Nia Saxon
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Lorraine Gutierrez
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology and Social Work / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 4 – 2:40pm – 3:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Nia Saxon, Lorraine Gutiérrez
Presenter: 28
Abstract
Those in the field of social work tackle some of the most difficult, complex ideas and problems in society, and often work hands on with those who are directly affected by them. They are also teaching the next generation of social workers. Because of this, it’s important to assess social worker faculty’s attitudes about social justice content, such as feminism, LGBTQ rights, and Critical Race Theory, which directly affect those who they will be working with. This study is based on data collected in 2019 from 258 graduate social work faculty in Master of Social Work (MSW) programs across the country, who filled out a survey to assess their attitudes regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion content in their classes as well as their views on different types of oppression. This project focuses on data collected from the section of the survey that focused on faculties attitudes towards various topics and groups more generally, with emphasis on questions that focused on issues related to gender-based and feminist content. This is done in order to get a sense of how attitudes towards this content may differ based on the demographics of the social work faculty. Analysis done using SPSS found that attitudes towards feminism and violence against women did not differ based on academic rank. Moreover, it was found that female faculty feel a bit stronger towards these issues than male faculty, though there is overall agreement. However, when it comes to noticing sexism in their own workplace, male faculty did not believe they saw it, whereas female faculty did. Based on these findings, it might be of interest to look further into experiences of male and female faculty in MSW programs. Because social workers tend to work directly in communities, it is important for them to be aware of what attitudes and beliefs they and those in their field might have, consciously or not, as it affects the people they are trying to support.
Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences
