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4/i^r-/STATEC0LLEGE H IBi THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN A/n/ SOCIAL CASE WORK I WITH FAMILIES Social Work Series Bulletin No. 235-4 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Maurice J. Tobin, Secretary WOMEN’S BUREAU Frieda S. Miller, Director fru'L'/iy,; UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR MAURICE J. TOBIN, SECRETARY WOMEN’S BUREAU FRIEDA S. MILLER, DIRECTOR The Outlook for Women in Social Case Work With Families Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau No. 235—4 Social Work Series U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON : 1951 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. Price 30 cents This bulletin is No. 235-4 in the SOCIAL WORK SERIES No. 235-1 The Outlook for Women in Social Case Work in a Medical Setting. No. 235-2 The Outlook for Women in Social Case Work in a Psy chiatric Setting. No. 235-3 The Outlook for Women in Social Case Work With Children. No. 235-4 The Outlook for Women in Social Case Work With Families. No. 235-5 The Outlook for Women in Community Organization in Social Work. n LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL - United States Department op Labor, Women’s Bureau, Washing ton, February 16, 1951. I have the honor of transmitting this report on the outlook for women in social case work with families. It is the fourth of a series of bulletins on the need for women in the social services, resulting from our current employment opportunities study. The project is planned and directed by Marguerite W. Zapoleon. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the many individuals and agencies who cooperated so generously in supplying information and helpful criticism for this report, which was prepared and written by Agnes W. Mitchell. Respectfully submitted. Frieda S. Miller, Director. Hon. Maurice J. Tobin, Secretary of Labor. Sir : hi FOREWORD The social well-being of our people, like their health, has received growing attention over the years. Of the increasing numbers in our economy engaged in rendering professional social service, two-thirds or more are women. The story of their progress and the current and future needs for their services have been the subject of a Women’s Bureau study which is being reported in a series of bulletins of which this is the fourth. The others, like this report on social case work with families, describe the employment outlook for women in an area of specialization within the field of social work. The final bulletin in the series will describe the outlook for women in the entire field of social work, showing its relation to other professions of women and comparing the specializa tions within the field. Unlike the usual monograph which describes an occupation in detail at a particular point in time, this study, like the earlier Women's Bureau series on occupations in the medical and health services and the sciences, is concerned primarily with changes and trends. • Although more than 2,400 books, articles, or pamphlets have been culled for information, the principal information for this series has been obtained from professional organizations, public and voluntary social agencies, schools of social work, and individual social workers. The following sources have contributed to the study thus far: Fifty-two national professional organizations. For help on this particular report, the Bureau is indebted especially to the Fam ily Service Association of America. Fifty-six schools of social work and other colleges and universities. One hundred and thirty-nine agencies employing social workers, including 31 community chests and councils of social agencies and the American National Reel Cross. Sixty Government agencies concerned with social service programs or employment in this field, including international, State, and local agencies, and such Federal agencies as the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the United States Employment Service in the United States Department of Labor; the United States Civil Service Commission; the United States Veterans’ Admin istration; the Children’s Bureau, the Office of Education, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, and the Public Health v VI FOREWORD Service in the Federal Security Agency. Special acknowledg ment is due the Bureau of Public Assistance of the Federal Security Agency for its generous and expert help with this bulletin. To these contributors the Bureau is indebted for the raw material which made this report possible. It is also grateful to the following for the illustrations used: American National Red Cross (figs. 2, 8, 13) Cincinnati Better Housing League, Cincinnati, Ohio (figs. 6, 9) The Cincinnati Enquirer (fig. 4) Community Chests and Councils of America, Inc. (figs. 5, 11) Cook County Department of Public Welfare, Illinois (figs. 15,18) Department of Public Assistance of Harrisburg, Pa. (fig. 21) Indianapolis Department of Public Welfare (fig. 19) Department of Public Welfare, Montgomery, Ala. (figs. 16, 20) Family Service Association of America (figs. 1, 3) Family Service Association of Cincinnati (fig. 10) Hamilton County Bureau of Public Relief, Ohio (figs. 14,17) Marriage Council of Philadelphia, Pa. (fig. 12) National Travelers Aid Association (fig. 7) Syracuse Community Chest and Council, New York (cover picture). Although readers may recognize gaps in our statistical knowledge of employment in case work with families and the unsurmounted diffi culty of distinguishing always those individuals who are fully quali fied for the profession from those who are not, it is hoped that they will find here a useful synthesis of existing knowledge on an important field of work in which more women are needed. CONTENTS Page Letter of transmittal______________________________ _______ ,_______ _____ Foreword _ Definitions Part I. Voluntary agencies______ The setting____________________________________________ ____________ The outlook . .. _____________________________ Demand and supply Geographic variations in employment_____ Supply------------ _ ----------------------------------------------------------Training____________________ Scholarships and fellowships 22 Earnings, working conditions, and advancement____________________ Earnings___ ,__________________________ _____________________ Hours and working conditions 26 Advancement____________ ... _ _ Organizations^________________ Suggestions to those interested in entering the voluntary family case work field________ Demand prior to World War II_ Wartime changes in employment_ ____________________________ Volunteers____ Part II. Public assistance_______________________ The setting. The outlook__________________ Demand and supply________ ________ .________________________ Geographic variations in employment-- _______________________ Supply------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Training-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Scholarships and fellowships7 Earnings, working conditions, and advancement____________________ Earnings------------------------------------------------------------------- J________ Hours and working conditions 57 Advancement________________ Organizations.. ____________________________ Suggestions to those interested in entering public assistance work___ Demand prior to World War II 66 Wartime changes in employment 70 Volunteers_______ ___________________ . _________________ Appendix: Minimum requirements for a beginning Federal civil service position as social worker____________ Schools of social work in the continental United States accredited by the American Association of Schools of Social Work_______________ Member schools of the National Association of Schools of Social Ad ministration-_ ____ ________ __ _______________________ Organizations represented in the Social Case Work Council of the Na tional Social Welfare Assembly 76 Sources to which reference is made in the text______________________ vn nl v IX 4 4 7 9 17 18 20 24 24 27 28 30 32 35 38 41 41 44 46 49 49 53 55 56 56 59 61 63 71 73 73 75 77 VIII CONTENTS Tables: 1. Geographic distribution of 226 member agencies of the Family Serv ice Association of America, January 1950, compared with the general population 18 2. Geographic distribution of professional State and local public assist ance workefs in the United States, June 1949, compared with the general population 49 Illustrations: 1. A case worker from a voluntary agency interviews a family in their home 2. A tornado victim discusses the loss of his new home with a case worker in Red Cross Disaster Service_____________ 3. An elderly client is assisted to obtain medical care by a family case worker in a voluntary agency 4. A case worker with the Salvation Army assists a homeless man_ _ 5. A deserted wife makes plans for family care with a case worker in a family agency 10 6. A social worker explains to a tenant how to pay rent regularly in spite of low income 11 7. Case