Affilia

This analysis of the family-labor market policies of three European countries—Sweden, the former East Germany, and the former West Germany—contends that the major influences on such policies are the labor needs of the economic system; state-promoted notions of equality of opportunity versus equality of result; and public attitudes toward gender, motherhood, and equality. It demonstrates the contradiction inherent in policies that seek both to protect mothers and to promote equality in the workforce and the need to consider equality of result, as well as equality of opportunity, as a potential policy goal.

This qualitative study of 23 Appalachian women identified four patterns of participation in the informal economy. The unique needs of these women illustrate the necessity for differential approaches to welfare reform and the ethical dilemma of social workers who are caught between their knowledge that these women use illegal, unre ported income to supplement insufficient welfare benefits and the punitive social policies and poor employment prospects that give the women no choice.

Claiming a lesbian identity in a heterosexist culture is an act of empowerment in the struggle against oppression. This article dis cusses both the nature of the oppression that lesbians face and the strengths and skills that lesbians demonstrate in constructing the unique components of their lesbian identity.

The increase in female-headed single-parent families, and the high rates of poverty among them, caused by changing economic and social support structures, is an international phenomenon. The traditional negative focus on the deviance of this family structure has led to blaming unmarried women, rather than implementing economic and social support structures that could lift their families out of poverty. This article presents data on these families and suggests ways of reframing the dialogue to broaden the lens under which social work educators, students, and practitioners view single-mother families.

This article describes a course on feminist social work practice that was designed to develop, model, and create interventions and strate gies that are meaningful to women's experience and reality. Nontra ditional styles of teaching and learning emerged using a team ap proach. Shared knowledge was a hallmark of the class as the teachers and students sought to challenge the concept of hierarchy and to create a climate for cooperative and interactive learning.