Scarcity in a New Profession Social Work in South Australia 1936–1950

Abstract

Following an earlier paper on the establishment of a social work training course in Adelaide in 1936 and the first decade of its development, this article focuses on the employment of trained social workers in South Australia during the period 1936-1950. It examines the demand for and employment of trained social workers by welfare and related organisations, the supply available from local graduates and from personnel who moved into the State, and the continuing scarcity of such staff despite the steadily increasing output of the Adelaide course. The reasons for this scarcity are explored through detailed study of the employment histories of graduates of this period and the records of employing organisations. This evidence demonstrates how the workforce in this occupation suffered severe attrition from marriage and family responsibilities and from movement out of the State, leaving for the staffing of welfare services a highly mobile and unstable workforce consisting mainly of relatively inexperienced young women. The article concludes with some discussion of the adverse effects of this situation both on welfare organisations and services and on the efforts of social work to establish itself as a profession.