violence & poverty

7/31/2019 Violence & Poverty

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Women, Violence & Poverty:A Family-in-Environment Perspective

By Diana Frank, MSW Intern


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The Family-In-Environment Perspective

Families are the building blocks of our society. They are not

limited by geography or culture. Families, in some form existeverywhere (Briar-Lawson, Lawson, Hennon, & Jones, 2001).Families are our first experience with socialization on an individualbasis and as a family group. They share a past, present and futuretogether.Although roles and boundaries within the family change over time,

the family as a unit is unique because relationships between themembers are valuable.A family can expand through marriage or a commitment to apartner, through birth or adoption. The death of a family member isthe only way out of the family system. (McGoldrick, Carter, &Preto, 2011).


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F.I.E. is Strengths based

The Family-in-Environment perspective helps

social workers to understand how the familyinteracts with other systems that surround them.Interactions with work, political and religiousorganizations, friends, the educational system andother social systems affect the individual and the

family. (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2009).It is strengths based because it emphasizes that

the family can have a positive impact in bothresolving larger social issues and meeting theneeds of individuals within the family. (Briar-Lawson et al., 2001).


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What do families do?Families are not limited in their roles.They provide food, shelter, clothing, health care,counseling, education sometimes simultaneously andare like miniature social welfare states. (Briar -Lawson et al., 2001, p. 3).Practicing social work from a Family in Environment

perspective can help to break down barriers betweenexpert and client.It can also help to facilitate the communication of thereal needs of families to policy makers.


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Guiding Principles of the F.I.EPerspective

To recognize the family as an essential socialinstitution that magnifies the individual experiences

of each family member and the society we live in.To encourage the family to define itself based on itsrelationships, including friends and other supportivepeople who are resources for the family.To emphasis the strengths perspective by listening

to the family and identifying resources within andwithout.To cooperate with families to enable them to becomeadvocates for social justice by identifying communityneeds and working with policy makers to meet the

needs. (Gasker & Vafeas, 2010).


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Women & F.I.E.

Womens participation in the labor force has grown in the pasttwenty-five years.

Workforce participation for women with children aged six and undergrew from 52% to 68%.Workforce participation for women with children between the ages of

six and seventeen grew from 68% to 78% between 1984 and 2008.One third of women in the labor force are the sole financial support oftheir families.The recession of 2009 has particularly affected Black and Hispanicwomen who are unemployed at rates of 13.3% and 11.0%respectively.Nearly one million female heads of households are without jobs.(Joint Economic Committee, 2010).


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Women and the Current Recession

In 2009:

The Median income forsingle mothers was down$2000 to $25,172.The majority of adults withchildren in emergencyshelters (79.6%) werewomen.Over 1/3 (38.5%) of familiesheaded by single motherslive below the povertythreshold.Only 10% of single motherswere receiving TANF in2009. (Baer, 2011).


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Low wages & high child care costs

The average cost of child care for one childaveraged 26% of a single mothers income.With two children in childcare it was 50%.In 18 states and the District of Columbia it was70%.60% of the lowest paid workers in the US arewomen (WLDEF, n.d.).More than twice as many women, 5.52 million, asmenwork in occupations (cashiers, waitresses &maids) paying poverty wages for a family of four.(Reuters, 2012).


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Facts of Womens Lives

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2011 themedian weekly pay for women working full-time was $684as opposed to $832 for men (Reuters, 2012).Women who have children are 50% less likely to be calledback by a potential employer after they have had aninterview than those who are childless (Stone, 2008).Between 2005 and 2010 there was a 23% rise incomplaints filed with the Equal Employment OpportunityCommission (EEOC) for pregnancy discrimination (Elmer,2012) from women who were fired because of theirpregnancies.In 2004, a study by the National Institute of Justice found thatfamily violence increases during economic downturns (Katz,2009).


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A Very Short History of

Progress. The history of violence against women is as long as recorded history and isalmost always sanctioned by law.

In Rome in 753 B.C. the Laws of Chastisement designed to protect a husbandfrom the potential actions of his wife allowed him to beat her as long as theobject he used was no wider than his thumb.

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape was founded in 1975.

The first state Coalition Against Domestic Violence was formed in 1976.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed in 1978.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed in 1994

The Lily Ledbetter Act was passed in 2009.


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Is income a factor in family violence?

Although abuse occursacross allsocioeconomic groups:Family violence is morelikely to occur and to berecognized among lowincome groups.Economic stress can bea factor in abuse .

If we can alleviate economic stress, can we alleviate


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Family systems model of treatment

recognizes that:

The most common form ofspousal violence is not severeand involves both partiesparticipating to some degree.Men initiate the violence,women act in self defense.With no early intervention,violence will escalate.The family structure must

change from non-functioning tofunctioning.The relationship betweencurrent parenting skills or lackof skills and those learned fromparents either by example ornon-example. (Gelles & Maynard,1987).


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Feminist view vs. Psychological view

PatriarchySocial problem

Personality disorder

Individual problemWhats missing?

Bio/psycho/social history of the individual perpetrators.

History of state and societal sanctioned violence againstwomen and children.

The effects of a physical and psychic vulnerability that beginswith birth and follows you throughout your life from childhood to

old age.The effects of a lifetime of unequal pay, lack of affordable child

care options, sexual objectification, having responsibility for morethan one generation of family members, being a cook, a maid, alaundress in addition to working outside the home.


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Individual Societal

Coercion & threatsEconomic abuse

Male privilegeIntimidationUsing childrenUsing emotionalabuse

IsolationBlaming,minimizing &denying.

Homicide is the number one causeof death for women in the workplace.

