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International labor migration impacts gender relations between migrant workers and their families. Social workers need a more nuanced understanding of the gendered aspects of international migration for developing ethical social work practices and research. This article discusses morphing gender relations of power within the family context. The data presented in this paper originated from conversational interviews that were conducted in Tajikistan and Russia. Using social constructivism and intersectionality as the main theoretical approaches, this paper illustrates how male–male, male–female, and female–female gender relations are constantly negotiated and renegotiated within the family in the midst of labor mobility. This distinct understanding is critical for social workers who work with migrant workers and their families both locally and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 transformed frontline anti-violence workers' organizational routines by transitioning to virtual formats, decreasing face-to-face interactions, and shifting client needs. To address ever-changing workplace stressors, service providers adapted and/or modified coping mechanisms. In this paper, we analyze interviews with 23 anti-violence workers in the US Great Plains region, focusing on tactics used to avoid burnout and meet client needs. We discuss how workplace pace, direct-action coping practices, and a lack of inter/intra-agency social support impact how workers do their necessary jobs. Though some challenges were pervasive pre-pandemic, anti-violence workers' experiences also highlight how "post-COVID-19" workplaces must adequately support staffers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports findings of a qualitative study examining the perceptions of 21 Australian women professionals who conduct home visiting with families experiencing intimate partner violence. There is scant evidence documenting how home visiting professionals adapted practice to address the safety concerns of women and their children within the context of the pandemic. Practitioners noted an increase in the risk level and complexity of intimate partner violence (IPV), including the ways that perpetrators weaponized the pandemic to exert power and control over women and children. Practitioners reported on their rapid adaptation of practices, to ensure the continuation of services which included moving to online delivery methods, wearing PPE, and negotiating practice from a distance. While responses to these changes were mixed, most reported their desire to continue to use online platforms post-pandemic, reporting increased safety, flexibility, and accessibility for the majority of clients. This research addresses a gap in respect of professionals' perceptions of the issues facing survivors of IPV and of their professional practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. As policies, practices, and protocols continue to adapt to the challenging environment posed by the pandemic the experiences of professionals and service users are critical to inform these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family support is a critical part of college student retention. Given the strength of parental educational attainment in predicting access and persistence among college students (Choy, 2001), some have questioned the capacity for families to support first-generation college students. Family support may be especially critical for first-generation college students, who value interdependence more highly than continuing generation students (Stephens et al., 2012). This paper centers the perspectives of first-generation students in a school of social work and their experiences of family support. Focus group conversations were analyzed using the Listening Guide/Voice-centered relational data analysis (Brown & Gilligan, 1992). My interpretations were also guided by Black Feminist Thought (Crenshaw, 2000; Hill Collins, 1990) and Post-Modern Feminism (Campbell & Wasco, 2000), offering an intersectional, relationally-focused analysis of the nuances of family support. Findings highlight students' perceptions of family support, and the role that cultural expectations related to gender, race, and class play in shaping contradictory messages of family support. I offer implications for educators in schools of social work, including troubling narratives of social mobility, as part of the larger project of enhancing social justice in academia (Saulnier & Swigonski, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on our society. Research evidence has surfaced that there is a gender disparity in research productivity due to COVID-19. Notably, women in academia have been less productive in terms of academic publications since the beginning of the pandemic, likely due to the day-to-day responsibilities of childcare and domestic work; and according to pre-print literature, women of color may be more significantly impacted. As a woman of color, PhD candidate, mother of a toddler, wife, advocate for mental wellness, researcher, and social worker, reflecting on these recent articles was quite disheartening. Additionally, the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on doctoral students has had detrimental impacts on our ability to collect data we need to forge our paths through this academic journey. This in-brief paper is written in response to the numerous questions I have been asked by other doctoral students around how I collected 41 in-depth, semi-structured interviews while working from home during a global pandemic, with my toddler at home with me. I reflect on how I pivoted to recruit participants, scheduled interviews, and conducted interviews from home, and how I believe COVID-19 has created space for a more accessible qualitative data gathering experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking a feminist and intersectional approach, this article conducts a socio-political analysis of the traditional paradigms of disability through an ethnographic study of the life histories of women with functional diversity (FD). In Spain, the term "people with functional diversity" has emerged as a preferred denomination for many, if not all, people and entities working in this field because it emphasizes the contribution of people with FD to society. Based on interviews with six study participants, the analysis examines these women's discourses and the different ways that they deconstruct traditional models of disability and ableism and the patriarchal and capitalist social categories that constrain them in positions of inequality and oppression. In particular, the analysis