Women writing on social work education: Findings from a study of the content analysis of Australian journal articles 1983–1993

Abstract

Whilst social work in Australia is predominantly a women's profession and women also predominate in social work education, men generally are at more senior levels and have less involvement in field education than women. Given the importance of publication in academia, the productivity of women in social work education is a significant issue. As part of a larger content analysis of articles on social work education, the authors examined the relationship between gender and publication. The analysis examined the number of articles written by women, their academic affiliations, the content of articles and the methodological approaches employed. Women were found to be well represented among the authors (59 per cent), most writing with other women. They contributed the majority of articles on field education, but tended to be under-represented in articles of a theoretical nature. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for women in social work education.