Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:24:24.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who Else Is in the Room? The Good Mother Myth in the Social Worker‒Mother Client Encounter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2015

Hagit Sinai-Glazer
Hagit Sinai-Glazer*
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, McGill University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A fundamental dyad in public social services is woman to woman. In Israeli public social services, it is often mother to mother. This multi-faceted encounter is complex and in this theoretical article I wish to deconstruct and situate the social worker–mother encounter in a broader context, a social–cultural–national one. Taking a feminist perspective, I will explore how the personal and private social worker–mother encounter is a political and public one. Analysing western ideologies of the ‘Good Mother’ together with those of the Israeli-Jewish mother, this article aims to develop a theoretical understanding of macro mechanisms that shape the social worker–mother encounter. Being conscious about what influences that encounter might benefit social work clients, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.

Keywords

Social workmotherhoodsocial worker–mother client encounter‘Good Mother’ mythecological system analysis
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , July 2016 , pp. 351 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anglin, J. (2002) ‘Risk, well-being and paramountcy in child protection: the need for transformation’, Child and Youth Care Forum, 31, 4, 233–55.Google Scholar
Appell, A. R. (1998) ‘On fixing “bad” mothers and saving their children’, in Ladd-Taylor, M. and Umansky, L. (eds.), ‘Bad’ Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America, New York and London: New York University Press, pp. 356–80.Google Scholar
Banyard, V. L. (1995) ‘“Taking another route”: daily survival narratives from mothers who are homeless’, American Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 6, 871–89.Google Scholar
Barker, J. and Thomson, L. (2014) ‘Helpful relationships with service users: linking social capital’, Australian Social Work, 68, 1, 130–45.Google Scholar
Ben-David, A. (1992) ‘Motherhood and gender: reassessment of a myth in family therapy’, Sihot-Dialogue, 7, 4–17 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Berkovitch, N. (1999) From Motherhood to Citizenship: Women's Rights and International Organizations, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Bernard, J. (1974) The Future of Motherhood, New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Birns, B. and Hay, D. F. (eds.) (1988) The Different Faces of Motherhood, New York, London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980) Attachment and Loss: Sadness and Depression, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bullock, C. (2003) ‘Low-income parents victimized by child protective services’, Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law, 11, 2, 1023–54.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977) ‘Toward an experimental ecology of human development’, American Psychologist, 32, 7, 513–31.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PresGoogle Scholar
Caplan, P. J. (1990) ‘Making mother-blaming visible: the emperor's new clothes’, Women and Therapy, 10, 112, 61–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chodorow, N. J. (1978) The Reproduction of Mothering, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chodorow, N. and Contratto, S. (1992) ‘The fantasy of the perfect mother’, in Thorne, B. and Yalom, M. (eds.), Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions, Boston: Northeastern University Press, pp. 191–214.Google Scholar
Collins, B. G. (1986) ‘Defining feminist social work’, Social Work, 31, 3, 214–9.Google Scholar
Collins, P. H. (1993) ‘Toward a new vision: race, class, and gender as categories of analysis and connection’, Race, Sex and Class, 1, 1, 25–45.Google Scholar
Davidson-Arad, B., Peled, E. and Leichtentritt, L. (2008) ‘Representations of fathers and mothers in court petitions for dependent minor status for children at risk’, Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 8, 893–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, L. and Krane, J. (2006) ‘Collaborate with caution: protecting children, helping mothers’, Critical Social Policy, 26, 2, 412–25.Google Scholar
Davies, L., Krane, J., Collings, S. and Wexler, S. (2007) ‘Developing mothering narratives in child protection practice’, Journal of Social Work Practice, 21, 1, 23–34.Google Scholar
Deutsch, H. (1945) The Psychology of Women, Volume 2: Motherhood, Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
