The Need for Women's Studies in Social Work Education

Abstract

The field of social work reflects and often enforces a traditionally narrow view of women in the structure of its social service agencies and in the kinds of assistance they provide, and in social work education itself. This article discusses the rationale for attention to the ideas of the Women's Liberation movement and describes how they were incorporated into the social work curriculum at the University of Connecticut. The course offered was designed to help students examine the social, psychological, and sexual assumptions made about men and women and the implications of those assumptions.