Importance of the sex of worker and client

Abstract

Mary C. Schwartz, MSW, is Assistant Professor, School of Social Policy and Community Ser vices, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York. The social work profession has finally learned the necessity of examining the ef fects of class, ethnicity, and race on social work thinking. But it continues to under value the importance of the sex factor. The purpose of this article is to examine social work writing in regard to the profes sion's awareness of the importance of sex in its work. Social workers are beginning to view the unisex concept of human be havior as unrealistic. Noticeably, this view is similar to their feelings about the melt ing-pot concept, which they felt was naive and inadequate in its representation of various groups. Increasingly, they realize that support systems, opportunity struc tures, aging patterns, emotional styles, and expectations of child-rearing, marriage, and work roles of the two sexes need to be taken more into account.