How Social Workers Mitigate the Feminization of Poverty

Waging war on poverty requires the concerted efforts of

those with the ability to encourage positive change in the
lives of individuals and groups.

What Social Workers Do

Social workers protect, assist and support their clients.
Some of their skills include:

An understanding of social systems, including how to

analyze and study them, evaluate needs within them,
and work with individuals based on religious and cultural
upbringings
Counseling families to find better solutions to their
problems
Placing abused children in new homes
Finding housing and employment for homeless families
Helping pregnant women, adoptive parents and foster
children navigate the adoption process
Helping families make best use of the welfare system
Backgrounds in field research, which enables them to
evaluate and mitigate issues within a population
Expertise in psychopathology, which enables social
workers to help individuals from mental, physical, and
social perspectives
An understanding of current landscape within their
specialized fields of social work, as well as major issues
that need attention
A working knowledge of the laws pertaining to
underserved and underrepresented groups such as
impoverished women and minorities
In addition to having a passion to help others, social
workers are heavily involved in advocating for causes and
getting help for their clients. These are just a few of the
social worker’s duties that come along with the
profession.
Advocating for the Impoverished
Social workers can advocate for the impoverished by
pushing for laws and policies that increase opportunities.
Specific to women’s needs, social workers can advocate
for women to have greater access to employment,
housing, and education.
Advocating can take many forms. Here are some of the
strategies social workers use to bring their causes to the
public forum:

Lobbying: This process is a personal meeting with elected

officials that helps make them aware of an organization’s
views and requests. NASW has prepared a Lobby Day
Toolkit with advice on preparing for the lobbying process.
Organizing Protests, Sit-Ins and Demonstrations: The
right to peaceably assemble is one of the freedoms of the
Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Social workers can use these
gatherings to bring issues to the public’s attention and
draw new supporters in to assist with the cause.
Writing and Getting Op-Eds Published: Good writing skills
are very valuable for a social worker. “Opposite the
editorial page,” or Op-Eds, are a way to get a message
across in written form in a newspaper or publication.
NASW provides excellent guidelines for preparing op-eds.
The war on poverty is multifaceted. Addressing the
problem requires more than charitable funds and
donations. In 2010, the UN established UNWomen.org to
study and accelerate gender equality. The organization
supports local efforts on six continents through training,
program and technical assistance.

Social workers provide motivation and self-esteem

coaching to give those who believe things will never
improve new hope and confidence to move forward and
to continue trying. They are key to connecting those in
need with organizations and resources that can help
them. Using the philosophy of fighting for justice that is
central to the Master of Social Work program, they can
educate clients and groups of clients on essential life
skills that they may not have had access to. Such efforts
give these women a fair chance to rise above the poverty
level and to achieve great thin. Women in social
work, leadership, and management: A
complete guide If you want to rise to the top of
the social work profession and affect change on
a larger scale, then positions in management
and administration may be an excellent option.
The profession of social work is in particular
need of strong female leaders.
This comprehensive guide covers a snapshot of
the current social work workforce, reasons why
women make excellent leaders in social work,
how to develop leadership skills and how to
find a leadership position within social work.

In this guide
Current social work workforce
Critical leadership skills
Women as leaders
How to develop leadership skills
Finding leadership positions
The current social work workforce
Despite the social work workforce being
overwhelmingly female dominated at 83
percent, and only 14 percent of new MSW
graduates being male (CSWE, 2017), large gaps
exist between the salaries of men and women.
Women with their MSW earn on average 12
percent less than men with their MSW. At the
PhD level, the gap is even greater – women
earn almost 30 percent less than male PhDs.
(CSWE, 2017).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021) projects

the field of social work to grow an additional 13
percent between 2019 – 2029. This equates to
just under 91,000 new jobs to be filled. These
positions will need effective leadership to best
serve and assist their client populations.

Despite comprising but a small percentage of

the social work profession, men serve as
managers in social services at a
disproportionate rate (Pease, 2011, Flood,
2014). In addition, women are promoted at a
significantly slower rate than their male
counterparts (McDowell, 2015). This means it is
even more critical that women develop
leadership skills and rise to the top of the
profession.

