Women and Macro Social Work Practice
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 11 January 2018
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0101
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
- LAST MODIFIED: 11 January 2018
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389678-0101
Introduction
This article primarily identifies historical and contemporary resources on women’s roles and activities in social work practice within US organizations and communities (macro practice), including a sampling of readings on international women’s efforts. While the majority of references are focused on social work research and practice, relevant references from colleagues in women’s studies, feminist history, and various other disciplinary perspectives are included. For the purpose of this entry, women in social work macro practice are engaged in decision-making and participatory processes that occur in programmatic, organizational, community, and policy arenas. Early historical references focus on women’s roles and gender division prior to the development of social work as a profession in (1) the development and oversight of benevolent (charitable) work, (2) the reform of social problems, and (3) the rights movement prior to and during the Progressive Era in the United States. Contemporary references elucidate what is known about women’s roles in founding and running organizations, community organizing efforts, and policy analysis and implementation. Finally, resources on women’s content and female faculty in macro social work education and research are provided.
Textbooks
The textbooks in this section make a special effort to integrate content on women and are not intended to be inclusive. Barusch 2015 is a policy text. Appleby, et al. 2011 and van Wormer and Besthorn 2017 are for a human behavior audience. Finn and Jacobson 2016 and Netting, et al. 2017 offer practice textbooks that integrate macro and micro content. These five books are good resources for foundation learning. Day and Schiele 2013, a history text, is a helpful supplement in beginning courses on social welfare. Lengermann and Niebrugge 2007 is an insightful treatment of contributions made by women theorists and is an eye-opening view of how women’s theoretical contributions have been subjugated.
Appleby, George A., Edgar A. Colon, and Julia Hamilton, eds. 2011. Diversity, oppression, and social functioning. 2d ed. Boston: Pearson.
Chapter 7, written by Barbara Worden, is “Women and Sexist Oppression.” Following an introduction to the person-in-environment (PIE) classification system for problems in social functioning and the empowerment framework, macro analysis based on feminist epistemologies, gender roles, and the feminization of poverty are explored.
Barusch, Amanda Smith. 2015. Foundations of social policy: Social justice in human perspective. 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 12 in the section “Vulnerable Populations: Discrimination and Oppression” is on “Women” and incorporates content on gender-relevant policy. In addition, this chapter focuses on women’s roles, reproductive rights, violence against women, workplace issues, military service, and political equality.
Day, Phyllis J., and Jerome Schiele. 2013. A new history of social welfare. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson.
A special effort is taken to include women’s history, women’s movements, and women’s issues throughout this history textbook.
Finn, Janet L., and Maxine Jacobson. 2016. Just practice: A social justice approach to social work. 3d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
A feminist approach is used in this introductory practice textbook, integrating micro and macro practice within the principle of social justice. Finn and Jacobson offer an historical context of the profession’s progressive roots and encourage critical thinking about women’s roles.
Lengermann, Patricia Madoo, and Gillian Niebrugge. 2007. The women founders: Sociology and social theory, 1830–1930. Long Grove, IL: Waveland.
Lengermann and Niebrugge describe how women sociologists and social theorists were written out of sociology textbooks until feminists began to reconstruct women’s social science contributions in the 1980s. Specially, they include Harriett Martineau (b. 1802–d. 1876), Jane Addams (b. 1860–d. 1935), Charlotte Perkins Gilman (b. 1860–d. 1935), Anna Julia Cooper (b. 1858–d. 1964), Ida B. Wells-Barnett (b. 1862–d. 1931), Marianne Weber (b. 1870–d. 1854), The Chicago Women’s School of Sociology (b. 1890–d. 1920), and Beatrice Potter Webb (b. 1848–d. 1943).
Netting, F. Ellen, Peter M. Kettner, Steven L. McMurtry, and M. Lori Thomas. 2017. Social work macro practice. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson.
Throughout this text, there is content on women’s historical and contemporary roles within the context of macro social work practice. Issues related to intersectionality, sexism, gender, and feminist theories are highlighted.
van Wormer, Katherine, and Fred Besthorn. 2017. Human behavior and the social environment: Groups, communities and organizations. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
This textbook integrates feminism and women’s issues throughout and defines basic assumptions and concepts of feminism, antioppression, and empowerment as a foundation for all chapters.