workers in Travelers Aid assist those in transit_____________ 8. Victims of a plant explosion explain the damage done to their home to a Red Cross case worker in Disaster Service------------------------9. A home adviser with a voluntary agency promoting better housing points out the location of blighted homes to the chairman of the agency board__________________________________________________ 10. A group of social work students are instructed on budgeting by a home economist on the staff of a voluntary family agency______ 11. A family case worker assists a father in providing for his children’s care during their mother’s illness 27 12. A marriage counselor interviews atroubled husband______________ 13. Professional Red Cross Home Service workers assist servicemen, veterans, and their families 34 14. A visitor’s typical day 40 15. A case worker in a county welfare department prepares application forms for old-age assistance______________ _____________________ 16. A case worker confers with an assessor concerning property values in making allowances for tax payments 52 17. The supervisor in line with her duties confers with a case worker under her supervision 60 18. A family case worker obtains information from the mother of a pa tient in a county hospital while others wait to see her--------------19. A county director of welfare at her desk confers with a staff member 66 20. A widowed mother who has applied for aid to dependent children for her three youngest children is interviewed in her home by a visitor--------------------------21. A visitor at the end of the day plans forthe following day’s work- Page x 3 6 9 13 17 22 24 29 45 63 68 71 Case Worker (Professional and Kindred), 0-27.20, as Defined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (63) “Perforins any one or a combination of the following social service duties, usually requiring a college degree and applying techniques ac quired through postgraduate training in social service work, in pur suance of a welfare program organized by a public or private agency or organization. Studies physical and social environment of a family, person, or persons in order to determine and execute practical plans for alleviating existing undesirable conditions. Visits persons in need of assistance or receives clients at intake desk of agency. Inter views clients to ascertain nature of their problem. Diagnoses prob lems, considering factors involved, and plans treatment. Slakes necessary contacts to ascertain background and needs of clients and their eligibility for financial, medical, and material assistance. Helps clients understand their situations more clearly and assists them to reach satisfactory solutions for their problems. Refers clients to community resources, such as hospitals, clinics, recreational facilities, and schools, which may assist in rectifying the maladjustments. En deavors to foster self-development of individuals in order that they may successfully meet social exigencies. Follows progress of cases beyond the solution of immediate problems. Keeps case histories and other records.” Case Worker, Family (Professional and Kindred); Family Coun selor, as Defined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (63) “Assists in solving problems that affect the unity and welfare of the family, such as unemployment, household management, care of family members, rearing children, and the care of unmarried mothers, and children born out of wedlock: Attempts to solve problems affect ing individual members of family, such as runaway children and im provident fathers, by recommending positive steps for remedial meas ures. Counsels other family members on eliminating personality frictions, unsympathetic attitudes toward the maladjusted, and other barriers to harmonious relationships. In a public welfare program, ascertains clients’ eligibility for receipt of monetary grants or other services. Determines amount of payments or assumes responsibility for services rendered.” 932017°—51------ 2 IX ■FI 111 ’ I Figure 1.—A case worker from a voluntary agency interviews a family in their home. x THE OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN IN SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES More than 42,000 social workers in 1949, about 80 percent of them women, were assisting families to meet the problems with which they needed outside help. Almost 32,000 of these family case workers were in government agencies rendering public assistance, and some 10,000 were in voluntary community-supported social agencies, sometimes known as private social agencies. Social work with families is the oldest form of social work in the United States, having developed as a service to meet family needs, and it will probably exist as long as the family continues to be the basic social unit in our society. In recent years, social insurance has reduced the extent and amount of financial need among families, and public welfare agencies have expanded to supply financial assistance where need is established. Often, however, where financial need does not exist or where it may be only a symptom, there are other problems. A mother may be able to feed her children but feel helpless to deal with their behavior. A father may be unable to support his family because of a heart con dition that reduces his capacity to work. It is the family case worker’s job to find the basic cause of the problems that threaten the family’s well-being, to strengthen the inner resources of the family members, and to help the family to utilize the resources of the com munity in working out a solution. Like all social case workers, the family case worker is skilled in seeing the individual in relation to his family and all the circum stances of his environment and in using community resources in help ing him to work out his problem. But the distinguishing character istic of family case work has been defined by the Family Service Association of America, with which about 250 voluntary family serv ice agencies in the United States are affiliated. These agencies treat the needs of a family group or any of its members without restriction as to the age or type of individual, always taking into account the interplay of social and personal factors and family interrelationships. The staff of an agency deals with a wide range of problems, such as marital difficulties, problems of parent-child relationships, and prob lems of the aged (58). Because satisfactory family relationships are important in individ ual adjustment, especially in the case of children, there has been a growing tendency for family case work to place emphasis on work l 2 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN with children in their homes. In recent years the overlapping of the work of child welfare and family welfare agencies has caused some of these voluntary agencies to merge, especially in the smaller com munities. The outlook for case workers who work in a child welfare agency, or primarily with children in a separate unit of a family or other social agency, will be reported in a later bulletin in this series on social case work with children. Because the problems a family encounters are legion, the family case worker must develop a variety of skills and knowledge. In the course of a day, as one writer has put it, the family case worker may be called upon to give financial help to a man for purposes of job training, to arrange for housekeeping service for the children of a mother suddenly taken ill, and to counsel a wife who is considering separation from her husband {26). In dealing with such problems, she uses her case work skills in assembling background information bearing on the problem, in seeing it in relation to the family and the community setting, and in utilizing the resources of the individual, the family, and the community toward its solution. In most communities voluntary and public agencies supplement each other in their efforts to meet the needs of families. When a family lacks funds for the essentials of living, it can usually obtain aid from the government agency providing public assistance to the community in which the family resides, although there are gaps in assistance plans of some States and communities, and these gaps may create hardships for needy families. If a family is not eligible for aid from a public agency, either because it does not meet residence re quirements or for some other reason, it may be able to obtain financial help from voluntary agencies. Although the voluntary family service agency is usually able to extend some financial aid in situations where the public agency cannot function, voluntary agencies are unable because of the limitation of their funds to fill, in any real measure, gaps left by social insurance and public assistance provisions. In principle voluntary agencies do not accept responsibility for supplementing assistance grants or for providing financial aid to groups not covered by public assistance grants, for such assistance is regarded as a government responsibility. The extent to which they give financial assistance varies. A report by the member agencies of the Family Service Association in 1949 stated that from 17 to 25 percent of the budget of some of the agencies was expended in financial assistance (76'). More than 90 percent of the Catholic voluntary agencies in 1950 were reported as giving some financial aid to families they were serving. A midwestern voluntary family agency reported in 1949 that 32 percent of the families apply ing for service to the organization had financial trouble; however, the SOCIAL CASE) WORK WITH FAMILIES 3 Figure 2.