Radical women in social work: A historical prespective from North America
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol30iss3id478Keywords:
radical, women, social workAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Many challenges that confront social workers today are similar to problems they have faced over the past century – inequality, poverty, unemployment, militarisation and armed conflict, and the challenges of refugee resettlement, to name a few. It is instructive for contemporary social workers to revisit this history and to determine if there are lessons to inform our current struggles.
METHOD: This paper explores the issues faced and strategies employed by radical, politically active social workers, most of them women. These social workers had visions of social justice and were not afraid to challenge the status quo, often at very high personal costs. The radical social workers were expressly interested in social change that centred on social justice, women’s rights, anti-racism, international peace, and they worked in close alliance and solidarity with other progressive groups.
CONCLUSIONS: This article highlights the work of five radical female social workers. Radical social workers were in the minority but they were extraordinarily active and made important contributions in the face of formidable challenges.
References
Addams, J. (1910). The President’s address, “Charity and social justice”. Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, St. Louis, MO: The Archer Printing Co.
Addams, J. (1983). Peace and bread in times of war. Silver Springs, MD: Reprinted NASW Classic Series. (Original work published 1922).
Andrews, J. & Reisch, M. (1997). Social work and anti-communism: A historical analysis of the McCarthy era. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 8(2), 29–49.
Canadian Economics Association. (1945, May). Obituaries: Edward Johns Urwick, 1867-1945. The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue Canadienne d’Economique et de Science Politique, 11(2), 265–268.
Cassidy, H. (1932). Unemployment and relief in Ontario, 1929–32: A survey and report. Toronto, ONT: J. M. Dent.
Dubois, W. E. B. (1968). The autobiography of W. E. B. Dubois, New York, NY: International Publishers.
Elshtain, J. B. (2002). The Jane Addams reader. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Ferguson, I. & Lavalette, M. (2013). Critical and radical social work: An introduction. Critical and Radical Social Work, 1(1) 3–14.
Freire, P. (1990). A critical understanding of social work. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 1(1) 3–9.
Jennissen, T. & Lundy, C. (2011). One hundred years of social work: A history of the profession in English Canada, 1900–2000. Waterloo, ONT: Wilfrid Laurier University.
Jennissen, T. & Lundy, C. (2017). “Capitulo 3, Canada,” in Trabajo Social, Historia y desafios de una profesion, Alfredo Hidalgo Lavie (Coordinator), (pp. 69–90).). Madrid, Spain: Ediciones Académicas.
Johnstone, M. (2015). “Don’t take the social out of social work”: The social work career of Bessie Touzel (1904–1997). Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 30(3), 395–407.
Klosterman, E. M., & Stratton, D. (2006). Speaking truth to power: Jane Addams’ value base for peacemaking. Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, 21(2), 158–168.
Lavalette, M. (Ed.). (2011). Radical social work today. Bristol UK: The Polity Press.
Leighninger, L. & Knickmeyer, R. (1976). The Rank and File Movement: Relevance of radical social work traditions to modern social work practice. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare (November) 4(2), 166–177.
Livesay, D. (1977). Right hand left hand: A true life of the Thirties: Paris, Toronto, Montreal, the West and Vancouver. Love, politics, the depression and feminism. Erin, Ontario: Porecpic Press.
Lundblad, K. (1995). Jane Addams and social reform: A role model for the 1990s. Social Work, 40(5), 661–669.
Lundy, C. (2011). Social work, social justice and human rights: A structural approach to practice (2nd ed.). Toronto, ONT: University of Toronto Press.
Marsh, L. (1975) Report of Social Security for Canada, 1943.Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Reprinted from 1943.
Marsh, L. (2017) Report of Social Security for Canada, 1943, edited by Allan Moscovitch. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press (new edition).
Maurutto, P. (2004). Charity and public welfare in history: A look at Ontario, 1830–1950. The Philanthropist, 19(3), 159–167.
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Foundation. (2004). Bertha Reynolds (1885–1978) – Social Worker, author and professor of social case work. Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved from http://socialwelfare.library.vcu/people/reynolds-bertha-capen/
RCMP Files, Bessie Touzel. Dec, 1951–Jan, 1969. 635 pp. (Accessed through Freedom of Information from the National Archives of Canada.)
RCMP Files, Mary Jennison, 1939–1970, 3,171 pp. (Accessed through Freedom of Information from the National Archives of Canada.)
Reisch, M., & Andrews, J. (2002). The road not taken: A history of radical social work in the United States. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge.
Reynolds, B. C. (1935,1994). Social casework: What is its place in the world today?” Reprinted in Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, (September), 453-59.
Reynolds, B. C (1963). An Uncharted Journey: Fifty years of growth in social work. New York, NY: The Citadel Press.
Reynolds, B. C. (1986). Focus on peace: Social work faces world conflict. Catalyst, 5(4), 90.
Selmi, P. (2001). Beyond the Rank and File Movement: Mary van Kleeck and social welfare radicalism in the great depression, 1931–1942. The Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 28(2), 75–100.
Selmi, P. (2005). Van Kleeck (1883–1972). Encyclopedia of social welfare history in North America (pp. 413–415). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
van Kleeck, M. (1935a). Social security or what? Address in Toronto, Canada, June 7. From Sophia Smith Collection, van Kleeck fonds, Box 19.
van Kleeck, M. (1935b). Sources of power for the social work programme. June 10, pp. 1–30. From Sophia Smith Collection, van Kleeck fonds, Box 19.
van Kleeck, M. (1935c). Governmental intervention in the labor movement. Address to a meeting of Section IV, Social Action, of the National Conference of Social Work, Montreal June 11, pp. 1–27. From Sophia Smith Collection, van Kleeck fonds, Box 19.
van Kleeck, M. (1941). Social work, peace and the people’s well-being: Social work 1941. Originally published in Social Work Today (pp. 3-18), From Sophia Smith Collection, van Kleeck fonds, Box 17.
van Kleeck, M. (1961). Peace through international trade in a changing world. Reprinted from Public Ownership in the United States, Goals and Priorities. Peace Publications, New York, 3–23.
West, R. (2012).“Bertha Capen Reynolds: Radical social worker. Social Justice Solutions. Retrieved from
http://www.socialjusticesolutions.org/2012/10/26/bertha-capen-reynolds-radical-social-worker/
Wills, G. (1995). A Marriage of Convenience: Business and Social Work in Toronto, 1918-1957. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.
You and any co-authors
If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.
First publication
By submitting the work you are:
- granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
- confirming that the work is original; and
- confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.
Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.
Copyright
You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.
The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.
A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.
Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.
This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.
Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.
The copyright of others
If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:
- falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
- that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.
