Sprachliche Konstruktion von Geschlechtlichkeit in der ... - LSF Graz

Abstract
Sex, gender and gender identity play a decisive role in clinical social work. Until
recently, gender studies in the area of healthcare have been focused mainly on nursing
staff in clinics. Those studies showed that mainly ”female descriptions“ are used when
referring to this field of work. Therefore the following questions arise: How is clinical
social work, in matters of gender, described by other professions? How do male social
workers deal with these descriptions and how do these same male social workers
construct and express their masculinity? Finding an answer to those questions is the
main focus of this study.
Descriptions of clinical social work, given by members of the different professions
found in the clinical area of work during various interview sessions, were analysed on
the basis of gender aspects. In a second step the results of this analysis were discussed
with the male social workers employed at the psychiatric clinic in Graz
(Landesnervenklinik Sigmund Freud) to uncover different ways in which masculinity is
constructed.
In the first part of this study it becomes clear that descriptions of clinical social work
distinguish mainly between ”male-structural work“ and ”female-practical work“. The
second part sees itself as a contribution to researching the construction processes of
masculinity in clinical social work.
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