Experiences of Women as Social Welfare Administrators.

The article focuses on a study which examined the experiences of women as social welfare administrators. By now it is almost common knowledge that women in social work, although they constitute the vast majority of practicing social workers, are poorly represented in the ranks of administrators in social welfare agencies: two-thirds of professional social workers are women, but two-thirds of social work administrators are men. These issues have received considerable attention and have been the focus of doctoral-level research as well as conference proceedings. Although the profession has a well documented understanding of the experiences of women administrators in the aggregate, the literature does not contain information about the specific experiences of subgroups of women who hold administrative positions. This article reports the findings of an interview study of a group of 57 women administrators. The other major motivational theme that emerged in these interviews was that respondents became interested in considering administrative positions because an opportunity was presented to them. In this respect, 35 percent of the respondents reported their experience was characterized by the following circumstances: a position became available and they were recruited, an administrator resigned and they were the natural replacement or their move into an administrative position evolved that is, as they grew in expertise! their job titles were upgraded to match their professional development.