—A tornado victim discusses the loss of his new home with a case worker in Red Cross Disaster Service. need in the main was for budgeting and financial planning, and only one-fifth of these families received financial aid as a part of the case work plan. When major family problems in addition to financial need are evident, the public agency often refers the family to a voluntary family agency for the more intensive case work which the public assistance visitor may not have the time, or sometimes the skill, to give, and which the voluntary agencies are primarily equipped to provide. In rural districts, however, such voluntary resources are generally lacking. In many communities interagency relationships between public and private agencies working with families have been formally worked out, as public services have expanded. After some decades of progress, the public assistance agency has become a valued member of local com munity councils. Much of this progress is due to the work of community planning councils in which public as well as private agencies are represented {55). The work of coordinating and planning councils will be discussed more fully in another bulletin in this series on community organization. The present bulletin is concerned primarily with case workers who deal with families—first in voluntary social agencies, and secondly, in public assistance programs. Part I. Voluntary Agencies THE SETTING About 10,000 case workers, 80 percent of them women, were employed in voluntary family service agencies in 1950, according to available estimates. Voluntary family case work agencies are created and administered by groups of private citizens. They are financed by voluntary contributions made either directly or through a community chest, and sometimes, in part, by fees paid by families receiving service. These agencies vary as to function, auspices, and standards of per sonnel. Almost 250 agencies in 1950 were members of the Family Service Association of America, which has achieved high standards of membership. In 1947 this association reported that, through its member agencies, case work services were available in communities with populations totaling more than 55 million people or approxi mately 40 percent of the population of the country. The large maj ority of these member agencies were nonsectarian, although about 20 were Jewish or Catholic agencies. Outside the association were a number of sectarian agencies, including other Jewish and Catholic agencies, which ministered primarily to members of their own groups. Many of these agencies had various functions and were called “multiple service agencies,” but nearly all offered family case work services. Many other family agencies in existence throughout the country are not members of the Family Service Association. For instance, in 1948 only 6 family agencies in Metropolitan Boston were members of the association, while 14 others were not. Some family case work is also carried on by travelers’ aid societies, churches, legal aid societies, housing projects, and international or ganizations. Agencies which carry on family case work vary greatly in size. Typical of the larger voluntary family agencies is one in a midwestern city of about a half million population which had in 1949 a staff of 27 professional persons exclusive of clerical staff. This included the social case workers engaged directly in case work treatment, the ad ministrative and supervisory staff, a case work director, a director of homemaker services, and a home economist. Some agencies in the Larger cities of the country have a larger professional staff, but, on the other hand, agencies in smaller communities may have very few pro fessional workers. A typical small family agency in a medium-sized 4 SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 5 mid western city in 1949 had 4 professional workers, including an exec utive secretary, a case supervisor, and 2 staff case workers. Accord ing to the Family Service Association of America, its affiliated agen cies throughout the country had an average staff of about 9 professional workers per agency in 1950. The typical case worker in a voluntary family service agency may be called upon to give many forms of service during the working day, such as arranging financial aid for a man in need of equipment to be used in his employment, or conferring about the care of her family with a mother facing a long hospitalization. Although, as noted earlier, some financial assistance is given by voluntary family service agencies, case workers in such agencies concentrate their efforts for the most part on situations where family friction, broken homes, health, or personality problems are producing maladjustments of the individuals within the family group or of the family as a whole. The case worker’s aim is to build up the strength of the individual and of family life. Since every family has its own special problems, no two families require identical service. A survey in 1949 showed that over one-third of the problems dealt with by private family agencies concerned husband-wife difficulties, almost one-fourth were problems of emotional instability affecting personal and family ad justments, about one-fifth involved financial planning, and the re mainder were parent-child difficulties (E£). To be able to meet problems as they arise, the family case worker must develop a variety of skills. Foremost among them is the ability to understand the family situation while remaining objective about it. Focusing on the problems as they are seen by the family mem bers and helping the family to move forward in the solution of its problems form the core of case work with families. But the family case worker’s function in a voluntary agency does not end with the rehabilitation of the family. Her responsibilities include the establishment of satisfactory relations between the family and the community. The case worker studies the effect of the en vironment upon the life of the family and contributes to the over all efforts of the agency to improve the condition of the family living in the community. In this way the case worker helps strengthen family life, assists the individual in his relationship to his social setting, and improves community relationships. The number of cases, or “case load,” assigned to a case worker in a voluntary family agency is usually smaller than that customarily assigned in public assistance agencies because of the more intensive nature of case work in voluntary agencies. Case loads usually aver age around 40 to 50 families in a voluntary agency (2If.), in contrast to 140 to 230 in public assistance agencies. Changes in the case load 6 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN isisiP*' Figure 3.—An elderly client is assisted to obtain medical care by a family case worker in a voluntary agency. SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 7 are usually more frequent in voluntary agencies than in public agen cies because many of the problems handled by voluntary agencies can be solved in comparatively short periods, while in public agencies work with some families may be required for years, as, for instance, with those where old age or chronic illness are the causes of financial need. THE OUTLOOK It will be some years before enough case workers are available for work in voluntary family agencies, according to specialists in this field. The demand is not only immediate but promises to be pro longed, since the need for constant expansion of services in this field is evident. One authority says that we have not even scratched the surface of possible services in the complicated realm of family rela tionships. Services to prevent the disintegration of family relation ships are on the increase, and a definite movement away from institu tionalizing family members, in favor of the maintenance of the family unit, is evident in present-day social work practice. Additional areas of service are constantly being added to the programs of voluntary agencies, as their importance in family adjustment is recognized. Some of those already offered by some voluntary family organizations are marriage counseling, aid to unmarried mothers and provision for their children, family budgeting assistance, provision for homemaker service for the aged and the blind, psychiatric clinical