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