Women, Violence & Poverty:

A Family-in-Environment Perspective

By Diana Frank, MSW Intern

 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 exist everywhere
(Briar-Lawson, Lawson, Hennon, & Jones, 2001).
Families are our first experience with socialization on an individual
basis and as a family group. They share a past, present and future
together.
Although roles and boundaries within the family change over time,
the family as a unit is unique because relationships between the
members are valuable.
A family can expand through marriage or a commitment to a
partner, through birth or adoption. The death of a family member
is the only way out of the family system. (McGoldrick, Carter, &
Preto, 2011).
F.I.E. is Strengths based

The Family-in-Environment perspective helps social

workers to understand how the family interacts
with other systems that surround them.
Interactions with work, political and religious
organizations, friends, the educational system and
other 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 both resolving
larger social issues and meeting the needs of
individuals within the family. (Briar-Lawson et al.,
2001).
What do families do?

Families are not limited in their roles.

They provide food, shelter, clothing, health care,
counseling, education sometimes simultaneously and
are 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 between
expert and client.
It can also help to facilitate the communication of the
real needs of families to policy makers.
Guiding Principles of the F.I.E Perspective

To recognize the family as an essential social

institution that magnifies the individual experiences of
each family member and the society we live in.
To encourage the family to define itself based on its
relationships, including friends and other supportive
people who are resources for the family.
To emphasis the strengths perspective by listening to
the family and identifying resources within and
without.
To cooperate with families to enable them to become
advocates for social justice by identifying community
needs and working with policy makers to meet the
needs. (Gasker & Vafeas, 2010).
Women & F.I.E.

Womens participation in the labor force has grown in the past

twenty-five years.
Workforce participation for women with children aged six and under
grew 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
of their families.
The recession of 2009 has particularly affected Black and Hispanic
women 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).
Women and the Current Recession
In 2009:

The Median income for

single mothers was down
$2000 to $25,172.
The majority of adults with
children in emergency
shelters (79.6%) were
women.
Over 1/3 (38.5%) of families
headed by single mothers
live below the poverty
threshold.
Only 10% of single mothers
were receiving TANF in
2009. (Baer, 2011).
Low wages & high child care costs

The average cost of child care for one child

averaged 26% of a single mothers income.
With two children in childcare it was 50%.
In 18 states and the District of Columbia it was
70%.
60% of the lowest paid workers in the US are
women (WLDEF, n.d.).
More than twice as many women, 5.52 million, as
menwork in occupations (cashiers, waitresses &
maids) paying poverty wages for a family of four.
(Reuters, 2012).
Facts of Womens Lives

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2011 the

median weekly pay for women working full-time was $684
as opposed to $832 for men (Reuters, 2012).
Women who have children are 50% less likely to be called
back by a potential employer after they have had an
interview than those who are childless (Stone, 2008).
Between 2005 and 2010 there was a 23% rise in
complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) for pregnancy discrimination (Elmer,
2012) from women who were fired because of their
pregnancies.
In 2004, a study by the National Institute of Justice found that
family violence increases during economic downturns (Katz,
2009).
 A Very Short History of
Progress.
The history of violence against women is as long as recorded history and is
almost always sanctioned by law.

In Rome in 753 B.C. the Laws of Chastisement designed to protect a husband

from the potential actions of his wife allowed him to beat her as long as the
object 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.

Is income a factor in family violence?

Although abuse occurs

across all socioeconomic
groups:
Family violence is more
likely to occur and to be
recognized among low
income groups.
Economic stress can be a
factor in abuse .

If we can alleviate economic stress, can we alleviate abuse?

Family systems model of treatment
recognizes that:

The most common form of

spousal violence is not severe
and involves both parties
participating 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 to
functioning.
The relationship between
current parenting skills or lack of
skills and those learned from
parents either by example or
non-example. (Gelles & Maynard,
1987).
Feminist view vs. Psychological view

Patriarchy Personality disorder

Social problem
Individual problem
Whats missing?

Bio/psycho/social history of the individual perpetrators.

History of state and societal sanctioned violence against women

and children.
The effects of a physical and psychic vulnerability that begins
with 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 more
than one generation of family members, being a cook, a maid, a
laundress in addition to working outside the home.
Individual Societal
Spokes on the Power and Control Wheel

Coercion & threats Homicide is the number one cause

of death for women in the workplace.
Economic abuse
Male privilege Picketing and bombing abortion
clinics
Intimidation
Gender pay gap
Using children
Cutbacks to human services that
Using emotional
help women
abuse
Pregnancy discrimination
Isolation
Blaming, Maternal profiling
minimizing & Legal reinforcement for economic
denying. discrimination
Sexual objectification
On September 15, 2011, the National Network to End Domestic
Violence conducted their annual one day survey of programs across the country
In Pennsylvania with 60 programs
responding, the shelters:

Provided housing for 1,213

individuals or families.
Provided counseling or legal help
for victims and their children.
Answered 807 hotline calls.

They could have done more, but like all social

service providers in these economic times, they did
not have the funding.
 The primary need at the shelters in addition to more staff was 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 on
housing is at its highest level in half a century. (ElBoghdady, 2001).
Only 25% of eligible families receive any housing assistance due to
lack of funding (National Housing Trust Fund, 2001).
According to the National Consumer Law Center it is more profitable
for banks to foreclose on a home than modify the homeowners loan.
Mortgage servicers who collect payments and manage the mortgages
recoup their costs when a home is foreclosed but lose money when a
loan is renegotiated. The servicers first loyalty is to investors in the mortgage
market, not to the homeowner who is paying the mortgage. Mortgages are
securitized which means they become commodities to be bought and sold, so
investors can own many mortgages. (Thompson, 2009).
The Corbett Budget
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 Lehigh Valley,
2012). These people include, women and the elderly.

The United Way 2011 Non-Profit Budget Survey found that

although 69% of agencies had their funding cut, 80% of
agencies saw an increased demand for services.

Funding from donations and foundations have either remained

flat 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% and
thirty 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).
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)
The most common way people give up
their power is by thinking they don't have
any.
Alice Walker
Make Your Voice Heard
Initiate a dialogue with your
neighbors, relatives and friends.
Contact your PA legislators at
http://www.capwiz.com/unitedway
/dbq/officials/
Write a letter to the editor of the:
Morning Call:
letters@mcall.com
Express Times:
letters@express-times.com (UWGLV,
2012)
References
Anderson, K. (1997, August). Gender, status and domestic violence: An integration of feminist and family violence
approaches. National Council on Family Relations, 59(3), 655-669.

Baer, K., 2011 Poverty and policy. Retrieved fromhttp://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
References
Elmer, V. (2012). Workplace pregnancy discrimination cases on the rise. Retrieved from
http://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 work
practice. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5

Gelles, R., & Maynard, P. (1987, July). A structural family systems approach to intervention in cases of
family 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:A
comprehensive 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, New
York: Allyn & Bacon
References
National Housing Trust Fund. (2011, July 28). Memo to Mr. Royce: The truth about the National
Housing 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: National
Association 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 from
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/wages-gender-gap-idUSL2E8FH9IC20120417

Stone, G. (2008). Are you a victim of maternal profiling. Retrieved from

http://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