assistance, vocational guidance and placement services, and travelers’ aid. In the last 2 or 3 years numerical requests for service have been definitely on the increase. Although requests for family service in the past have tended to fluctuate with such major'social pressures as those occasioned by war or depressions and with the adequacy of public assistance grants, the current trend in the demand for service is upward. For example, a family service organization in a large eastern city in 1949 served nearly 30,000 families, as compared with 27,400 families in the previous year. Reports from other agencies over the last 2 or 3 years indicate a steadily increasing demand for service. The use of voluntary family agencies has been encouraged by the acceptance of fees for services. During World War II some families previously served without charge by voluntary family agencies found that, while their need for case work continued, they could afford to pay a fee for the services. Even before World War II some agencies had begun the practice of encouraging contributions or fees from families served. Some families needing case work services, although unable to pay large professional fees, would not apply for service unless they 932017°—51----- 3 8 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN could pay something for it. As a result of these developments some voluntary agencies have a policy of offering service on a fee basis adjusted to the income of the family and waived for families who cannot pay. In 1947, 45 member agencies of the Family Service As sociation charged families a nominal fee ranging from 25 cents to $10, the most common being $1. In some agencies as many as 500 families a year were given service on a fee basis. This use of the service fee is expected to grow, extending the usefulness of family service to a broader section of the community and resulting in an increase in the number of social case workers needed for family service. An increasing number of industrial workers, especially those who migrate from one community to another as work opportunities change, are making use of family case work service to help with problems created by housing and other difficulties encountered in the new com munity. During World War II, 12 percent of the industrial popu lation moved from one county to another and 6 percent from one State to another. Modern transportation and communication facilities en courage migration, which in turn creates new needs among families establishing themselves in a community. Displaced persons and other immigrants who have entered the United States in recent years often need special help from voluntary agencies in becoming settled in strange surroundings. Family case work authorities frequently stress the need for research and experimental work. Public assistance agencies are usually less free to undertake experiments because their function is limited by statute. Therefore, experimental research in social services to the family comes primarily from the voluntary agencies. These agencies have accumulated a vast range of knowledge about personal attitudes, environmental factors, and social requirements which make for a sound and satisfying family life. In a few voluntary agencies case workers are already participating in research, and increasing oppor tunities for research work are likely to be available for those trained for family case wmrk, although the difficulty of financing large-scale research suggests that the total number of research jobs will be small in relation to the number of case work jobs in this field. The need for those who can give instruction in case work with families will also grow with the need for more trained personnel. The value of instruction and supervised field experience in family case work as background for other types of work with individuals is also being increasingly recognized. This growing recognition will add to the demand for instructional personnel, not only in universities and schools of social work, but in voluntary family agencies, where those who supervise the field work of students are employed. SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 9 Figure 4.—A case worker with the Salvation Army assists a homeless man. Family case workers in voluntary agencies play a vital role in im proving standards of family life and in preventing breakdown of the family. They also contribute to the social advancement of the com munity by pointing out the need for environmental changes and social action that they see in their daily work. They will continue to have the privilege of participating in the improvement of the community as well as of helping individuals to enjoy a happier family life. DEMAND AND SUPPLY The exact number of family case workers in voluntary agencies in the United States is not known. Employment statistics available from various national agencies indicate that, for the country as a whole, the number in 1950 was probably about 10,000. This estimate includes not only case workers in family service agencies, but home service and disaster workers in the Red Cross, travelers’ aid workers, and others, as indicated below. About 80 percent are women. One of the largest employers of family case workers is the American National Red Cross and its local chapters. Its home service program supplies case work service to servicemen, veterans, and their depend ents. In 1948 there were 134 professional social workers on the Home 10 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN 1T--C4C >v vV*« Figure 5.—A deserted wife makes plans for family care with a case worker in a family agency. Service staffs in the National Headquarters and in the five area offices, and 1,460 administrators and supervisors'and 2,496 paid case workers in the larger chapters among the 3,753 local Red Cross chapters throughout the country. The Home Service of a Red Cross chapter in one midwest city in 1949, for instance, included 19 paid profes sional workers: 15 case workers, 2 of them men; 2 women case work supervisors; an administrator; and his assistant, a woman. The edu cational requirement for these workers was 1 year of graduate work in a recognized school of social work. Those with master’s degrees were preferred, but it was impossible to obtain them at the salary of fered. Paid case workers in the chapters in the larger cities, however, were for the most part graduates of schools of social work or people with long experience in social work. In chapters in areas of lesser population where paid workers were employed, many of the workers were untrained. In many of the smaller chapters service to families was carried on by the executive secretary, who is chief administrative officer of the chapter, as a part-time activity or, in very small chapters, by volunteers. In 1948 more than 4,000 volunteers were reported to be active in this Home Service of the Red Cross in addition to the paid 11 SOCIAL CASE; WORK WITH FAMILIES workers. Many of these volunteers were married women who had been social workers before their marriage and who contributed a few hours a week of their time to this program, but others were without specialized training or experience. The Disaster Services at Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington, D. C., in 1950 had a regular staff of approximately 30. professional social workers, 5 of whom were men. All but 2 were in field jobs. Since 1946, qualifications for the permanent staff have included 2 years of graduate training in a school of social work, or equivalent experience in emergency social work, preferably with fam ilies. Disaster Services staff supply case work services to stricken families in communities suffering from floods, hurricanes, fires, torna does, or similar disasters. When additional workers are needed for temporary assignment following a large disaster, names of persons ' . mm 18111118 Figure 6.—A social worker explains to a tenant how to pay rent regularly in spite of low income. 