s oppression today 45
- The jester’s joke 59
- LGBT oppression, sexualities and radical social work today 79
- Radical social work and service users: a crucial connection 95
- Why class (still) matters 115
- International social work or social work internationalism? Radical social work in global perspective 135
- Rediscovering radicalism and humanity in social work 153
- Re-gilding the ghetto: community work and community development in 21st-century Britain 165
- Resisting the EasyCare model: building a more radical, community-based, anti-authoritarian social work for the future 187
- Bibliography 205
- Index 231
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Notes on contributors iv
- Acknowledgements vii
- Foreword ix
- Introduction 1
- Case Con and radical social work in the 1970s: the impatient revolutionaries 11
- The best and worst of times: reflections on the impact of radicalism on British social work education in the 1970s 27
- Social work and women’s oppression today 45
- The jester’s joke 59
- LGBT oppression, sexualities and radical social work today 79
- Radical social work and service users: a crucial connection 95
- Why class (still) matters 115
- International social work or social work internationalism? Radical social work in global perspective 135
- Rediscovering radicalism and humanity in social work 153
- Re-gilding the ghetto: community work and community development in 21st-century Britain 165
- Resisting the EasyCare model: building a more radical, community-based, anti-authoritarian social work for the future 187
- Bibliography 205
- Index 231
