Change Strategies for Integrating Women's Knowledge into Social Work Curricula

Abstract

Gender integration seeks to bring gender to the center of the curriculum by examining critically how gender influences knowledge development and ways of knowing. This undertaking calls for a major transformation, since women's realities and experiences have traditionally been marginal or absent in social work knowledge construction. In this article, the authors examine the context and process for making the change toward a gender-integrated curriculum. The authors argue that change agents must understand the type of culture characterizing a school, the variety of leaders available, the opportunities that might activate effective leadership, and the contingencies that affect curriculum decisions.