Paid and unpaid social work in Russia: Is women’s social work opening up opportunities for empowerment processes?

Abstract

The article analyses whether social work in Russia can have an empowering effect on the poor, given the survival of hierarchical structure of organizations and women’s responsibility for social welfare. Although state policies promote charity rather than empowerment, this study also discusses to what extent women’s paid and unpaid work could stimulate processes of empowerment through supportive measures that open up possibilities for the poor to engage in changing their own situation. The empirical data are based on interviews with social work specialists, NGO representatives and local politicians in two Russian regions.