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Article
- Abortion
- Adolescent Depression
- Adolescent Pregnancy
- Adolescents
- Adoption
- Adoption Home Study Assessments
- Adult Protective Services in the United States
- African Americans
- Aging
- Aging out of foster care
- Aging, Physical Health and
- Alcohol and Drug Abuse Problems
- Alcohol and Drug Problems, Prevention of Adolescent and Yo...
- Alcohol Problems: Practice Interventions
- Alcohol Use Disorder
- Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
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- Asian Americans
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- Child Sexual Abuse
- Child Welfare
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- Children
- Children of Incarcerated Parents
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- Chronic Illness
- Clinical Social Work Practice with Adult Lesbians
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- Community
- Community Development
- Community Policing
- Community-Based Participatory Research
- Community-Needs Assessment
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- Conflict Resolution
- Council on Social Work Education
- Counseling Female Offenders
- Criminal Justice
- Crisis Interventions
- Cultural Competence and Ethnic Sensitive Practice
- Culture, Ethnicity, Substance Use, and Substance Use Disor...
- Dementia Care
- Dementia Care, Ethical Aspects of
- Depression and Cancer
- Development and Infancy (Birth to Age Three)
- Differential Response in Child Welfare
- Digital Storytelling for Social Work Interventions
- Direct Practice in Social Work
- Disabilities
- Disability and Disability Culture
- Disasters
- Divorce
- Domestic Violence Among Immigrants
- Early Pregnancy and Parenthood Among Child Welfare–Involve...
- Eating Disorders
- Ecological Framework
- Economic Evaluation
- Elder Mistreatment
- End-of-Life Decisions
- Epigenetics for Social Workers
- Ethical Issues in Social Work and Technology
- Ethics and Values in Social Work
- Ethnicity
- European Institutions and Social Work
- European Union, Justice and Home Affairs in the
- Evidence-based Social Work Practice
- Evidence-based Social Work Practice: Finding Evidence
- Evidence-based Social Work Practice: Issues, Controversies...
- Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs
- Families
- Families with Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Parents
- Family Caregiving
- Family Group Conferencing
- Family Policy
- Family Services
- Family Therapy
- Family Violence
- Fathering Among Families Served By Child Welfare
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
- Field Education
- Financial Literacy and Social Work
- Financing Health-Care Delivery in the United States
- Forensic Social Work
- Foster Care
- Foster care and siblings
- Gay Men
- Gender, Violence, and Trauma in Immigration Detention in t...
- Generalist Practice and Advanced Generalist Practice
- Grounded Theory
- Group Work
- Group Work across Populations, Challenges, and Settings
- Group Work, Research, Best Practices, and Evidence-based
- Harm Reduction
- Health Care Reform
- Health Disparities
- Health Social Work
- History of Social Work and Social Welfare, 1900–1950
- History of Social Work and Social Welfare, 1950-1980
- History of Social Work and Social Welfare, pre-1900
- History of Social Work from 1980-2014
- History of Social Work in China
- History of Social Work in Northern Ireland
- History of Social Work in the Republic of Ireland
- History of Social Work in the United Kingdom
- HIV/AIDS
- HIV/AIDS and Children
- HIV/AIDS Prevention with Adolescents
- Homelessness
- Homelessness Outside the United States
- Housing
- Human Needs
- Human Trafficking, Victims of
- Immigrant Integration in the United States
- Immigrant Policy in the United States
- Immigrants and Refugees
- Immigrants and Refugees: Evidence-based Social Work Practi...
- Immigration and Health Disparities
- Immigration and Intimate Partner Violence
- Immigration and Poverty
- Immigration and Spirituality
- Immigration and Substance Use
- Immigration and Trauma
- Impact of Emerging Technology in Social Work Practice
- Impaired Professionals
- Implementation Science and Practice
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Supported Employmen...
- In-home Child Welfare Services
- Intergenerational Transmission of Maltreatment
- International Social Welfare
- International Social Work
- International Social Work and Education
- International Social Work and Social Welfare in Southern A...
