Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp

hired in the municipality in the same year. Some years later their number were
doubled. According to municipality regulations, each female social advisor was
responsible for a part of the city.
The female social advisor became a key figure in the social assistance
system. She had to visit regularly the families in her residential district, to
collect and establish data about poor families. She added the data to index cards
concerning poor families. She also assisted poor people who needed help to fill
in the forms for various kinds of social support (social institutions, financial
support etc.). She proposed a decision for each case notified to the head of the
department. According to the Sofia municipality regulations, she had to fulfil
her work with “empathy, devotion and love”. 22 The female social advisor had
a professional uniform and a free tram card to use during her visits. 23 In 1941,
a new position was introduced in the hierarchy of the social service office: a
senior female social advisor, or instructor. This change was explained in terms
of the great importance of the work. 24 The senior social advisor (instructor)
had to have at least five years’ work experience. The social advisor’s occupation
came to be accepted as a post for life.
The first municipality social advisors were visiting nurses; later on, Sofia
municipality hired graduates of the Social High School for Women. The female
social advisors were also involved in the social support work of district councils,
which coordinated the social assistance activities of the state, municipality and
private charity organisations. The council included representatives of state
authorities, the municipality and private charity organisations, in order in
order to ensure the fair distribution of social support among the urban poor. 25
As the case of the poor citizens’ petition in Sofia in 1939 shows, poor
families tended to accept the authority of the female social advisors, but their
mutual communication remained a sensitive field and trust had to be negotiated
constantly. Home visits were an important place for this negotiation, where
people needed respect and recognition.
22
Municipality rules for the social assistance department, 1939.
23
Municipality rules for the social assistance department, 1939.
24
State Archive – Sofia, Fond N 1k, opis 4, a.e.1088, l.108.
25
Pravilnik za nachina na rabota pri obshestvenoto podpomagane v Bulgaria (Rules governing social assistance in
Bulgaria), Central State Archive, F. 588, op.1, a.e.90, l.1-5.
140