Gender, Social Control and Community Services

Abstract

This article is concerned with social control and explicitly with gender dimensions of social control, explored through the work ings of a state welfare bureaucracy. The data on which the analysis is based were collected as part of a study of welfare clients who had had contact with Victoria's state welfare depart ment. As well as the more conventional range of welfare services, at that time the department's responsibilities included both adult and juvenile correctional services. This combination of responsibilities provided a valuable environment in which to study gender characteristics as these were set in particularly high relief. Males were associated with the correctional side of the department while females were involved with a range of activities though almost always related to their roles as mothers. All subjects of the research were living in the community and all were serviced by the same staff and facilities. Very clear differ ences along traditional lines emerge highlighting the centrality of the gender dimension for understanding the social control mechanisms of the welfare state.

Micro-aggressions, single mothers and interactions with government workers: The case of Australia’s child support bureaucracy

“…They undermine women’s accounts and claims, and in so doing reinforce the category of the welfare mother and normalize men’s (non-)payment practices. Thirty years ago Lois Bryson and Rosalind Edwards (1988: 413) commented that ‘the welfare system is not merely responding to different characteristics of men and women, but is contributing to the gender differentiation process’; this conclusion is pertinent to DHS-CS today.…”

The Role of Social Work in the Oppression of Single Mothers by the Cultural Policy of the Neoliberal State

“…U žen je více popíráno právo na sebeurčení, což bývá zdůvodňováno jejich "přirozenou" emocionalitou, závislostí, omezeními v soukromém životě, socioekonomickými limity a ženskou sexualitou. Protože jsou vnímány ve srovnání s muži jako nedostatečné nebo abnormální, diskursivně se předpokládá, že potřebují spíše psychologickou pomoc (Bryson, Edwards 1988). Jinak řečeno -v případě materiálních problémů žen se očekává, že řešením by měla být pomoc muže, s nímž má mít každá žena vztah, případně psychologická pomoc v tom, jak si muže živitele najít.…”

“…Tento společenský postoj k ženám bývá označován jako familialistická ideologie. V praxi se projevuje důrazem politik na privátní a komunitní formy péče o děti, seniory a další potřebné, přičemž se předpokládá, že tuto péči zajistí především ženy (Bryson, Edwards 1988;Dominelli 2002). Naopak jsou (záměrně) poddimenzovány služby kolektivní péče o děti nebo další závislé osoby (Pierson 1991).…”