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© British Association of Social Workers

Gender and Social Work: Will Dip. S.W. make a difference?

MOIRA KIRWAN

A former social worker with an on-going interest in training, Moira Kirwan is the Regional Development Officer with The Open University in Scotland.

Correspondence to Moira Kirwan, Gateside House, Hill Road, Gullane, East Lothian EH31 2BE.

Summary

With the publication of Paper 30 (CCETSW 1991) and the development of Dip.S.W. programmes which incorporate a strong emphasis on equal opportunities, it might be reasonable to expect that social work training is now going to take on board the issue of gender. Dip.S.W. programmes are immersed in concerns about anti-discriminatory practice and aim to provide up-to-date training for an up-to-date profession. This paper is based on a study of the Dip. S.W. programmes running in Scotland in 1991/92. This was when the first Dip.S.W. qualified social workers emerged from the new training. Do these social workers have a new way of looking at issues such as gender? This paper argues that the Dip.S.W. programmes are focusing on practice issues while ignoring the issues within the profession. Practice issues cannot be separated out in this way. Social work cannot be anti-oppressive as long as the social work profession itself continues to oppress its female workforce. Dip.S.W., as it is currently provided, does not offer the prospect of a change in the gender imbalance of the profession and thus it will not make a difference to how emerging Dip.S.W. social workers can tackle the issue with colleagues or clients.


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