DiQuinzio, P. (1999) The Impossibility of Motherhood, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dolav, T. and Ben Rabi, D. (2002) ‘The convention of the rights of the child: general principles and their implementation in Israel’, Social Security, 63, 131–63 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Douglas, S. J. and Michaels, M. W. (2004) The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women, New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Duncan, B. L., Miller, S. D., Wampold, B. E. and Hubble, M. A. (2010) The Heart and Soul of Change: Delivering What Works in Therapy, 2nd edn, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fogiel-Bijaoui, S. (2005) ‘Families in Israel: post modernity, feminism and the state’ (extended version), in Roomnarine, J. L. and Gielen, U. P. (eds.), Families in Global Perspective, Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 184–204.Google Scholar
Forma, A. (1998) Mother of all Myths: How Society Moulds and Constrains Mothers, London: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1980) ‘Truth and power’, in Foucault, M. and Gordon, C. (eds.), Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977, New York: Pantheon Books, pp. 109–33.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1933) ‘Femininity’, New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis, lecture III, http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/ewaters/345/2007_freud/femininity.pdf.Google Scholar
Gilat, I. Z. (2006) ‘On the legal defect inherent into determining “The Best Interests of the Child” by welfare services system’, Low Review, 5, 403–90.Google Scholar
Goodman, L. A., Liang, B., Helms, J. E., Latta, R. E., Sparks, E. and Weintraub, S. R. (2004) ‘Training counseling psychologists as social justice agents: feminist and multicultural principles in action’, The Counseling Psychologist, 32, 6, 793–836.Google Scholar
Green, D. (2007) ‘Risk and social work practice’, Australian Social Work, 60, 4, 395–409.Google Scholar
Hanisch, C. (1969, 2006) ‘The personal is political’, Women of the World, Unite! Writings by Carol Hanisch, http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html.Google Scholar
Hays, S. (1996) The Cultural Contradiction of Motherhood, New Heaven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Healy, K. (2000) Social Work Practices: Contemporary Perspectives on Change, London: Sage.Google Scholar
Healy, K., Harrison, G., Venables, J. and Bosly, F. (2014) ‘Collaborating with families in differential responses: practitioners’ views’, Child and Family Social Work, published on-line in advance of print, doi: 10.1111/cfs.12149.Google Scholar
Hepworth, D., Rooney, R., Rooney, G. D., Strom-Gottfried, K. and Larsen, J. A. (2010) Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills, California: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Herzog, H. (1999) Gendering Politics: Women in Israel, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hong, J. S., Espelage, D. L. and Kral, M. J. (2011) ‘Understanding suicide among sexual minority youth in America: an ecological systems analysis’, Journal of adolescence, 34, 5, 885–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hong, J. S. and Espelage, D. L. (2012) ‘A review of research on bullying and peer victimization in school: an ecological system analysis’, Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17, 4, 311–22.Google Scholar
Husén, T. and Postlethwaite, T. N. (1994) ‘Ecological models of human development’, The International Encyclopedia of Education, volume 3, 2nd edition, New York: Elsevier Science, pp. 1543–647.Google Scholar
International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) (2014) Proposed Global Definition of the Social Work Profession, http://ifsw.org/get-involved/global-definition-of-social-work/.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. P. and Sullivan, C. M. (2008) ‘How child protection workers support or further victimize battered mothers’, Affilia, 23, 3, 242–58.Google Scholar
Karpetis, G. (2010) ‘Psychodynamic clinical social work practice with parents in child and adolescent mental health services: a case study on the role of the father’, Journal of Social Work Practice, 24, 2, 155–70.Google Scholar
Knei-Paz, C. (2009) ‘The central role of the therapeutic bond in a social agency setting: clients’ and social workers’ perceptions’, Journal of Social Work: Psychotherapeutic Approaches in Health, Welfare and the Community, 9, 2, 178–98.Google Scholar
Lane, K. (2003) ‘Grounding mother and child in their intrinsic relational unit: an analysis of motherhood and the parent–child relationship within the child welfare system’, Women's Rights Reporter, 25, 145–66.Google Scholar
Lapierre, S. (2008) ‘Mothering in the context of domestic violence: the pervasiveness of deficit model of mothering’, Child and Family Social Work, 13, 4, 454–63.Google Scholar
Lieblich, A. (2003) Israeli Women in the New Family, Israel: Schocken Publishing (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Mandel, D. (2010) ‘Child welfare and domestic violence: tackling the themes and thorny questions that stand in the way of collaboration and improvement of child welfare practice’, Violence Against Women, 16, 5, 530–6.Google Scholar
Mandin, P. (2007) ‘The contribution of systems and object relation theories to an understanding of the therapeutic relationship in social work practice’, Journal of Social Work Practice: Psychotherapeutic Approaches in Health, Welfare and the Community, 21, 2, 149–62.Google Scholar
