Gale Goldberg Wood

Groups to Empower Battered Women

Battering is part of a pattern of coercive tactics, including verbal, psychological, and sexual abuse, that a man uses to intimidate, undermine, and force his female partner to comply with his wishes. The experience can be likened to brainwashing. Three sets of ideas seem important for feminist social workers to consider in working with such women: (1) a structural approach to practice; (2) empowerment through recasting perceptions, raising consciousness, and increasing access to opportunities and resources; and (3) using the small group as a supportive agency.

Situations and Representations: Feminist Practice With Survivors of Male Violence

Four principles to guide a feminist practice with individual survivors of male violence are described and illustrated. The principles and the processes they activate address both the survivors situation and her self-representation. They involve challenging oppressive cultural discourse about gender, discourse that devalues, blames and subjugates women and girls, especially as these beliefs are internalized and impact on the survivors constitution of identity and her subsequent interpretation of experience from that position. Oppressive beliefs, internalized as truths, are repoliticized by connecting their local manifestations to the overarching cultural stories that perpetuate them. The principles and processes are predicated on social constructionist ideas and draw upon structural social work and narrative practices.

A Narrative Principle for Feminist Social Work With Survivors of Male Violence

Blame surrounds and embeds male violence against women, acting as oppressive propaganda that shapes survivors’ identities, which, in turn, reduce their options. This article challenges the notion that violence against women renders women passive and precludes their resistance. It describes a narrative practice principle—coconstructing women’s new identity stories—to guide social work in countering this propaganda with women survivors of male violence. Blame is addressed as a cultural narrative within which some women are targeted by male violence and all women construct their identities. As a feminist social work principle, coconstructing women’s new identity stories connects the political and the individual facets of male violence, expanding women’s options for action. Specifically, the article presents the principle and three processes for translating it into action.

An Emancipatory Principle for Social Work With Survivors of Male Violence

This article describes a principle to guide direct practice with survivors of male violence—undermining oppressive beliefs. This principle politicizes what has been explained at the interpersonal level as one mans violence toward one woman and the womans psychological struggle in its wake. It also explains the cultural-political infrastructure ofmale violence and makes visible the basic injustice that is often invisible because it is woven into the fabric of Western culture. The principle rests on social constructionist ideas and calls four narrative practice processes into action.

Communicating by Doing

The authors define three categories of engagement with clients wherein nonverbal communication, specifically doing-oriented activity, forms the basis of the transaction. Doing-without-talk, doing-with-talk-after, and doing-with-talk-on-top are described in work with particular clients. These concepts are illustrated with case examples. The authors encourage practitioners to connect with the strengths of clients.