12 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN with previous disaster experience are obtained from current lists of disaster reserve workers maintained for this purpose. Many private and public social work agencies permit their professional workers to serve with the Red Cross on disaster relief operations on a temporary basis. The largest group of family case workers are in local voluntary family agencies. In 1950 approximately 250 agencies of this type, employing an estimated 2,300 social workers, were affiliated with the Family Service Association of America. A typical affiliated agency in a large midwestern city was directed by a man with a professional staff of 6 women supervisors and 11 women and 2 men case workers. The position of assistant director, formerly held by a woman, was vacant, and difficulty in filling the position was attributed to the gen eral shortage of trained social workers. An estimated 2,000 case workers were employed in 1950 in the 265 agencies of the Catholic Charities, sometimes called the Associated Catholic Charities of the Diocesan Bureau of Social Service. Ninetythree Jewish family case work agencies in this country in 1950 were staffed by about 450 full-time or part-time workers and supervisors. A third of these agencies were small and had each only one or two professional workers classified as case workers or supervisors on their staff. Some Protestant groups, like the Lutheran wel fare agencies, also offei'ed family service. Some of these sectarian agencies hired only social workers of the same religious faith, but others employed workers with various religious affiliations. In a few of the larger communities the Salvation Army also offered family case work service. An estimated 550 workers were employed in travelers’ aid work throughout the country in 1950, according to the National Travelers Aid Association, which had 110 affiliated local societies offering serv ice in over 625 communities. These workers provided consultative and advisory case work service to individuals and families in transit throughout the country and collected and prepared information with regard to transiency. To provide service where no regular travelers’ aid society existed, almost 1,000 organizations and individuals were on call, among them many of the family service agencies in the Family Service Association, local Red Cross chapters, and departments of public welfare. The headquarters office of the National Travelers Aid Association located in New York City had a professional staff of 18 in 1948 (SI). In 1950 local travelers’ aid staffs varied in size: New York City had 58 professional case workers, Los Angeles had 19, and Boston had 14, whereas many smaller cities, such as Charlotte, N. C., and New Haven, Conn., had only 2 or 3 professional workers. In a medium-sized midwestern city in 1949 there were 8 professional workers on the staff of the local travelers’ aid society, 2 of them men SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 13 New Americans. A stranded family. A family with a problem. I Figure 7.—Case workers in Travelers Aid assist those in transit. 14 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN who were part-time students. The administrator, the case supervisor, and 2 of the 4 case workers were women. During the past two decades marriage counseling lias become known as a specialized service offered by some agencies which specialize ex clusively in this form of counseling, and by others which include such counseling in services to families and individuals. Voluntary family service agencies such as those affiliated with the Family Service As sociation are of the latter type. They have no separate marriage counseling service but assign families with marital problems to ex perienced case workers who are prepared to deal with such problems among other problems of family relationships. One family agency in a large midwestern city reported that one-fourth of the 3,000 re quests for service in 1949 involved marital problems. Clergymen, physicians, lawyers, and teachers, of course, have customarily given counsel with regard to marital adjustments in connection with their other functions, although only a few have taken specialized training to prepare them for this work. Many who are not equipped to offer the type of family service available in organized agencies refer fam ilies to voluntary or public agencies for help. In recent years, however, some psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, urologists, gynecologists, educators, sociologists, clergymen, and law yers, as well as social workers, have specialized in premarital counsel ing for young adults and aid to maladjusted married couples. A woman with a Ph. D. degree in sociology headed a marriage counsel ing service in an eastern city in 1950. Two full-time and one part time counselors, all women, were on the staff, and two men physicians conducted evening and Saturday clinics. A midwestern city had one full-time case worker and three part-time case workers in its marriage counsel clinic in 1948. Marriage counseling clinics charge fees which vary greatly in amount in different areas but in all cases are on a sliding scale and are adjusted to ability to pay. Apparently the de mand for marriage counselors exceeds the supply, as a midwestern university reported that in 1948 its sociology department had many requests for persons trained in this field which it had been unable to till, and a southern university reported requests from family agencies for persons qualified in marriage counseling. Family case workers are also employed in small numbers in other organizations and agencies where case work service or arranging con tacts between families and community agencies is frequently needed. Some courts and legal aid societies employ case workers to make in vestigations of families involved in legal action who require such services. In public housing the employment of at least one social case worker in each large development is considered desirable. Three midwestern SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 15 cities and one oil the Pacific Coast were among those reported to have social workers on the staff of their public housing authorities in 1949. The housing authority of one of these midwcstern cities in 1950 em ployed five housing managers, with training or experience in a social agency, four of whom were women. These managers each had the responsibility for the management of more than 1,000 family units. In one of the larger projects in this city, the manager, herself a fully trained case worker, had four assistants who served as investi gators. These investigators and the managers of the smaller projects reviewed size of family and income periodically and handled minor problems which arose among the tenants in the field of domestic difficulties, health, delinquency, or housekeeping problems, especially those involving relations with other tenants, such as laundry sched ules, garbage disposal, or cleaning responsibilities. Major social prob lems requiring intensive service were referred to appropriate community agencies. The initial selection of tenants was made in the central office of the authority by a special tenant-selection staff of four persons, only one of whom had social work experience (with the local Family Service Association). A private social agency in terested in improving housing in the same city had a professional staff of eight persons in 1950, of whom four, including the two admin istrators and an assistant, were trained social workers or in the process of attaining training in an accredited school of social work. Family case workers are also attached to some institutions, as, for example, homes for the aged and correctional institutions and related organizations. In an eastern city a prison association, supported by private funds, employed a staff of three men and one woman in 1950; the latter, a social worker, was in charge of the family service bureau of the association, which offered case work service to families of men serving terms in the State institutions. Women deprived of their husbands’ share in responsibility for the conduct of the family were helped with problems such as illness in the family. They were also helped with plans for the prisoner’s release, adjustment of the chil dren to their father’s absence, and other difficulties created by the imprisonment of the head of the family. Families of women pris oners were given service by the Women’s Prison Association in the same city (47). In a midwestern city in 1949 a similar organiza tion, known as Prisoner’s Aid, had a professional staff composed of a woman administrator, a man case worker, and a woman trained as a medical social worker, who worked part time. The Navy Eelief Society, which gives assistance to dependents of Navy personnel, in 1949 had a social worker in charge of its head quarters office in Washington, D. C. There were also several social 032017“—51- -4 16 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN woikers on the staff of its auxiliary at one of the large naval training stations. In addition to the social workers employed by the Federal Govern ment in direct case work to families in the District of Columbia, a few such workers are employed by the Government elsewhere. For example, about 30 social case workers were employed in the Indian Service in the Department of the Interior in 1950 to give direct service to Indians on government reservations. A few industrial and commercial establishments employ family case workers. Among them are firms in such varied fields as soap manufacturing, retail merchandising, machine manufacturing, and financing. Some unions have designated counselors among their mem bers who supply needed information on community services to other members. Comparatively few social workers are employed in industrial coun seling, however, in spite of its rapid expansion during and since World War II. Most firms regard counseling