centers on the different ways of "being" a woman with FD and the transformative capacity of agency in overturning traditional representations in favor of plurality and inclusiveness. By challenging marginalized social categories, the women claim ownership of their bodies and sexuality and also open routes to social resources. Nevertheless, the research also shows that these resistances often took place at an individual rather than a collective level. Hence, while emphasizing the agentive capacity of the participants, the study shows how each of their biographies is framed within a socio-political context. This research makes an important contribution to the theory and practice of social work as it questions the traditional categories of FD and brings us closer to the lived experiences and practices of the study participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women often delay moving to VAW shelters if their companion animals' safety is not ensured. Yet, few shelters accommodate them together. The purpose of this study is to explore what may help to promote services for women with companion animals facing violence, through learning from professionals who already provide support. Our email survey with VAW shelters in Ontario, Canada identified services and potential interviewees. Nine semi-structured telephone interviews with professionals were conducted to explore their experiences and views on human–animal relationships. All agencies that provided onsite programs, plus one about to start, participated. We utilized Critical Animal Studies as a theory to understand human–animal relationships through concepts such as intersectionality, anthropocentrism, speciesism, and feminist ethics of responsibility. The study found: (1) seven approaches shelters used to help women with companion animals; (2) programs that accept companion animals helped women move to shelters quickly but also affirmed women's mutually respectful relationships with companion animals; (3) shelters also benefited, including expanding support from local communities and opportunities to educate them. The study suggests that by shifting ontological and theoretical approaches and including a critical examination of human–animal relationships at interpersonal and social structural levels, professional education promotes mobilizing resources for women with companion animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgender (trans) and gender diverse (TGD) people continue experiencing profound expressions of stigma and discrimination in their attempts at accessing care, including support from the social work profession. Incorporating the lived experience of TGD people as practice knowledge in social work may serve to enhance the profession's relationship with TGD communities and mitigate historical barriers of this population to relevant services. In this study, we draw on qualitative data based on individual interviews with 20 TGD people and 10 social workers in a Western Canadian province to explore the potential of leveraging the lived experience of TGD people as practice insight in social work. Our analysis, which is supported with the tenets of feminist standpoint theory, reveals that incorporating the lived experience of TGD people in social work as practice knowledge may inform and catalyze interventions that (1) validate TGD bodies, identities and experiences; (2) contribute to networks of advocacy and support founded on shared community knowledge and (3) promote resistance and transformation. In our discussion, we explore practical implications of our research for practice at multiple levels, including the potential of engaging TGD 'peers' with relevant lived experience in the direct delivery of certain psychosocial interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals experience significant marginalization, including in the workplace and higher education. Although the number of TNB scholars and educators is growing, little attention has been given to the supervision of TNB individuals in research contexts. This lack of attention is particularly pronounced for TNB people working on trans-related research projects. Using intersectionality and queer theory, the present study examines the lived experiences of TNB individuals working on cisgender-led research projects, with the goal of enhancing awareness among cisgender researchers on strategies to support the growth of emerging TNB scholars. The importance of these findings is relevant for cisgender educators, researchers, and practitioners who work with TNB individuals and/or lead trans-related projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our ability to provide affirming care to individuals who engage in sex work is limited by punitive foundations of social work. This study originates from within the sex worker rights movement. I utilize qualitative dialogues aligned with participatory principles to consider how a Black feminist disability framework can be employed to explore how intersectionality weaves itself into the lives and networks of 13 sex workers in Los Angeles, CA. Specifically, this study engaged in Participatory Action Research (PAR) and collective knowledge production to examine how criminalization operates within larger intersecting systems of oppression and complicates workers' relationships with each other. The results of this study put forth the conceptualization of the sex worker-informed stratified social hierarchy – described as the "whorearchy" – and the ways that collective care is used to combat it. I conclude with a discussion on centering restorative sex worker narratives in order to examine how criminalization hinders sex worker solidarity and how, similarly, the state's role limits the ways social workers can support sex worker liberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of an ethnically and politically motivated armed warfare in Tigray in 2020, spread to the Amhara and Afar regions in Ethiopia, wreaking havoc on civilians. This armed conflict has had a significant impact on the lives of women who have been uprooted from their homes and are now living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges faced by women living in two IDP camps in Dabat and Debark, Ethiopia. In-depth interviews were used to gather data from 13 participants. Challenges emerged that relate to three major themes: systemic (gender-based violence, family separation/disintegration, human trafficking, and genocide); psychological (trauma and stress; loss of home/personal belongings); and social (lack of social security and stability, reintegration and resettlement problems, unmet basic needs [physiological and physical health], and maladministration