The West Point of the Philanthropic Service: Reconsidering Social Work's Welcome to Women in the Early Twentieth Century

This paper argues that in contrast to the historical narrative prevalent for decades, the true narrative of social work’s inception is one of particular anxiety about women, and a lack of welcome for their presence.  This anxiety revolved around social work’s embrace of masculinized concepts as central to the field’s identity as a professional arena of expertise. As the field sought to convince the public of its expertise and professional status, many agencies run by both women and men downplayed social work’s long association with femininity and emotionality, a connotation that dates back to the early nineteenth century, when women’s supposedly innate ability to help others led her to voluntary friendly visiting. The adoption of science as both part of social work’s core rhetoric and practice was a means of claiming professional status, but made the presence of women as the public face of social work untenable. Women, considered unscientific as science “masculinized” at the turn of the century, were a liability to social work’s professional veneer. This phenomenon had serious repercussions for women who made up the bulk of applicants for social work positions: directors of various social welfare programs (most often men, but also women) sought males for their open positions, encouraging women to instead take up volunteer work outside professional boundaries. This system led to the rise of men through the social work ranks to dominate at upper levels and which rewarded them for joining “women’s work” with better pay. This tradition still very much exists.