Melamed, S. (2004) ‘Motherhood, fertility and the construction of the “Demographic Threat” in the marital age law’, Theory and Criticism, 25, 69–96 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services (2012) Social Services Review, 2011, Israel: The State of Israel, http://www.molsa.gov.il/CommunityInfo/ResearchAndEvaluation/Pages/ReviewOfSocialServicesIn2011.aspx.Google Scholar
Morrow, S. L. and Hawxhurst, D. M. (1998) ‘Feminist therapy: integrating political analysis in counseling and psychotherapy’, Women and Therapy, 21, 2, 37–50.Google Scholar
Oberman, Y. and Josselson, R. (1996) ‘Matrix of tensions: a model of mothering’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 20, 3, 341–59.Google Scholar
OECD (2015a) OECD Family Database, Paris: OECD, www.oecd.org/social/family/database.htm.Google Scholar
OECD (2015b) Family Benefits Public Spending (Indicator), Paris: OECD, doi: 10.1787/8e8b3273-en.Google Scholar
Ortega, D. M. and Busch-Armendariz, N. (2014) ‘Beyond the feminist critique: developing feminist tools for intervention’, Affilia, 29, 2, 129–30.Google Scholar
Parada, H. (2004) ‘Social work practices within the restructured child welfare system in Ontario: an institutional ethnography’, Canadian Social Work Review [Revue canadienne de service social], 21, 1, 67–86.Google Scholar
Peled, E. and Dekel, R. (2010) ‘Excusable deficiency: staff perceptions of mothering at shelters for abused women’, Violence Against Women, 16, 11, 1224–41.Google Scholar
Peled, E. and Levin-Rotberg, T. (2013) ‘The perceptions of child protection officers toward mothering in prostitution’, Social Service Review, 87, 1, 40–69.Google Scholar
Penna, S. and O’Brien, M. (2013) ‘Neoliberalism’, in Grey, M. and Webb, S. A. (eds.), Social Work Theories and Methods, 2nd edn, London: Sage, pp. 137–46.Google Scholar
Pollack, S. (2010) ‘Labelling clients “risky”: social work and the neo-liberal welfare state’, British Journal of Social Work, 40, 4, 1263–78.Google Scholar
Remennick, L. (2000) ‘Childless in the land of imperative motherhood: stigma and coping among infertile Israeli women’, Sex Roles, 43, 11–12, 821–41.Google Scholar
Rich, A. (1976) Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Rogowski, S. (2010) Social Work: The Rise and Fall of a Profession?, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Sawicki, J. (1991) Disciplining Foucault, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Seccombe, K., James, D. and Walters, K. B. (1998) ‘“They think you ain't much of nothing”: The social construction of the welfare mother’, Journal of marriage and the family, 60, 4, 849–65.Google Scholar
Slonim-Nevo, V. and Lander, Y. (2004) ‘Can child welfare and family be separated? Some thoughts and recommendations for change’, Society and Welfare, 24, 3, 401–33 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Strega, S., Krane, J. and Carlton, R. (2013) ‘G-d couldn't be everywhere so he created mothers: the impossible mandate of maternal protection in child welfare’, in Strega, S., Krane, J., Lapierre, S., Richardson, C. and Carlton, R. (eds.), Failure to Protect: Moving Beyond Gendered Responses, Halifax and Winnipeg, Canada: Fernwood Publishing, pp.11–29.Google Scholar
Swift, K. J. (2002) Manufactoring ‘Bad Mothers’: A Critical Perspective on Child Neglect, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Swift, K. J. and Birmingham, M. (2000) ‘Location, location, location: restructuring and the everyday lives of “welfare moms”’, in Neysmith, S. M. (ed.), Restructuring Caring Labor: Discourse, State Practice and Everyday Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 93–115.Google Scholar
Swift, K. and Callahan, M. (2009) At Risk: Social Justice in Child Welfare and Other Human Services, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Swift, K. J. and Parada, H. (2004) ‘Child welfare reform: protecting children or policing the poor’, Journal of Law and Social Policy, 19, 1–17.Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (2006) You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. and White, S. (2001) ‘Knowledge, truth and reflexivity: the problem of judgement in social work’, Journal of Social Work, 1, 1, 37–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tzafrir, S. S., Enosh, G. and Gur, A. (2013) ‘Client aggression and the disenchantment process among Israeli social workers: realizing the gap’, Qualitative Social Work, 14, 1, 65–85.Google Scholar
United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child, New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Urek, M. (2005) ‘Making a case in social work: the construction of an unsuitable mother’, Qualitative Social Work, 4, 4, 451–67.Google Scholar
Warner, J. (2005) Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety, New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Wexler, S. A. (2006) ‘Dangerous connections: Maternal ambivalence in psychotherapy between women’, Ph.D. thesis, McGill University, Montreal.Google Scholar
Wolf, D. A. P-S., Dulmus, C. N. and Maguin, E. (2012) ‘Empirically supported treatment's impact on organizational culture and climate’, Research on Social Work Practice, 22, 6, 665–71.Google Scholar