Women, oppression, and social work: issues in anti-discriminatory practice

261 Pages·1992·1.28 MB·English

by  Mary Langan

Women, oppression
and social work

Issues in anti-discriminatory practice
Much of the progress achieved by the women’s movement now seems
threatened by the combined effects of prolonged economic insecurity,
reductions in the scope of welfare provision and a general shift in the
climate of public opinion to the right. Consequently, social workers are
faced with the growing demands of a more impoverished and unstable
society, with diminishing resources to meet these demands.
In response to these pressures, feminist social work has begun to move
beyond some of the limitations of both the traditional and radical social
work models of the past. The emerging anti-discriminatory model
recognises the diversity of oppressions according to race, gender and class
as well as those of age, disability and sexual orientation.
Women, Oppression and Social Work offers a new perspective on
feminist social work which takes account of the complexity of the manifold
oppressions that affect the lives of most women and most social work
clients. It will be valuable reading for all professionals in training and in
practice, and undergraduates and lecturers in social work, social policy
and women’s studies.
Mary Langan lectures in Social Policy at the Open University and Lesley
Day lectures in Sociology and Social Policy at the West London Institute

of Higher Education.
The State of Welfare
Edited by Mary Langan
Nearly half a century after its post-war consolidation, the British Welfare
state is once again at the centre of political controversy. After a decade in
which the role of the state in the provision of welfare was steadily reduced
in favour of the private, voluntary and informal sectors, with relatively
little public debate or resistance, the further extension of the new mixed
economy of welfare in the spheres of health and education became a
major political issue in the early 1990s. At the same time the impact of
deepening recession has begun to expose some of the deficiencies of
market forces in areas, such as housing and income maintenance, where
the role had expanded dramatically during the 1980s. The State of Welfare
provides a forum for continuing the debate about the services we need in
the 1990s.
Titles of Related Interest
Also in The State of Welfare Series
The Dynamics of British Health Policy
Stephen Harrison, David Hunter, Christopher Pollitt
Ideologies of Welf are: from Dreams to Disillusion
John Clarke, lan Cochrane, Carol Smart
Managing Poverty
Carol Walker
Radical Social Work Today
Edited by Mary Langan, Phil Lee
Taking Child Abuse Seriously
The Violence Against Children Study Group
Women, oppression
and social work
Issues in anti-discriminatory practice
Edited by
Mary Langan and Lesley Day

London and New York
First published in 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1992 Mary Langan and Lesley Day
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 0-203-41738-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-72562-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-08030-4 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-07611-0 (pbk)
Contents
Acknowledgement page vi
List of contributors vii
Series editor’s preface xi
Introduction: women and social work in the 1990s
Mary Langan 1
1 Women and oppression: race, class and gender
Lesley Day 12
2 Women’s psychology and feminist social work practice
Marilyn Lawrence 32
3 Social work and power relations: towards a framework
for an integrated practice
Marie McNay 48
4 Who cares? Women in the mixed economy of care
Mary Langan 67
5 Feminism, managerialism and performance measurement
Carol Lupton 92
6 Malestream training? Women, feminism and social
work education Pam Carter, Angela Everitt and
Annie Hudson 112
7 The child sexual abuse ‘industry’ and gender relations
in social work Annie Hudson 129
8 Women with learning difficulties are women too
Fiona William s 149
9 Working with black single mothers: myths and reality
Agnes Bryan 169
10 Women in residential work: dilemmas and ambiguities
Cathy Aymer 186
11 Lesbians, the state and social work practice
Helen Cosis Brown 201
12 Social work and older women: where have older women
gone? Beverley Hughes and Melody Mtezuka 220
Index 242
Acknowledgement
Although this book began with joint and equal editorship, Mary Langan
has undertaken the bulk of the editorial work, keeping the project alive
and providing support and guidance to most of the contributors. I would
like to acknowledge this and express my thanks for her perseverance and
patience.
Lesley Day
Contributors
Cathy Aymer is principal lecturer in social work at the West London
Institute of Higher Education, and is the course leader of a large social
work course. She has spent several years in residential work with young
people, both as a basic grade worker and as a unit manager. She is currently
involved in training and consultancy in the areas of staff team building,
work with girls and young men, anti-racist practice and management
training. She is a black woman and is particularly interested in issues of
race, gender and sexuality in social work education and practice.
Helen Cosis Brown works as a lecturer in social work at Middlesex
Polytechnic. She worked for nine years in the London Borough of Camden
social services department as a social worker and a team leader. As well
as lecturing she works as a freelance trainer and consultant in the area of
gender, and on issues of sexual orientation relevant to social work practice.
She is currently undertaking research, jointly with Jenny Pearce
(Middlesex Polytechnic), on young women and the implications for social
work practice of the Children Act, 1989.
Agnes Bryan was born in Grenada; she has a MA in organizational
analysis from Birkbeck College and is presently a senior lecturer in social
work at the West London Institute of Higher Education. She has worked
for several years in the community social work and adult education/training
fields. She is committed to working with black women and has long
experience of work with black community groups. She is at present
engaged in research on the experience of women and black people in

