Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp

The underlying connections between the origin of gender division in
welfare professions and the ideologies of patriarchy, 3 capitalism, bureaucratisation,
and professionalisation have been noted by various scholars. The most
radical change, influencing the formation of gender division in general, was
perhaps the division that came about when production moved out of the home.
This led to a division in life between work based on wages and work done in
the privacy of one’s home. This was an important sequel to the breakthrough
of the capitalist mode of production in Western countries; the story in the
Socialist countries was in some ways different. 4
When, in the first case, the separate spheres of the “personal” and
“production” became established, the expertise of the two sexes was split in
two. Women were tied to the family, dedicating their lives to the production of
future generations. The family was established as the centre of private life. This
state of affairs was then combined with the existing ideology of patriarchy;
it became the rule to exclude women from the increasing public duties by
appealing to their duties at home. In the field of health care, for instance,
the professionals – male doctors – became the skilled healers, thereby seizing
control of what had been considered a women’s field of expertise. 5
In the following, we examine a case study from Finland, which serves
as an example of the resources historical scholarship offers to the innovative
teaching of gender. After presenting this Finnish case study, we show how to
drama education can assist us in teaching gender in a culturally and emotionally
sensitive way. In addition, we shall discus some other alternatives for teaching
based on various kinds of historical documents as well as scholarly materials.
Similar historical case analyses of social care and social work on the origins of
gender (order) in most European countries are likely to be available. 6 Research
in national historical archives is another way of obtaining relevant material
3
By patriarchy we mean a historically formed complex set of relations within and by which men tend to dominate
women and children. We wish to stress that this differs from an understanding of patriarchy as a form of maledominated
family and kinship system.
4
Sabine Hering and Berteke Waaldjik, Guardians of the Poor − Custodians of the Public. Welfare History in Eastern
Europe 1900−1960. (Opladen & Farmington Hills: Barbara Budrich, 2006); Sabine Hering and Berteke Waaldjik,
ed. History of Social Work in Europe (1900−1960). Female Pioneers and their Influence on the Development of
International Social Organizations. (Opladen: Leske & Barbara Budrich, 2003).
5
See, for example, Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, For Her Own Good. 750 years of the Experts’ Advice to
Women. (New York: Anchor Books, 1978).
6
Hering, Waaldijk, 2006; Hering, Waaldjik, 2003; Gisela Hauss and Dagmar Schulte, ed. Amid Social Contradictions.
Towards a History of Social Work in Europe. (Opladen: Barbara Budrich, 2009).
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