Coverage of Women's Issues in Social Work Journals: Are We Building an Adequate Knowledge Base?

Gender and Scholarly Productivity inAdministration in Social Work, 1977-1995

“…Scholarly productivity has been generally conceptualized as journal article publication rates, measured by numerical counts within defined time periods. The findings from descriptive research have supported the conclusions that the number of articles with women as authors appear less frequently in the literature than those with men as authors; when women do publish they are more likely to author articles about women's issues and to contribute articles written collaboratively; and women are less likely to be first author when the collaborators are of mixed genders (Rosenblatt, Turner, Patterson, & Rollosson, 1970;Kirk & Rosenblatt, 1980;Quam & Austin, 1984;Connaway, Morelock, & Gentry, 1985;Ezell, 1993;Nichols-Casebolt, Krysik, & Hamilton, 1994). Kirk and Rosenblatt (1984) described the publication patterns of women and men in 16 major social work journals, including Administration in Social Work (ASW), for the period 1977-1979.…”

Women, Feminism, and Social Work Journals 10 Years Later

“…Although the social work journal literature provides a formidable channel for voicing women’s issues and advocating for their attention, it has historically been criticized for containing “only limited space for articles on so-called women’s issues” (Saunders, 1986, p. 3) and making references that perpetuate stereotypical assumptions about women’s roles (Statham, 1978; Wilson, 1977, 1980). Early studies that examined the coverage of women’s issues in social work journals found that no more than 14 of all the articles published in any one year focused on women’s issues, with women primarily depicted in traditional roles (Abramovitz, 1978; Deanow, 1986) or as clients (Nichols-Casebolt, Krysik, & Hamilton, 1994; Quam & Austin, 1984). Topics were addressed as gender neutral even when they primarily affected women (Nichols-Casebolt et al, 1994); women were disproportionately referred to as mothers, victims, patients, and research participants (Barretti, 2001); and gender or a feminist perspective was rarely used as a framework for analysis (Barretti, 2001; Deanow, 1986; Nichols-Casebolt et al, 1994).…”

A Review of Rape in the Social Work Literature

“…The study used an exploratory design with content analysis as the method for reviewing the social work literature on rape in adulthood (hereafter ''adult rape''). Previous authors have used the content analysis of publications as a way to reveal which issues are important to the profession and to gauge how social work has responded to other social issues, such as race (McMahon & Allen-Meares, 1992), women's issues (Nichols-Casebolt, Krysik, & Hamilton, 1994), domestic violence (Pyles & Postmus, 2004), and gay and lesbian issues (Van Voorhis & Wagner, 2002).…”