Infusing Feminist Empowerment Content into Undergraduate Social Work Courses

Abstract

Using the feminist framework, six instructional modules were developed to teach empowerment practice to undergraduate social work students. The instructional modules, designed for 50 or 90 minute class sessions, used feminist strategies and materials on gender, race, oppression, and privilege to infuse content about women in poverty and women of color in six core social work courses. The modules built onto what was already being taught in each course and made no major changes to the undergraduate curriculum. A follow-up study examined whether feminist and nonfeminist faculty used the modules and if standardized modules were effective in infusing empowerment content. Survey findings from sixteen faculty and 481 students showed the modules were used by faculty regardless of their experience with feminism. Students reported improved understanding of empowerment and demonstrated the ability to define empowerment and name disempowered groups. Implications for social work education are discussed.

Women, Feminism, and Social Work Journals 10 Years Later

“…Many approaches have been debated to address the omission of gender in the social work curriculum and to strengthen the relationship between feminism and social work. Many educators have promoted the infusion of feminist content into the social work curriculum (e.g., Bartlett, Tebb, & Chadha, 1995;Dore, 1994;Raske & Evens, 2000), while others have argued against the ''add and stir'' approach (e.g., Grise-Owens, 2002). Another approach includes applying feminist principles to leadership development in social work (Lazzari, Colarossi, & Collins, 2009).…”