The State of the Profession

Issues about social work’s legitimacy have changed since Flexner’s time. The author’s own experiences over a 30-year social work history have emphasized the need for social work to play an important role in social policy change rather than a drive to determine whether social work is truly a profession. Social workers have become an increasingly diverse socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural group that views the profession as a legitimate economic and professional ladder. Although well established as a practice profession, social work continues to struggle with a lack of recognition from other professions and in the public policy sector. In the early 20th century, social work sought academic and theoretical recognition as a profession; it now needs to achieve professional recognition in the form of salaries, working conditions, and public policy influence.