on job and employee-relation problems as the primary function of their counselors, and therefore prefer people with industrial and personnel experience, rather than social workers. The employees, too, may prefer to obtain social serv ices when they need them through community agencies to which they contribute and in which they participate, rather than through their employers. Nevertheless, a worker’s performance on the job and bis adjustment to it and to his fellow employees often depend on the solu tion of family problems—housing, for example, or day-time care of children, or marital misunderstandings. Even for the purpose of referring employees to appropriate agencies for social service, medi cal care, or psychological diagnosis, some acquaintance with the social work field is an advantage. Employee counseling offers interesting possibilities to persons with industrial experience and social work training; moreover, salaries in this field are not fixed, but depend to a large extent on the value of services rendered. ^ -Vu increasing number of family case workers from the United States are working in other countries. A list of the employed grad uates of one accredited school of social work in 1948 included one teaching social case work in India and others engaged in social work in the Far East and in various European countries. Experienced family case workers are among the small but increasing number of social workers employed by international organizations affiliated with the United Nations. Others are engaged in working with refugees in agencies in the United States whose work is with the foreign born. A knowledge of languages and of the customs and traditions of other nations is important for work in international organizations or in work with families in other countries or with foreign-born families. SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 17 Geographic Variations in Employment Country-wide information on the location of positions of case workers in voluntary family agencies is not available, but the geo graphic distribution of the member agencies of the Family Service Association of America offers a clue. The association represents a large segment of voluntary family service and accounts for roughly Figure 8.—Victims of a plant explosion explain the damage done to their home to a Red Cross case worker in Disaster Service. one-fourth of all family case workers in the United States. In table 1 the distribution of these voluntary family agencies compared with the distribution of the population shows a marked concentration of the agencies in the Northeastern States,1 while the Southern and Western States have only half as many agencies as their proportion of the total population warrants. It is generally accepted that the South has 1 Regions as designated in TJ. S. Census reports are used throughout: Northeastern States—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont. North Central States-Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin. South—Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia. West—Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming (62). 18 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN lagged behind other sections of the country in providing privately financed social services, and that the West, because of the relative recency of frontier conditions, did not generally feel the need for the establishment of such services until the depression of the thirties. In 1950, although openings in family service agencies were avail able throughout the country, the greatest demand, according to the Family Service Association, was in the Pacific Coast region. New voluntary family agencies were being developed in California and in Oregon; the first voluntary family agency in Portland, Oreg., was established that year. In 3 months in 1947-48 the Social Workers’ Placement Service of the California Department of Employment re ported seven positions open in voluntary family agencies in the West ern States. All but one of these were in nonsectarian agencies. There are still relatively few voluntary family agencies employing case workers in rural communities because adequate local financial support is not available. However, several national agencies, among them the American National Red Cross and the National Travelers Aid Association, have encouraged the extension of services to rural areas. In addition, a number of local voluntary family service agen cies are serving rural or semirural territory contiguous to the metro politan areas in which they are located {10). Table 1.—Geographic Distribution of 226 Member Agencies of the family Service Asso ciation of America, January 1950, Compared with the General Population Member agencies 1 Region Number United States__________ Northeastern States____ North Central States____ South __ __ _ West__________ _ _ Percent Estimated population of United States, 1949 2 Percent 226 100.0 100.0 98 76 36 16 43.4 33.6 15.9 7.1 26.4 29.7 30.6 13.3 - \ FPlFk Service Association of America, Directory of Member Agencies, January 1950. 2 U. S. Bureau of the Census (61). Supply Graduate schools of social work are not producing enough students with case work training to fill the continuing demand from long estab lished family agencies and also take care of expanding services. The dean of a midwestern graduate school of social work believes that incieased specialization in medical or psychiatric social work has drained off many promising prospects from the voluntary family case work field. He notes, however, that the whole social work field is suffering from an under supply and believes that higher salaries would SOCIAL CASE, WORK WITH FAMILIES 19 help to attract additional persons into the work. An executive in a southwest family service agency attributes her difficulty in obtaining trained workers to the lack of a graduate school of social work in her area. For a number of years this agency has had difficulty in keeping its staff jobs tilled. Only about 2,050 men and women received degrees or certificates from graduate schools of social work in the United States in 1948-49. Many of these were already employed by agencies to which they were expected to return following completion of their training and so did not add to the total supply. In one school all but 4 of the 102 enrolled were committed by agreement to return to their agencies at the end of a year of training. Another graduate school of social work reported that about one-fourth of the 200 women graduates in social case work during a 3-year period from 1944 to 1946 became family case workers. It is doubtful that as many as one-third, or roughly 680, of the nearly 2,050 graduates in 1948-49 entered voluntary family case work agencies as new workers, although this is the number needed for replacements alone. Even before World War II the Russell Sage Foundation reported that voluntary family agencies were hiring new workers equivalent in number each year to one-fifth of their staff (37). Such turn-over, which does not appear to be diminishing, increases the job openings for new graduates as well as for experienced workers wishing to transfer. Social work graduates, prepared for family case work in 1949, had, therefore, many opportunities from which to choose in voluntary family agencies, travelers’ aid societies, religious agencies and insti tutions, and a miscellaneous group of other organizations and agencies. Graduate schools of social work reported a demand far greater than the supply. One school director s ummed up the situation in 1949 by saying that anyone with reasonable personal qualifications and 1 year of graduate training in social work could get a position in almost any part of the country, and a person with a master’s degree had even greater opportunity. An administrator in a midwestern family agency explained that shortages for qualified case work personnel were caused in 1950, not only by the expansion of services in the entire social work field but also by the fact that previously well-established fields, like family case work, have increased their demands for quali fied personnel. In addition, the expansion in newer areas, such as public welfare and psychiatric clinics, drains the already inadequate supply of available staff so that the voluntary family service field’s share of the total pool is less. Therefore she expects the demand for trained case workers to outrun the supply for several years. 20 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN TRAINING In voluntary family service agencies with the highest educational standards the minimum qualification for professional status as a family case worker is completion of 2 years of work in a graduate school of social work, but some agencies have been forced by personnel shortages to accept workers with less preparation. In a study of 400 social workers in California—a sample of all registered social workers in that State in 1946 nearly three-fourths of the 70 family case work ers included in the sample were college graduates, and one-third of the 70 had completed at least 1 year or more of professional training. I he amount of education and training of these family case workers exceeded the average for all the social workers included in the study, of whom only 62 percent were college graduates and only 5 percent had at least 1 year of professional training (39). The trend toward the lequirement of graduate training in social work before employ ment was well established before World War II. In 1939, 207 mem ber agencies of the Family Service Association employed 452 new workers, of whom 58 percent had completed a 2-year graduate course m social work, and an additional 31 percent had had some graduate training (57). Many of those working in voluntary family agencies without graduate training are older workers who entered the field before such training was generally available or sought; some, however, are recent college graduates hired because of a continued shortage of trained workers. In many of the local agencies visited in the course of this study, at least one member of the staff was away on educational leave to complete graduate training. Some authorities in this field believe I he “case-aide plan” to be most satisfactory. Under this plan women without graduate training are encouraged to work for a private agency for a year as case aides and then go to a school of social work to obtain the necessary graduate training. After 1 year of graduate work, the beginner is advanced by many agencies to the junior case work level with an increase in salary. When 2 years of graduate work and 1 to 3 years of experience in the agency have been acquired, the worker usually is advanced to senior grade case worker with a further increase in salary. In 1950 in the continental United States there were 47 graduate schools of social work which were accredited by the American Asso ciation of Schools of Social Work and offered graduate preparation for case work in voluntary family agencies. (See appendix, p. 73, for list.) Social case work is a required subject in the first year of an accredited program. Students wishing to specialize in family case work usually do their field work in an approved family service agency. Some authorities in the family field have emphasized the need for SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 21 field work experience in a psychiatric agency as background for family social workers, because the family case worker deals con stantly with personality problems in adults and children. A survey of over 400 members of the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers made in 1942 showed that at that time almost 3 per cent were employed in family case work. More recent figures prob ably would show a higher percentage in this field, according to some social case work authorities. After a case worker becomes a member of a staff of a family service organization, she usually participates in its staff development pro gram. Great variation exists in agency training programs. Usually staff conferences with her supervisor, institutes, seminars, psychiatric consultation, and other means are used to integrate her experience and training. Emphasis is placed first upon an understanding of the development of personality and of behavior. The worker must learn to recognize the kinds of situations and experiences that contribute to normal, healthy development and those that produce anxious, in secure, immature, or unstable individuals. She must understand the meaning and nature of family life and learn how to use this insight. Skilled supervision helps her develop the necessary professional discipline that assists her in gaining control over her own bias, preju dices, and attitudes, so that she may help the client in a warm, human, but objective way. Through such vital growth and learning in the organization, theory, knowledge, and practice are integrated and become a part of the case worker’s professional equipment (73). In marriage counseling carried on by specialized agencies outside the family service field, graduate training is also usually required. One agency in the East, for instance, set the following specifications for the acceptance of applicants in 1949: Graduate degree in social work, psychology, medicine, or a closely related field, and in addition at least 3 years of experience in the applicant’s own specialized field or at least 1 year of supervised clinical experience in an established marriage counseling clinic. Probationary training covered, as a minimum, 6 months to a year of training at the marriage counseling clinic. The aptitudes and intentions of the applicant were considered to be important, and an evaluation was made after 2 months of train ing within the agency to determine the advisability of completing the full probationary period of 6 months or more at the agency. Some counseling agencies giving comprehensive service include, counseling on marital problems or family relations. A number of these are listed in the “1950 Directory of Vocational Counseling Agencies” issued by the National Vocational Guidance Association as meeting personnel, procedural, and other standards approved by the NVGA. 22 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN ■m&M Figure 9. A home adviser with a voluntary agency promoting better housing points out the location of blighted homes to the chairman of the agency board. Scholarships and Fellowships Pi o\ isions for scholarships and fellowships are common in the voluntary family agency field. The Family Service Association of America has a special subcommittee devoted to the development of its scholarship program. In addition, many of its member agencies have individual programs. In 1948, 160 awards were made by mem SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 23 ber agencies {22). The local agency which grants the scholarship administers the funds in consultation with the professional schools involved. In selecting scholarship students, the member agencies use definite criteria that include a bachelor’s degree from an ac credited college or university; a good academic record; an age range of from 21 to 35 years, although exceptions to the upper age limit are sometimes made; good health; and desirable personal qualifica tions. Personal qualities are difficult to define and measure, but the following are considered to be desirable: Warmth and sensitivity; interest in people; emotional balance; capacity for insight and self understanding; ability to have a comfortable relationship with men, women, and children of all ages, and with persons in authority; in tegrity ; open-mindedness; some capacity for leadership; adaptibility; and ability to organize work and time effectively. Agencies recog nize the difficulty of determining whether a candidate possesses these desirable characteristics, especially when she has had no work ex perience to be used as a gauge. An extended personal interview and a study of her background and family relationships are the only means of gauging her potentialities {69). When a person is finally chosen for a scholarship, the decision is made in many instances with an understanding that the award carries wfith it an obligation for later service in the agency. For this reason, a married woman must be able to indicate the plan by which she believes that she is able to take on added responsibilities, unless her previous work record indicates that her family responsibilities will not interfere with her scholarship obligations. The motives of the older applicant for a scholarship are also carefully examined to de termine her purposefulness and ability to cope with difficulties. A list and description of scholarships available through its member agencies may be obtained from the Family Service Association of America, Personnel Service, 192 Lexington Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. The Personnel Service compiles a new list each year. Other organizations, among them certain Catholic voluntary or ganizations, also offer grants for graduate training in case work with families. Local travelers’ aid societies in 14 cities offer work-study plans in connection with schools of social work. In some of these societies only those already on the staff are eligible. The American Association of Social Workers issues an annual list of fellowships and scholarships, assistantships, loan funds, and workstudy plans, some of which are specifically designed for training in family case work and others of which may be used for that pur pose {2). For some, in addition to the specified educational quali fications, certain other requirements are made relating to religious affiliations, race, residence, experience, or intended future employment. 932017°—51------5 24 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN . Figure 10.