Beatrice Saunders: Founding Editor of Affilia

At this pivotal time for Affilia, we first give thanks to the journal's outgoing editors in chief, Dr. Noël Busch-Armendariz and Dr. Deb Ortega, for their peerless leadership during a period of growth and rising impact for the journal. Among their many accomplishments was the establishment of the consulting board of editors, an expansion of the existing editorial board structure that allowed the journal to effectively manage the volume of submissions which doubled during their tenure. Perhaps more importantly, the addition of new consulting board members widened the breadth of contentspecific knowledge within the board structure while ensuring that feminist principles in social work guided the review of manuscript. With the able support of associate editor Dr. Susan Chandler and editorial assistants Lindsay Morris, Karin Wachter, and Laurie Cook Heffron, they established a well-ordered system that resulted in both a more timely and rigorous peer-review process. Their success in upholding the journal's commitment to feminist leadership was demonstrated in their steadfast provision of collaborative mentorship to junior and mid-career feminist scholars as well as the creation of the Distinguished Feminist Scholarship and Praxis in Social Work Award to focus well-deserved attention to excellence in feminist scholarship. Last and not least, the powerful, topical editorials they generated issue after issue challenged us to expand the limits of feminist praxis. We will sincerely miss their collective wisdom and unfailing comradeship. Unwavering Commitment ''It is with great hope and enthusiasm that we begin our term as the new Editorial team for Affilia: Women and Social Work, social work's flagship feminist journal.'' With these words, we began the original draft of our first communication as Affilia's editorial team, a few months prior to the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In the fraught days that followed, we found ourselves questioning whether we could, in all honesty, still espouse such sentiments. We determined, ultimately, that we could and would do so, though their shape and tenor seemed irretrievably different;

Section: Contesting Certaintiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminism in These Dangerous Times

Park

Wahab

Bhuyan

2017

“…In 1984 Beatrice Saunders, the retired editor of Social Work, brought together 12 feminist practitioners to launch a feminist social work journal; within 2 years, the first issue of Affilia: The Journal of Women and Social Work was published (Bernard, Dinerman, & Sancier, 1999). Committed to the discussion and development of feminist values, theories, and knowledge as they relate to social work research, education, and practice, the journal's mission also focused on ''bring [ing] insight and knowledge to the task of eliminating discrimination and oppression, especially with respect to gender, but including race, ethnicity, class, age, disability and sexual and affectional preference'' (see the Manuscript Submission Guidelines that appear in every issue of Affilia).…”

Section: Blossoming Of Second-wave Social Work Feminismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminisms and Social Work in the United States: An Intertwined History

Kemp

Brandwein

2010

This article explores the interlocking historical trajectories of feminisms and the social work profession in the United States. Bringing these two histories together, the article examines the ideas, practices, and people that have shaped the complicated organism that is ''feminist social work,'' from the civic involvement of 19th-and early 20th-century women to 21st-century efforts to craft more global, fluid, and inclusive feminist theories and practices. Structured around the three ''waves'' of feminist activism and theory building, it focuses in particular on changes and continuities in U.S. feminist social work theorizing.

“…Several times during the 6 years, upon recommendation of the editorial board, we have also continued the practice of Beatrice Saunders, the founding mother of Affilia, and continued by Miriam Dinerman of having all editorial board members read one article before the board meeting and come prepared to review and critique the article with specific suggestions of how to transmit the comments helpfully to the authors (Bernard, Dinerman, & Sancier, 1999). The practice also helps board members to develop their abilities for nurturing and compassionate editorial reviews and comments.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflections

Ross-Sheriff

2012

When Christine Flynn Saulnier and I started our tenure as the coeditors of Affilia in fall 2006, we declared our intention to build upon the vision of the founding mothers of Affilia within the context of global changes that were occurring during the first decade of the 21st century. That vision was a journal that would provide space for feminists in the academy to examine the serious challenges that women were facing. Women academicians found that they could not get their manuscripts on feminist issues, such as unequal pay, tenure, and promotion; the glass ceiling; and violence against women published in social work journals. The voices of feminist social work practitioners and academicians who examined the challenges that women face in their day-to-day lives at home and in the workplace and who interpreted their research from feminist perspectives were absent in professional journals. Therefore, the founding mothers developed their vision to encourage scholarship, to enable the publication of articles on social work practice and social welfare from feminist lenses, and to promote theories that helped gain an understanding of and advance women's causes in racial, ethnic, professional, geographic, and sexual orientation matters.Christine and I noted in 2006 that although there had been changes in social work professional and publication networks in the first years of the 21st century, many of the problems that motivated the founders still remained. Thus, we made a commitment to publish articles that would reflect the vision of the founding mothers, including the first group that served on the editorial board of Affilia and the first five editors in chief (see Table 1).We also sought to foster a broader concept of globalization that seemed limited for social work to (1) international social work, (2) comparative analyses of social work practices and social welfare policies among nations, and (3) comparative analyses of women's positions and women's concerns in different nations. The emerging broader concept encompasses challenges that women and feminist practice face, including the impact of globalization on social work, transnational and multilateral social work, translocal networks, the impacts of global changes on women's lives, the need for global regulation, and hybrid forms of practice that combine elements from the private and public sectors and result in opportunities as well as challenges for women. Transnational social work requires investments in research, practice, and analyses of institutional functions, as well as intricate connections of international and local organizations and advocacy at all levels. Transnational social work also calls for an understanding of the challenges facing women who migrate-within their