senior positions in educational institutions.
Pam Carter is a white woman who lectures in social policy in the
Department of Economics and Government and with the Social Welfare
Research Unit at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic. She has extensive
experience of teaching social work both in higher education and as a
practice teacher. With Tony Jeffs and Mark Smith she edits the Social
Work and Social Welfare Yearbook. She is currently researching into
women’s experiences of infant feeding.
viii Women, Pooression Social Work
Lesley Day is senior lecturer in sociology and social policy in the
Department of Social Work at the West London Institute of Higher
Education. She was previously research and policy adviser at the Personal
Social Services Council. She has been involved in the field of Intermediate
Treatment for some years and published in the area of policies for young
women and men in trouble. She is also a member of the editorial collective
of Critical Social Policy. Currently, she is training to be a counsellor and
hopes in the future to combine teaching with establishing a counselling
service for women in the West London area.
Angela Everitt is a white woman, currently reader in social welfare studies
and responsible for the Social Welfare Research Unit at Newcastle upon
Tyne Polytechnic. She has been involved in social work education in both
teaching and management. She has published on women in management
and is currently completing a book on practitioner research with Pauline
Hardiker, Jane Littlewood and Audrey Mullinder.
Annie Hudson is a team manager working in central Bristol for Avon
social services department. A white woman, she was formerly employed
as a lecturer in social work at the University of Manchester, where she
had particular research and teaching interests in work with young women,
child abuse, social work management and in developing feminist
perspectives on social work.
Beverley Hughes is a white British woman, who qualified as a probation
officer (CQSW) in 1974. After several years in practice, she completed
two major DHSS-funded research projects, one concerned with the
residential care of old people. Now a lecturer in social work at Manchester
University, she has published various articles concerned with older people,
including work on residential care, health and quality of life. With Melody
Mtezuka she has d eveloped specialist training courses for social workers
and students on social work with older people, based on a critical
gerontological perspective.
Mary Langan is a lecturer in social policy at the Open University. She
has extensive experience of social work and social work education and is
currently involved in developing open and distance learning techniques
in social policy and social work education. Her research interests include
the relationship between the state, social policy and social work, equal
opportunities and social work, and comparative social policy in Europe.
Her publications include Crises in the British State 1880–1930 (with Bill
Schwarz, Hutchinson, 1985), Radical Social Work Today (with Phil Lee,
Contributors ix
Unwin Hyman, 1989). She is General Editor of the Harper Collins social
policy series The State of Welfare.
Marilyn Lawrence trained and worked as a psychiatric social worker.
She has held lectureships in social work at the University of Bradford
and the West London Institute of Higher Education. Since 1980 she has
been involved in the educational work of The Women’s Therapy Centre.
She is a white woman who now works as a psychotherapist and is senior
clinical lecturer in social work at the Tavistock Clinic. Her published
works include The Anorexic Experience (1984), Fed Up and Hungry
(1987) and with Mira Dana, Women’s Secret Disorder (1988) and
Fighting Food (1990).
Carol Lupton is currently senior research officer and acting head of the
Social Services Research and Information Unit, Portsmouth Polytechnic.
Her main research and publications have been in the areas of feminist
research practice, policy development within the personal social services
and quality assurance in community care services. She is currently editing
a book on the dilemmas and compromises of feminist practice. She serves
on the editorial board of Research Policy and Planning, the Journal of the
Social Services Research Group, and regularly abstracts on feminist
research and social work practice for Women’s Abstracts.
Marie McNay is principal lecturer in social work at the School of Social
and Historical Studies, Portsmouth Polytechnic. Prior to that, she worked
as a senior lecturer in social work at the Polytechnic of Central London
and the West London Institute of Higher Education. She has worked in
several local authority social service departments and in a psychiatric
hospital. Her professional interests include family work and community
oriented social work and trade unionism. Her previous publications are
The Concept of G roupwork in the Field of Social Work (Psychiatric
Rehabilitation Association, 1969) and Low Pay and Family Poverty (with
co-author, Chris Pond, Study Commission on the Family, 1980).
Melody Mtezuka is a black South African woman and she obtained her
social work qualifications in Zambia and England. She has practised
mainly in child guidance where she developed an interest in examining
how people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds were treated
within social work agencies in Britain. Since joining the Department of
Social Policy at Manchester University as a lecturer she has developed
her critique of the lack of anti-racist strategies in social work practice.
She has also researched and is about to publish on the subject of child