Gender and Sexuality in Social
Care
Jacqueline O’ Toole
Institute of Technology, Sligo
Equality and Social Inclusion in the 21st
Century
Belfast 2006
Underlying assumption

As gender is implicated in all social
processes and spheres, so too is it
implicated within social care
practice…social care practice is a
gendered sphere
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Ireland
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Context of discussion





Social Care conceptualised as an
“emerging profession”?
Meaning of care is contested
Transformation of intimacy within
intimate situations/moments
Anti-oppressive practice
“Feminisation” of social care practice
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Ireland
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What is Care?

At a policy level

Care is understood as referring to the
provision of facilities and carrying out of
tasks for those unable to do so [my
emphasis] for themselves…carers are those
paid to do these tasks (Orme, 2001:93)
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Ireland
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What is Care?

Distinction routinely drawn between
paid and unpaid caring work…between
informal and formal care (Lynch and
McLaughlin, 1995, Feder Kittay, 1999)
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Ireland
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What is Social Care Practice?

A broad spectrum of specialised
interventions in people’s lives…pivotal in
the delivery of a range of residential,
day and community social services…and
other support services for marginalised
groups (Gallagher and O’ Toole, 1999)
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Ireland
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What is Social Care Practice?

Social care is a profession where people
work in partnership with those who
experience marginalisation or
disadvantage or who have special needs
(sic)…a profession committed to the
planning and delivery of quality care
and other support services for
individuals and groups with identified
needs (IASCE, 2005)
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Ireland
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What is Social Care Practice?

The role of the social care practitioner is
becoming increasingly complex with an
emerging body of literature referring to
the process of reflection as being
central to constructivist learning
(Graham and McGarry, 2002).
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Ireland
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What is Social Care Practice?

Process of negotiation amongst relevant
social actors for a meaningful and
acceptable role within the occupational
structure of the social professions
(Gallagher and O’ Toole, 1999)
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Ireland
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Gender


The process of gender attribution is
itself a social process that varies from
one social setting to another
Inevitability of sex and gender may no
longer be a certainty
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Ireland
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Gender and Inequality

Connell (1987, 1995, 2005)

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hegemonic masculinity, the patriarchal
dividend and the gender order
O’ Connor (1998), Walby (1990)

articulate accounts of Irish and British
society that clearly demonstrate the many
ways in which society is organised at an
overall level to benefit men
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Ireland
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Sexuality

Sexuality as is socially constructed must
be understood as being linked to
particular understandings of femininity
and masculinity and to gender social
relations and power
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Ireland
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Sexuality and Social Care

Expressions of sexuality may occur in
the sharing of life-space through touch,
looking, physical stance, language
usage, clothes and hexis
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Ireland
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Sexuality and Social Care

Discussions of sexuality within social
care take place within a discourse that
places regulation, protection and
control to the forefront
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Ireland
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Anti-Oppressive Practice

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Identify the factors that underpin
oppression and discrimination especially
as they relate to social care theory and
practice
Explain the concepts and issues across
the various forms of discrimination
including sexism, homophobia, racism,
ageism, disabilism and so forth
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Ireland
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Women and Men as Social
Care Practitioners
In the first instance both work within
gender constructed social relationships
In that…
 Constructions of femininity and
masculinity explicitly and implicitly
permeate the provision of care

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Ireland
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
“If we are to attract more men in to the field,
we have to find a way to describe and
advertise the experience of men in the field in
a manner which is attractive to men. We
need to be talking about what it means to be
male in this field, and we need to be able to
explain, in our advertisements, why we need
men in the field. We need to create the
conditions in our college programmes which
will support men in ‘being different’”
(McElwee, 2003)
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Ireland
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Key Questions

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Is social care practice perceived as a natural
and unquestioning occupational choice for
women and if so does this mean we don’t
have to worry about making it attractive to
them as the numbers will always be there?
How can men begin to address their positions
in social care that takes account of their
privileged positions as men in wider society?
Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo,
Ireland
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Key Questions

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Does masculinity turn out to be a boon for men when
they enter non-traditional occupations, as qualities
associated with men become more highly valued than
those associated with women – even in
predominately female jobs?
We need to interrogate masculinity to ascertain
whether there are other advantages of being male in
social care practice, such as: greater access to
promotion, achieving more attention because of their
small numbers, and being rewarded for an ability to
express feelings and emotions which, it would seem,
are taken for granted in women?
Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo,
Ireland
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Key Questions


What does it mean to be a woman in
social care?
We need an interrogation of femininity
to establish if women also bring to this
gendered sphere, the particularities of
their gendered experiences in wider
society.
Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo,
Ireland
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Key Questions

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What discourses of femininity and
masculinity exist in the training of social
care practitioners and in the actual
social care environment?
What is the impact of these discourses
on individual and collective practices?
Jacqueline O' Toole IT Sligo,
Ireland
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The Social Context of Social
Care

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As reflective practitioners, care workers
must be aware of how their interactions
might be underpinned by sexism and be
connected to gender and power
Such interactions must also be
understood in the context of social
class, sexuality, ‘race’, ethnicity,
disability and attendant power relations
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Ireland
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