Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp

This may be a starting point for discovering and reflecting upon the world
of social work and its history – in following the traces women have left behind.
These women experienced their entrance into the field of social work as the
discovery of a world that had been unknown and foreign to them, the world of
the working class and of the outcasts, of poverty and misery. In addition, they
experienced new ways of working and of helping to change the social situation
in general as well as new ways of working together. Finally but importantly, they
also experienced the bounds of their own female situation mirroring the absence
of fundamental social and political rights. I have tried to explain that reflecting
on social work cannot simply be replaced by putting forward a scientific theory.
One reason for this is the inherent ambivalence of social work, which is so clearly
shown and illustrated by the photographs in the album.
Some more pointers for teaching
Finally I would like to give some pointers towards issues and source texts which
can supplement and enlarge upon the discussion of the photos and the photo
album. I will limit these ideas to the two features that have been at the centre
of my presentation and interpretation: the Female Workers’ Club and the keyword
“modernity” in the characterisation of the middle-class women’s project
of social work.
Many trails can be followed in further teaching related to the photo
album page “Das Arbeiterinnenheim” (figures 25 and 39). Some are given here.
The founding of the Female Workers’ Club in Berlin just before the
turn of the century explicitly picked up on English examples as described
by Alice Salomon in several articles, for example, the article “Klubs und
Erholungsheime für jugendliche Arbeiter” (Clubs and recreation centres for
juvenile workers), of 1900. 14 This likewise includes a pointer towards the
significance of international linkage and cooperation in which and through
which social work could be substantially developed. This is a thread which
14
Alice Salomon, „Klubs und Erholungsheime für jugendliche Arbeiter,“ Die Jugendfürsorge, 1, no. 9 (1900): 534-
541; repr., Salomon, Frauenemanzipation und soziale Verantwortung, vol. 1(Neuwied: Luchterhand Verlag, 1997):
64-70.
185