of supplies. The results of the study suggest that internally displaced women in Ethiopia are a group of targeted and victimized civilians suffering from a wide range of atrocities that are rooted in their gender identity, marginalized status, and extreme vulnerability. Lawmakers, politicians, advocacy groups, social work practitioners and women's activists must all advocate for stronger sanctions for those who perpetrate violence against women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the sense of loss of young Arab-Bedouin women in Israel who grew up in polygamous families. Polygamy is widespread in Israel's Arab-Bedouin population, although state law explicitly prohibits it. Tradition and custom allow a man to marry more than one woman, and Islam does not forbid it. Polygamy has many ramifications for women, children, and society in general. The data were gathered in semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 30 young women, ages 18 to 22, whose fathers took a second wife in the last five years and moved to a separate home with the new wife. The women interviewed were so distressed they sought therapeutic help. Among the many findings is the profound sense of loss: of fathering, of love and attention, and of family. Intersectionality theory was used to explain the particular vulnerability of these young women. Israel has no targeted treatment programs or interventions for adolescent girls in polygamous families, and this may harm their chances of successfully negotiating adolescence. Targeted treatment is recommended. The findings apply to social work in any country where polygamy exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Largely absent from the feminist qualitative social work research literature are practical discussions about the ethics of white researchers who "study up" people and institutions of power. This methodological article grapples with how to conduct data collection from an anti-racist framework. I explore my use of an arts-based self-reflexive memoing process of embodied tableaux to inform my experimentations of rejecting "neutrality" when interviewing participants. I provide examples of disrupting white, patriarchal, and colonial norms during qualitative interviewing, including directly naming my whiteness and anti-racist stance; intentionally challenging the racism of white participants and deepening critical reflection; and viewing myself through a lens of critical skepticism to recognize when I was protecting whiteness or failing to effectively intervene. I conclude with an invitation to others to experiment with an anti-racist research praxis—an iterative process of self-reflexivity and relational accountability to reflect, theorize, and act differently during feminist social work research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is well established that women experience significant gendered oppressions when accessing mental health services, research exploring the impacts of involuntary mental health services is frequently conducted without attending specifically to gender. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored women's experiences of compulsory mental health treatment in Australia. In-depth interviews revealed substantial gendered harms experienced by women within involuntary mental health treatment settings. Themes identified were: involuntary treatment replicates the dynamics and tactics of gendered violence; treatment involves profound deprivation and losses, with potential implications across the lifecourse; mental health services disrupt and undermine mothering; and recovery is found outside of coercive mental health systems. The study reveals the heightened harms experienced by women within involuntary mental health contexts, as well as women's strategic resistances to psychiatric oppression. It demonstrates the relevance of a conceptual lens that is attuned to gender, in order to develop a deeper understanding of women's experiences of intersecting oppressions within involuntary mental health settings. Implications include the need for alliance-building across feminist and critical mental health movements, and the need for a much more robust engagement by the social work profession in challenging the widespread acceptance of involuntary mental health treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women living in abusive relationships who choose to breastfeed their infants may do so for many reasons: bonding, health benefits for the infant and themselves, economics, and so on. Along with these benefits they are also choosing to engage in an activity that is often perceived as deeply gender performative. This study examines the gender performativity through breastfeeding of mothers living with intimate partner violence (IPV) and the ways in which these mothers use breastfeeding successfully (and unsuccessfully) to achieve what Butler (2004) terms a "livable life." Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with thirteen mothers who lived with abusive partners while breastfeeding. Content analysis was used to examine the women's accounts for gender performativity around breastfeeding. Gender performativity was used by these mothers successfully and unsuccessfully to attempt to stem the violence and chaos in their relationships. Mothers attempted to fulfill traditional female roles to appease abusive partners, used breastfeeding to protect themselves and their infants, and also drew strength from family, friends and medical/support professionals by fulfilling the 'good mother' role through breastfeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reproductive justice is increasingly being utilized as a framework for exploring women's reproductive health experiences. However, this topic has not yet been explored among Indigenous state-recognized tribes who do not utilize the Indian Health Service, and little research explores what other factors impact women's ability to reach their reproductive goals. A qualitative descriptive research methodology was used to explore experiences of reproductive justice among members of an Indigenous state-recognized tribe in the Gulf Coast. Data were collected through qualitative semi-structured life-history interviews with female tribal members. Several key themes emerged illustrating barriers related to women achieving their reproductive desires. These included: (a) High Prevalence of Hysterectomy or Sterilization; (b) Experiences with Infertility Common; and (c) High Frequency of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or Endometriosis. Findings of this study reveal that Indigenous women face multiple barriers to achieving reproductive justice. This study is