Gilliam et al (2016) argue that social workers

are uniquely qualified to lead social service
organizations as they clearly understand the
values and goals of the profession, but
misperceptions abound that social workers lack
the hard skills necessary for management and
administration.

This has led to an increasing number of human

service agencies that are being led by
executives holding degrees in subjects other
than social work. Social workers compete with
individuals with MBAs, MPHs, MPAs and JDs for
upper management positions (Pritzker &
Applewhite, 2015). The human services field
and the profession of social work is too
important to be left to be directed by those
without a social work background. It is
imperative that more social workers step up
and become leaders in the field.

Critical leadership skills

Leadership can be broken down into two
categories: hard skills and soft skills (Rao,
2013). Soft skills are those such as
communication, listening and empathy. These
soft skills are taught and honed during social
work programs and throughout a social
workers’ career. Hard skills include:

technical skills such as computer software and

hardware
analytical abilities
project management including strategic
planning, budgeting
management skills such as general business
knowledge, logistics, supervising, planning, and
negotiating
writing
This is not a comprehensive list of critical
leadership skills. However, it is important to
remember that most of these skills can be
taught and developed over time, so that almost
anyone can become an effective and efficient
leader.

Why women make great social work leaders

Social workers in general, and women in
particular are well-suited for leadership
positions. The core values of the social work
profession as stated in the National Association
of Social Workers Code of Ethics (2021) include
service, social justice, dignity and worth of the
person, importance of human relationships,
integrity and competence.

These are all excellent foundational values of

great leaders – they focus on building
relationships, recognize the value that each
team member brings to the organization,
continue to build their competencies and lead
with integrity. Social workers have specialized
skills in listening and communication,
consensus building, recognizing power
imbalances, and the ability to consider differing
perspectives. As change agents, social workers
are comfortable with ambiguity and even
conflict, and in turn, work well on a team to
creatively address barriers.
Women are natural leaders, as most exhibit the
soft skills necessary for leadership, including
communication, listening and empathy. In fact,
when women do land leadership positions, they
often excel in them and even surpass men in
effective leadership strategies (Lipkin, 2019).

Women leaders tend to be more collaborative

than their male counterparts who tend to be
more competitive. Women also are more likely
to reject inequity and instead promote fairness
and justice to improve the culture of an
organization (Lipkin, 2019). Zenger and
Folkman (2019) found that women were
ranked more effective than men in most
qualities of effective leadership, including
taking initiative, being resilient, displaying high
integrity and honesty, developing, inspiring and
motivating others, encompassing bold
leadership, championing change, and problem
solving.

How to develop social work leadership skills

Education
BSW/MSW programs
Courses at the MSW level and to a lesser
extent, in some BSW programs offer
opportunities to learn more about the
management and administration sides of social
service programs. Courses can include, but are
not limited to Human Services Management,
Budgeting and Fiscal Management,
Organizational Leadership, and Grant Writing.

Some MSW programs go even further and offer

tracks or concentrations in administration and
leadership, and both coursework and electives
center around building leadership knowledge
and skills. Programs with these concentrations
offer both online and in-person degree options.

Field education/practicum experiences are also

excellent ways in which students can develop
leadership potential. This occurs when the
university program partners with field
placement sites to develop creative innovative
opportunities that expose students to policy
and advocacy opportunities in addition to
shadowing supervisors and managers in
addition to practicing clinical skills (Bramer,
Corbett and Phelps, n.d).

For example, the University of Alabama has a

longstanding leadership development field
education program wherein students can
complete field education opportunities in
Washington, D.C. to prepare both personally
and professionally as an emerging social work
leader.

Finally, for those who have already graduated

but are interested in a career move into
administration, some schools of social work,
such as those at the University of Maryland,
New York University, and the University of
Pennsylvania offer post-graduate certificate
programs in social work leadership and
management.

Self-education and personal development of

social work leadership skills
Your local library or bookstore can provide
many options for you to read, study and
practice developing management and
leadership skills, including understanding and
building emotional intelligence, budgeting,
program management and grant writing.