Picketing and bombing abortionclinics

Gender pay gap

Cutbacks to human services thathelp women

Pregnancy discriminationMaternal profiling

Legal reinforcement for economicdiscrimination

Sexual objectification

Spokes on the Power and Control Wheel


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In Pennsylvania with 60 programs

responding, the shelters:

Provided housing for 1,213individuals or families.

Provided counseling or legal helpfor victims and their children.

Answered 807 hotline calls .

On September 15, 2011, the National Network to End Domestic

Violence conducted their annual one day survey of programs across thecountry

They could have done more, but like all socialservice providers in these economic times, they

did not have the funding.


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The primary need at the shelters in addition to more staffwas for emergency and transitional housing.

Of the 712 requests for services that went unmet on this census

day, 85% were for housing.

Housing Issues Affect Us All

The share of renters who spend more than half their income onhousing is at its highest level in half a century. (ElBoghdady, 2001).

Only 25% of eligible families receive any housing assistance due tolack of funding (National Housing Trust Fund, 2001).

According to the National Consumer Law Center it is more profitablefor banks to foreclose on a home than modify the homeowners loan.

Mortgage servicers who collect payments and manage the mortgagesrecoup their costs when a home is foreclosed but lose money when aloan is renegotiated. The servicers first loyalty is to investors in the mortgagemarket, not to the homeowner who is paying the mortgage. Mortgages aresecuritized which means they become commodities to be bought and sold, so

investors can own many mortgages. (Thompson, 2009).


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Those affected are the least powerful members of our society:neglected and abused children, the mentally disabled, the homeless

and the physically disabled (The United Way of the Greater LehighValley, 2012). These people include, women and the elderly.

The United Way 2011 Non-Profit Budget Survey found thatalthough 69% of agencies had their funding cut, 80% ofagencies saw an increased demand for services.

Funding from donations and foundations have either remainedflat for 36% of agencies or decreased for 38%.

Twenty percent of agencies saw their state funding cut by 77%.

Twenty one to thirty percent saw their funding cut by 9% andthirty one or more percent saw their funding cut by 14%.

The cuts resulted in 52% of agencies laying off staff; 32%cutting programs; 46% cutting program hours and 45%expanding their waiting lists for services (UWGLV,2012).

The Corbett Budget


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NASW Definition of Social Work

Social work is

the professional activity of helping individuals, families, groups or

communities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning,

and for creating societal conditions -- local and global -- favorable to this

goal. (NASW)


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ReferencesAnderson, K. (1997, August). Gender, status and domestic violence: An integration of feminist and family violenceapproaches. National Council on Family Relations , 59 (3), 655-669.

Baer, K., 2011 Poverty and policy. Retrieved from http://povertyandpolicy.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/harder-times-for-single-mothers-and-their children/

Briar-Lawson, K., Lawson, H. A., Hennon, C. B., & Jones, A. R. (2001). Family-centered policies and practices: International implications . New York, New York: Columbia University Press.

ElBoghdaddy, D. (2011, April 25). Affordable rental housing scarce in the U.S., study finds. The Washington Post,retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/affordable-rental-housing- scarce-in-us-study-finds/2011/04/25/AFcBjilE_story.html

Katz, M. (2009). No recession for domestic violence. The Washington Post. Retreived from:http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2009/05/no_recession_for_domestic_viol.html
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ReferencesElmer, V. (2012). Workplace pregnancy discrimination cases on the rise. Retrieved fromhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/workplace-pregnancy-discrimination-cases-on-the-rise/2012/04/06/gIQALWId4S_story.html

Gasker, J., & Vafeas, J. (2010). The family in environment: A new perspective on generalist social workpractice. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences , 5

Gelles, R., & Maynard, P. (1987, July). A structural family systems approach to intervention in cases offamily violence. National Council on Family Relations , 36 (3), 270-275.

Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, Jr, G. H. (2009). Understanding generalist practice (5th ed.). Belmont,California: Brooks/Cole

Majority Staff of the Joint Economic Committee. (2010, December). Invest in women, invest in America:Acomprehensive review of women in the U.S. economy. , 4.doi:http://jec.senate.gov/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=57cfaf04-f297-4c61-964b-6321af47db03

McGoldrick, M., Carter, B., & Preto, N. G. (2011). The expanded family life cycle (4th ed.) New York, NewYork: Allyn & Bacon
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ReferencesNational Housing Trust Fund. (2011, July 28). Memo to Mr. Royce: The truth about the NationalHousing Trust Fund. Retrieved from http://www.nhtf.org/doc/Truth_About_NHTF-Memo_to_Royce.pdf

NASW [Definition adapted from: Standards for Social Service Manpower , 1973, Washington, DC: NationalAssociation of Social Workers, pp.4-5; as cited in Barker, R.L., 2003, The Social Work Dictionary, Washington DC: NASW Press.]

Reuters, 2012. Women still confronting yawning gender gap-study. Retrieved fromhttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/wages-gender-gap-idUSL2E8FH9IC20120417

Stone, G. (2008). Are you a victim of maternal profiling. Retrieved fromhttp://abcnews.go.com/Business/CareerManagement/story?id=4725660&page=1#.T4dXi_knKSo

Thompson, D. (2009). Why servicers foreclose when they should modify and other puzzling behavior.Servicer compensation and its consequences. Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/perverse-incentives-lead_n_328378.html

The Womens Legal Defense and Education Fund (WLEDF), 2009, Women and poverty in America:Issues. Retrieved from http://www.legalmomentum.org/our-work/women-and-poverty/women-and-poverty-in-america-issues.html
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