unique in exploring the family planning desires and goals, and the barriers experienced in achieving these reproductive desires, for women in a Gulf Coast, non-federally recognized Indigenous tribe. These results contextualize national trends and suggest that Indigenous women in this study experience reproductive injustices that harm their ability to achieve their reproductive desires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the suppositions that financial education programs in Chile have on the financial behavior of low-income women. For this purpose, through a documentary analysis of the National Strategy for Financial Education (ENEF) and a series of interviews with different actors involved in the financial education program, we seek to explain how the intervention considers the role of women in the financial space, exploring the assumptions that guide the methodologies deployed in the intervention. Our results are divided in two: first, we explore the assumptions of the ENEF and the reasons that make women its priority audience; emphasizing the diagnosis, the assigned roles and the expected behavioral changes. Second, we explore the intervention methodology to account for how, through the teaching of savings and planning skills, women are expected to improve their financial skills and those of their household. We discuss how gender roles persist in these intervention spaces and the importance of incorporating feminist perspectives to think about emancipatory interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether and how social service providers use practice strategies that address racism is critically understudied, particularly with people who are at risk of sex trafficking. The purpose of this article is to understand (1) the perceptions of racial disparities in sex trafficking (as learned from sex trafficking education), and (2) the strategies used to address racism in practice (color-evasiveness, anti-oppressive practice [AOP]). We used a directed content analysis approach to analyze 24 semistructured, in-depth interviews of providers who knowingly encounter sex-trafficked young people in a majority white region of a Midwestern state (census indicates that minority populations include African American, Native American, and Hispanic/Latino people). Findings suggest that providers perceived sex trafficking education (e.g., trainings they attended) as predominantly focused on economic standing and family risks, rather than racial disparities and roles of structural racial oppression. They also experienced challenges in naming the racial identities of clients and addressing racism in practice. Implications for implementing critical consciousness and AOP strategies as well as future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and their participants, we show how certain innovations made by MFIs during the COVID-19 pandemic enable further consolidation of NGOs in Bangladeshi society. The study is based on interviews conducted in 2020 with key personnel from three major NGOs in Bangladesh: Grameen, Sajida Foundation, and Brac (which is also the largest NGO in the world), as well as 20 interviews conducted in 2018 (before the pandemic) with microcredit recipients who use financial services. We observed that MFIs scaled up by taking on the function of relief provision, financial services became more entrenched, and NGO governance was bolstered as MFIs served as intermediaries between the state and people, even though, as the 2018 interviews reveal, microfinance participants were reticent about technology uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to understand how goals of activation and gender equality interact in labor market programs directed towards activating unemployed participants. The study draws on interviews with 28 social workers and managers at four Swedish municipally governed labor market programs typically targeted towards poor, unemployed individuals with little to no attachment to the labor market or social insurance system. Our findings show that activation goals are understood to be clear cut and a dominant logic within the labor market programs. The gender equality goals are understood as fuzzy and subordinate to the activation logic. Our theoretical analysis, based on neo-institutional theory, shows that gendered activation as a hybrid logic is created within the four programs as a means of handling the competing logics of gender equality and activation. Gendered activation may be reasonable on an individual level, where women in long-term unemployment can sustain a higher income through work and become financially independent. In the context of the gender segregated labor market, gendered activation reproduces gendered inequalities when an increasing interest for activation policy among welfare states overshadows claims of gender equality. Furthermore, our study exemplifies the systemic reproduction of racist discourse within social- and labour market policies. Within the logic of gendered activation, migrant women become singled out as specifically problematic for Swedish society to handle when unemployment is given gendered and cultural explanations. Through the logic of gendered activation, gender equality goals become no-matter-what employment rather than employment leading to equal outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental crises caused by our changing global environment evoke intense and difficult emotions, particularly the paralysis that often results from despair. Understanding how people who are deeply engaged in environmental activism deal with their emotions can help in emotionally equipping people to address the climate crisis. Ecofeminist spirituality directly addresses these issues through an environmental stewardship that offers hope and healing for the world. This study includes 14 interviews with workers at an ecojustice center founded by an order of Catholic sisters in the United States. We used thematic analysis to identify three main themes that collectively describe the participants' perspectives on (a) experiences of difficult feelings, (b) strategies for coping with those feelings, and (c) perspectives on cultivating hope. Participants shared how they were able to cope with difficult emotions and cultivate hope that the work they are doing matters, which was essential to sustaining their ecojustice work. As social workers respond to the changing environment, understanding how to sustain environmental work at the macro-level is essential to addressing largescale problems while also attending to difficult emotions at the microlevel. Further implications for social work practice include the importance of intergenerational