Additionally, the National Association of Social

Workers (NASW) offers their Leadership
Ladders series, which are free short reports
covering a variety of topics that can help
prepare you for career advancement. One
does not need to be a member of NASW to
access the Leadership Ladders documents.

Besides learning about the practical hard skills

required of social work leaders, it is important
that women interested in future leadership
identify areas of personal growth that are
needed. By identifying areas in which you have
gaps in your ability and by dedicating time each
week to focus on skill development, you’ll be
well on your way to preparing for a new role
with more responsibilities and leadership
opportunities. Corbett and Clark (n.d.) caution
against becoming solely a ‘book expert’ on
leadership, but rather become an expert in
your own leadership strengths, abilities, and
style.

Observing leaders with whom you come into

contact can be another excellent learning
opportunity. Identifying the skills and traits that
make them an effective or ineffective leader or
watching how they interact with other team
members can help you determine which
strengths you already have and can build upon,
as well as those areas in which you’d like to
model the effective leader.

Professional Training
Consider developing your leadership skills
through professional development trainings.
These can be short learning opportunities that
take just a few hours and provide Continuing
Education Units (CEUs). Other opportunities,
such as the Leadership Institute from the
Society for Social Work Leadership in
Healthcare, or the Council on Social Work
Education’s Leadership Institute for future
leaders in social work education require an
application and a longer term commitment, if
accepted into the program. These types of
programs are focused on developing leadership
mindsets and skills for social workers.

Professional organizations can also be excellent

resources for leadership skills training via
annual conferences and mentoring programs
wherein experienced social work leaders
mentor less experienced social workers and/or
those interested in moving into leadership
positions in the future. Examples include The
Network for Social Work Management and the
Society for Social Work Leadership in
Healthcare.

Volunteering to build leadership skills

Volunteering has long been a recommended
route to building new skills, and it is certainly a
viable option for women seeking to develop
additional hard and soft leadership talents and
qualities. You can volunteer:

In your workplace – let your supervisor know

that you are eager for more responsibilities and
to improve your leadership skills. Offer to assist
on a project or initiative that falls outside of
your general job duties to learn more about the
required skill set and gain valuable experience.
Demonstrating to your management team that
you are able and willing to take the initiative to
learn new skills and to assist the organization in
a variety of ways can also help fast track
promotion opportunities.
In your community – perhaps you’ve identified
a need to improve your cultural competence. In
that case, volunteering for a local refugee
support agency can provide the opportunity to
interact with a diverse client population and
help build those critical soft skills.
In professional organizations – help strengthen
the profession while also boosting your
leadership skills by serving on and directing
committees. This also opens doors to interact
with fellow members around the world, which
can be helpful in learning about job openings in
administration.
How to find leadership positions
Not all available management and
administrative positions are listed online, in
newspapers or on job boards. If you are ready
and interested in moving up the career ladder
and becoming a social work leader, here are
some additional ways you can learn about
available leadership positions.

Keep your eyes open for opportunities for

promotion at your current job. Let your
supervisors know you are looking for more
responsibilities to grow into a leadership
position.
Network with as many people as possible and
let them know you’re seeking a management or
leadership position. Explore networking
opportunities with:
Current and former coworkers and supervisors
Former classmates, professors, staff, and career
advisors from your school of social work
Online/social media contacts and job-related
sites such as Facebook groups or LinkedIn
Contacts from professional organizations of
which you’re a member. Many social work
professional organizations have both job
boards to peruse and e-newsletters in which
members can post job openings at their
workplace.
Family, friends, and neighbors can also be
helpful in expanding your leadership job search
as they reach out to their own network of
contacts.
Summary

Women have proven to be competent and

effective leaders, and more female
representation is needed in management and
administrative positions within social work. It is
possible and achievable to develop the soft and
hard skills necessary to lead in this profession.
If a leadership position is of interest, then
dedicate the time to learn the requisite skills
and build your experience formally and
informally. You may become the next
influential social work leader!