- Internet and Video Game Addiction
- Interpersonal Psychotherapy
- Intervention with Traumatized Populations
- Interviewing
- Intimate-Partner Violence
- Juvenile Justice
- Kinship Care
- Korean Americans
- Latinos and Latinas
- Law, Social Work and the
- LGBTQ Populations and Social Work
- Life Span
- Mainland European Social Work, History of
- Major Depressive Disorder
- Management and Administration in Social Work
- Maternal Mental Health
- Measurement, Scales, and Indices
- Medical Illness
- Men: Health and Mental Health Care
- Mental Health
- Mental Health Diagnosis and the Addictive Substance Disord...
- Mental Health Needs of Older People, Assessing the
- Mental Illness: Children
- Mental Illness: Elders
- Meta-analysis
- Microskills
- Middle East and North Africa, International Social Work an...
- Military Social Work
- Mixed Methods Research
- Moral distress and injury in social work
- Motivational Interviewing
- Multiculturalism
- Native Americans
- Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders
- Neighborhood Social Cohesion
- Neuroscience and Social Work
- Nicotine Dependence
- Occupational Social Work
- Organizational Development and Change
- Pain Management
- Palliative Care
- Palliative Care: Evolution and Scope of Practice
- Pandemics and Social Work
- Parent Training
- Personalization
- Person-in-Environment
- Philosophy of Science and Social Work
- Physical Disabilities
- Podcasts and Social Work
- Police Social Work
- Political Social Work in the United States
- Positive Youth Development
- Postmodernism and Social Work
- Postsecondary Education Experiences and Attainment Among Y...
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Poverty
- Practice Interventions and Aging
- Practice Interventions with Adolescents
- Practice Research
- Primary Prevention in the 21st Century
- Productive Engagement of Older Adults
- Profession, Social Work
- Program Development and Grant Writing
- Promoting Smart Decarceration as a Grand Challenge
- Psychiatric Rehabilitation
- Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Theory
- Psychoeducation
- Psychometrics
- Psychopathology and Social Work Practice
- Psychopharmacology and Social Work Practice
- Psychosocial Framework
- Psychosocial Intervention with Women
- Psychotherapy and Social Work
- Qualitative Research
- Race and Racism
- Readmission Policies in Europe
- Redefining Police Interactions with People Experiencing Me...
- Rehabilitation
- Religiously Affiliated Agencies
- Reproductive Health
- Research
- Research Ethics
- Restorative Justice
- Risk Assessment in Child Protection Services
- Risk Management in Social Work
- Rural Social Work in China
- Rural Social Work Practice
- School Social Work
- School Violence
- School-Based Delinquency Prevention
- Services and Programs for Pregnant and Parenting Youth
- Severe and Persistent Mental Illness: Adults
- Sexual and Gender Minority Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylu...
- Sexual Assault
- Single-System Research Designs
- Social and Economic Impact of US Immigration Policies on U...
- Social Development
- Social Insurance and Social Justice
- Social Intervention Research
- Social Justice and Social Work
- Social Movements
- Social Planning
- Social Policy
- Social Policy in Denmark
- Social Security in the United States (OASDHI)
- Social Work and Islam
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- Social Work and Social Welfare in Europe
- Social Work Education and Research
- Social Work Leadership
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- Social Work Luminaries: Luminaries contributing to the fou...
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- Strategic Planning
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- Suicide
- Supplemental Security Income
- Survey Research
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- Syrian Refugees in Turkey
- Systematic Review Methods
- Task-Centered Practice
- Technology Adoption in Social Work Education
- Technology for Social Work Interventions
- Technology, Human Relationships, and Human Interaction
- Technology in Social Work
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- Transdisciplinary Science
- Translational Science and Social Work
- Transnational Perspectives in Social Work
- Transtheoretical Model of Change
- Trauma
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Triangulation
- Tribal child welfare practice in the United States
- Unions
- United States, History of Social Welfare in the
- Universal Basic Income
- Veteran Services
- Vicarious Trauma and Resilience in Social Work Practice wi...
- Vicarious Trauma Redefining PTSD
- Victim Services
- Violence
- Virtual Reality and Social Work
- Welfare State Reform in France
- Welfare State Theory
- Women and Macro Social Work Practice
- Women's Health Care
- Work and Family in the German Welfare State
- Workfare
- Workforce Development of Social Workers Pre- and Post-Empl...
- Working with Non-Voluntary and Mandated Clients
- Young and Adolescent Lesbians
- Youth at Risk
- Youth Services