Gender and Sexuality in Social Care

1. Gender and Sexuality in Social Care Jacqueline O’ Toole Institute of Technology, Sligo Equality and Social Inclusion in the 21st Century Belfast 2006

2. Underlying assumption • As gender is implicated in all social processes and spheres, so too is it implicated within social care practice…social care practice is a gendered sphere Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

3. Context of discussion • Social Care conceptualised as an “emerging profession”? • Meaning of care is contested • Transformation of intimacy within intimate situations/moments • Anti-oppressive practice • “Feminisation” of social care practice Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

4. What is Care? • At a policy level • Care is understood as referring to the provision of facilities and carrying out of tasks for those unable to do so [my emphasis] for themselves…carers are those paid to do these tasks (Orme, 2001:93) Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

5. What is Care? • Distinction routinely drawn between paid and unpaid caring work…between informal and formal care (Lynch and McLaughlin, 1995, Feder Kittay, 1999) Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

6. What is Social Care Practice? • A broad spectrum of specialised interventions in people’s lives…pivotal in the delivery of a range of residential, day and community social services…and other support services for marginalised groups (Gallagher and O’ Toole, 1999) Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

7. What is Social Care Practice? • Social care is a profession where people work in partnership with those who experience marginalisation or disadvantage or who have special needs (sic)…a profession committed to the planning and delivery of quality care and other support services for individuals and groups with identified needs (IASCE, 2005) Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

8. What is Social Care Practice? • The role of the social care practitioner is becoming increasingly complex with an emerging body of literature referring to the process of reflection as being central to constructivist learning (Graham and McGarry, 2002). Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

9. What is Social Care Practice? • Process of negotiation amongst relevant social actors for a meaningful and acceptable role within the occupational structure of the social professions (Gallagher and O’ Toole, 1999) Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

10. Gender • The process of gender attribution is itself a social process that varies from one social setting to another • Inevitability of sex and gender may no longer be a certainty Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

11. Gender and Inequality • Connell (1987, 1995, 2005) • hegemonic masculinity, the patriarchal dividend and the gender order • O’ Connor (1998), Walby (1990) • articulate accounts of Irish and British society that clearly demonstrate the many ways in which society is organised at an overall level to benefit men Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

12. Sexuality • Sexuality as is socially constructed must be understood as being linked to particular understandings of femininity and masculinity and to gender social relations and power Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

13. Sexuality and Social Care • Expressions of sexuality may occur in the sharing of life-space through touch, looking, physical stance, language usage, clothes and hexis Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

14. Sexuality and Social Care • Discussions of sexuality within social care take place within a discourse that places regulation, protection and control to the forefront Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

15. Anti-Oppressive Practice • Identify the factors that underpin oppression and discrimination especially as they relate to social care theory and practice • Explain the concepts and issues across the various forms of discrimination including sexism, homophobia, racism, ageism, disabilism and so forth Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

16. Women and Men as Social Care Practitioners • In the first instance both work within gender constructed social relationships In that… • Constructions of femininity and masculinity explicitly and implicitly permeate the provision of care Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

17. “If we are to attract more men in to the field, we have to find a way to describe and advertise the experience of men in the field in a manner which is attractive to men. We need to be talking about what it means to be male in this field, and we need to be able to explain, in our advertisements, why we need men in the field. We need to create the conditions in our college programmes which will support men in ‘being different’” (McElwee, 2003) Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

18. Key Questions • Is social care practice perceived as a natural and unquestioning occupational choice for women and if so does this mean we don’t have to worry about making it attractive to them as the numbers will always be there? • How can men begin to address their positions in social care that takes account of their privileged positions as men in wider society? Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

19. Key Questions • Does masculinity turn out to be a boon for men when they enter non-traditional occupations, as qualities associated with men become more highly valued than those associated with women – even in predominately female jobs? • We need to interrogate masculinity to ascertain whether there are other advantages of being male in social care practice, such as: greater access to promotion, achieving more attention because of their small numbers, and being rewarded for an ability to express feelings and emotions which, it would seem, are taken for granted in women? Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

20. Key Questions • What does it mean to be a woman in social care? • We need an interrogation of femininity to establish if women also bring to this gendered sphere, the particularities of their gendered experiences in wider society. Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

21. Key Questions • What discourses of femininity and masculinity exist in the training of social care practitioners and in the actual social care environment? • What is the impact of these discourses on individual and collective practices? Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland

22. The Social Context of Social Care • As reflective practitioners, care workers must be aware of how their interactions might be underpinned by sexism and be connected to gender and power • Such interactions must also be understood in the context of social class, sexuality, ‘race’, ethnicity, disability and attendant power relations Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo, Ireland