organizing, living in "right relationship," incorporating spirituality, and reinhabiting the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addressing the grand challenge to build healthy relationships to end violence, social workers continue to engage in helping individuals affected by intimate partner violence (IPV). IPV often results in negative mental health and physical health outcomes. This qualitative study explored Latina immigrant women's experiences of IPV by using an intersectional Chicana feminist approach. Twenty Latina undocumented immigrants who experienced IPV shared their testimonio interviews to denounce the injustices they experienced when seeking help. A narrative analysis is presented to illustrate some of the ineffective responses the participants experienced when seeking help as well as effective responses that provided them support. The analysis of the survivors' testimonios also offered detailed stories to help us understand the intersectional experiences related to the survivors' gender, ethnicity, social class, and undocumented immigration status when seeking help. Providing support to Latina immigrant survivors requires a better understanding of the unique help-seeking barriers they encounter in the United States. Implications from this study suggest that in order to effectively support the health of undocumented survivors of IPV, social workers need to consider trust building and be prepared to respond to the current political climate and institutional barriers when providing services for undocumented immigrant survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine the operation of shame in the alcohol use habits of pregnant women and the responses of their families and associated institutions. Using a narrative–discursive approach, we interviewed 13 women, living in a low-resource setting in South Africa, who had consumed alcohol while pregnant. Narratives showed how both the act of drinking and "inappropriately" timed pregnancy (early and out of wedlock) were judged to be unacceptable. Women who engaged in these activities were positioned as bad mothers or promiscuous. Their actions were seen as resulting in the suffering of others—the future child, the family, and even the community. These narratives were underpinned by cultural and religious discourses. Women managed the shame accruing to them through avoidance and concealment; families instructed women to self-exclude or distanced themselves from the women's behavior; and institutions subtly or overtly excluded women. The shaming of these women, and the mechanisms by which such shame was managed, did little to decrease drinking or to increase maternal health and welfare. Overall, this article demonstrates how the shame of drinking alcohol during pregnancy produces avoidance behavior, concealment, and exclusion, which are not constructive in terms of maternal health and well-being. The implications for a feminist narrative approach to drinking during pregnancy are outlined: moving beyond a focus on individual behavior change to locating personal stories within the meta-narratives and social discourses that shape pregnant women's lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a societal level, postfeminist and neoliberal companion discourses have minimized structural determinants of dating abuse while elevating individual characteristics such as personal responsibility and agency. Adolescent survivors of dating abuse most frequently seek help from their peers; thus, the substance of that support is critical to reduce stigma and support survivor's well-being. Using critical discourse analysis methodology, this article examines how postfeminism has been enacted in teens' discursive constructions of dating violence and describes the ramifications of such constructions. Analysis used structured questions to unpack teens' constructions and discursive formations of dating abuse. Teens participated in 11 in-person and online focus groups nationally. Results indicate that teens discursively construct abuse survivors in ways that privilege postfeminist discourses of personal choice, agency, and empowerment. Specifically, teens employed discourses of direct and indirect culpability to describe why survivors enter and remain in abusive relationships. Such framings contribute to constructing a "stigmatized identity" for abuse survivors consistent with postfeminist discourse. Multitiered interventions must be developed that both challenge postfeminist discourses and support teens in developing more empathetic responses to abuse survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent leisure contexts in which alcohol are abused have undergone changes in recent decades, with the incorporation of girls/women to more intensive forms of consumption and with new forms of gender-based violence becoming more visible. This article studies the gender differences in the use and enjoyment of time in leisure contexts, the differences in the consumption of alcohol, and the vulnerabilities to which girls/women are subjected to in order to create proposals for Spanish social work intervention. We present empirical data from a qualitative study in which a sample of students from southern Spain have been interviewed in depth with the aim of establishing the connections between alcohol use and abuse and the instances of gender violence that occur in leisure contexts. Our final objective is to reflect upon and make innovative proposals for the role of Spanish professional social workers in prevention and intervention with young alcohol users and in the gender violence that is produced in the spaces of consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many impediments to family planning uptake by migrant women, which are likely to hinder their right to decide and use contraception. In this study, the authors investigated migrant women's family planning practices. The researchers conducted 22 qualitative interviews with migrant female head porters in a suburban community in Ghana. Our analysis showed that a combination of social and cultural barriers impede effective family planning uptake by migrant female head porters. Further analysis revealed institutional challenges as constraining in access to and utilization of family planning services by migrant female head porters. Based on our analysis, we conclude that migrant female head porters face many barriers to family planning uptake and thus recommend that the government of Ghana (Ministry of Health), policy makers, and other stakeholders take measures to ensure universal access to sexual reproductive health services and reproductive rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]