Affilia

The vast range of experiences of Black mothers are not adequately captured in social work scholarship. Motivated by observations made by a 2000 article written by Greif, Hrabowski, and Maton which noted that much of social work literature on Black mothers focused on the negative, this paper describes a content analysis examining how Black mothers are represented in social work literature. The authors conducted a search in Social Work Abstracts for articles written between 2000 and 2020 that focused on Black mothers. Of the over 18,000 articles published between 2000 and 2020 in Social Work Abstracts, 32 of them met the inclusion criteria. Findings revealed that most of the social work literature on Black mothers is concentrated on some perceived form of adversity (n = 25). The remaining articles (n = 7) were not oriented around difficulty. Also of note, only a third of the articles (n = 10) spoke to issues of systemic and structural oppression that impact Black mothering. As evidenced by these findings, social work literature continues to perpetuate a system of dominance that misorients the experiences of Black mothers. Fundamentally, social work literature is in dire need of more representations of Black motherhood. This paper concludes with recommendations for research related to Black mothers.

Black women scholars have and continue to make significant contributions to the social work profession; however, their experiences within the profession are mostly absent in the literature. In general, Black women face numerous challenges within schools of social work. Black women scholars endure a compound form of anti-Blackness in higher education known as gendered anti-Blackness due to their multiple marginalized statuses associated with race and gender. This study examined the phenomenon of gendered anti-Blackness as experienced in academia by a diverse group of Black and mixed Black faculty and PhD students. We intentionally utilized a new methodology, Black Feminist Polyethnography, to provide an affirming and communal space for us to dialogically reflect on our collective experiences of gendered anti-Blackness in predominantly white schools of social work. Our findings uncovered six Black woman-centered proverbs that symbolize the ways we collectively thrive as scholars despite gendered anti-Blackness.

Aboriginal women globally face extreme risk of violence and their exposure to domestic and family violence (DFV) and state sanctioned violence is increasing. Attention to the impact on Aboriginal mothering is lacking and is underpinned by issues of social justice. This study employs Critical Interpretive Synthesis to examine the evidence on Aboriginal mothering through DFV. Serrant-Green’s Silences Framework was used to structure the critique, understand its problematics and generate an argument to counter the evidential silence. From 6,117 search results, ten publications were reviewed, only four of which substantially addressed Aboriginal mothering in the context of family and domestic violence; a conspicuous absence from the literature about Aboriginal women, children, and mothering. Studies addressing Aboriginal women’s experience of DFV did not credit the issue of mothering. Equally, studies that did address mothering through violence were generally not inclusive of Aboriginal women. Silence, therefore, sits at the nexus of DFV, Aboriginal women, and mothering. While violence against Aboriginal women is acknowledged as a social ill, inattention to mothering in research represents a disregard for Aboriginal women’s mothering identities and roles. Aboriginal women’s voice and citizenship are critical to addressing this issue.

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.

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.

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.

Knowledge, beliefs, identities, and emotions influence the ways in which all researchers engage in their work. Research processes are uniquely impacted when researchers share the lived experience under investigation, known as insider status. Reflexivity is an ongoing process of scrutinizing and responding to the ways in which positionality and subjectivities impact each stage of the research process. It can provide transparency, strengthen data interpretations, and increase researcher self-awareness. Broader aims of reflexivity aligned with feminist epistemologies are to shape researcher integrity and address structural inequalities. This article explores the author's engagement in reflexive practices while undertaking a PhD investigating early parenthood within the context of out-of-home care. Excerpts from interviews with 3 young mothers, a foster carer, and 11 professionals illustrate how the author's own lived experiences of out-of-home care and new motherhood assisted with building rapport and shared knowledge creation. Strategies employed to manage the risks of over-identifying with participants’ feelings of stigmatization and anxiety are also discussed to demonstrate how appropriate recognition of personal history can enhance the research process. This article concludes by arguing for meaningful opportunities to involve care-experienced people in social work research.

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.

The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses to martial stability, yet we know little about immigrant women's experiences with marital breakdown. Drawing data from a qualitative study of Chinese economic immigrants to Canada, this article explores women's experiences of navigating the processes of this life circumstance, and of how gender—including their senses of changing gender roles in post-immigration and postmarital contexts—plays out in these trajectories. The results of this exploratory study illustrate the value of transcending dichotomous conceptions of the relationship between gender and migration, and of opening spaces in which to better understand immigrant women's increasingly diversified life trajectories and the range of barriers they encounter along the way. The study also reveals multiple opportunities for social work contributions: tackling systematic barriers to settlement, facilitating social support in the community, and recognizing individuals’ diverse trajectory potentials (including the potential for this typically unwelcome event to be integrated as personal growth and transition).