—A group of social work students are instructed on budgeting by a home economist on the staff of a voluntary family agency. Frequently a willingness to work in a specified field for a period of 1 or 2 years after completion of the graduate work is required. Many fraternal, governmental, and professional organizations and women’s clubs also have educational funds which may be used to train for social work as well as for other fields. In spite of all these provisions for financial aid for training, schools of social work report that the number of applicants for scholarships and fellowships which they administer is usually greatly in excess of available scholarships and that an exceptionally good academic record and evidence of the applicant’s qualification for the field of social work are essential. Experience, when required, must be of superior quality. There are few geographical limitations on scholar ships available at the schools, and as a result there is a wide distribution in applications received and in scholarships awarded. EARNINGS, WORKING CONDITIONS, AND ADVANCEMENT Earnings The average (median) salary of women providing direct services to individuals in voluntary agencies in Michigan in 1948 was $2,640, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. For women supervisors the median was $3,820; for women executives, $3,620. Men received $500 to $1,000 more per year in both staff and SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 25 executive positions in voluntary agencies, but in supervisory posi tions the median for men was $50 a year less than that for women. Earnings for workers in voluntary agencies were similar to those received by similar workers in public agencies; but in supervisory and executive positions average earnings in voluntary agencies were gen erally lower than those in public agencies (18). A 1950 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics will supply information of this sort for the country as a whole. According to a 1950 statement of the Family Service Association of America, the pay of family case workers compared favorably with that of teachers and workers in other professions operating under organizational auspices. Graduate social workers without experi ence usually began at $2,700 to $3,000 in large cities, and annual salaries for experienced workers ranged from $3,600 on up to $10,000 for executives of large agencies or those in leadership positions (22). The size of the agency had little influence upon the salaries of case workers but affected the salaries of executives and supervisors, whose responsibilities tended to increase with the size of the agency. In voluntary family case work, executive and supervisory salaries were influenced more by size of agency than by the size of the city in which the agency was located. Scattered reports from particular agencies and localities show some of the local variations in salaries. In a family agency in a south western city in 1948, for instance, beginning case workers were paid from $2,400 to $2,700; experienced case workers, $2,520 to $4,000; and supervisors from $3,600 to $4,200. In an eastern Jewish family service agency case workers received from $2,900 to $3,900 per year in 1949, and a general supervisor received $500 more a year than the highest paid case worker. All in the latter agency were social workers with 2 years of graduate training, and all but one had a master’s degree. In a family service society in a midwestern city the salaries for case workers varied with the amount of training: For those with 1 year of graduate training the annual salaries ranged from $2,220 to $2,700; for those with 2 years, $2,580 to $2,940; the top rate was $3,900. For those without graduate training, the range was from $1,850 to $2,100; monthly increases of $5 were paid at 6-month intervals witli the understanding that graduate training was to be obtained if the worker wished to remain on the staff. In another midwestern city a family service agency gave $2,700 as its beginning rate in 1949 and a range of from $3,000 to $4,300 per year to case workers with some experience. Supervisors received from $3,300 to $4,750; the director of case work service, $4,200 to $5,500; the public relations specialist, $3,960 to $4,950; the administrator and his assistant, from $5,940 to $8,250. 26 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN In a travelers’ aid society on the Pacific Coast in July 1949 in which all the professional workers had had 2 years of graduate training, the salaries of case workers ranged from $2,928 to $3,660 per year, and the supervisor received $5,580. Another travelers’ aid society in the Midwest paid its case workers from $2,500 to $3,100; its case work supervisor, $3,900. In an eastern city a marriage counseling organization, operating as a nonprofit community service in 1950, reported salary ranges of $2,500 to $3,847 a year for social case workers and from $3,400 to $4,328 for the case work supervisor. Hours and Working Conditions Hours vary in the voluntary family service agencies over the coun try, but a workweek of 38 or 39 hours is fairly general. The trend is toward a 5-day week with a skeleton staff on duty on Saturdays. Some evening work is carried on in voluntary agencies. Overtime is frequent in winter when case loads are heaviest and some interviews must be held after regular hours. When overtime is necessary, the usual practice is to allow compensatory time, usually Saturday morn ing, rather than to give overtime pay. More variation in the workweek of social workers in voluntary agencies than among those in public agencies in Michigan was reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics following a 1948 study of social workers in that State. One out of 8 voluntary agency workers was on a schedule of more than 48 hours per week. Almost 1 out of 5 reported a 37^-hour week. Seven out of 10 workers reported that they were sometimes required to work overtime and were com pensated usually by time off. A greater proportion of voluntary agency workers than public agency workers reported overtime. Paid vacations and sick leave after a year’s service were customary. Volun tary agencies were more liberal in this respect than public agencies; more than one-half of the workers in voluntary agencies reported a 4-week vacation. About half of all women social workers reported that maternity leave was permitted, typically without pay. Maternity leave was more common in government agencies than in voluntary agencies (18). About 6 out of 7 social workers in Michigan were covered by some sort of retirement plan. Only 1 out of 3 workers reported other types of insurance, of which life insurance was the most usual. Voluntary agencies provided such insurance less often than governmental agen cies, according to the Michigan survey (18). Security provisions under the revision of the Social Security Act were possible for social workers in voluntary agencies beginning with 1951. SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 27 Advancement After a woman has acquired 2 or 3 years of experience in social case work in a voluntary agency, she can expect promotion to the position of senior case worker. At this level less supervision is given and the work may become more complex and varied. The practice in some agencies is to pay senior case workers as much as beginning supervisors so that some will prefer to continue on as case workers rather than to move into the supervisory class. They may be even more valuable to the agency as senior case workers. Supervisory personnel is usually drawn from the case worker group. Case workers with a background of experience in the agency and with the ability to assist less experienced case workers in practicing social case work within the functions of the agency are chosen for this type of work. Often in larger agencies two or more grades of supervisory positions exist. More experienced supervisors may become directors of training and conduct orientation classes for beginners or training classes for the regular staff. The average supervisor has some ad ministrative duties, but some become case consultant supervisors whose sole function is to confer with staff case workers regarding problem cases. Women predominate in the supervisory group as well as among the case workers of all grades. •%yFh Figure 11.—A family case worker assists a father in providing for his children’s care during their mother’s illness. 28 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN The administrator of a voluntary family agency, known by various names such as executive, secretary, or director, may be a man or woman with a background of social work training. Recently there has been an increase in the number of men holding executive jobs, but women predominate in actual numbers in this field. The predominance of men in executive jobs found in the public assistance field is not charac teristic of voluntary family agencies. Women headed two-thirds of 48 family agencies, in 16 cities scattered throughout the country, on which staff information was made available to the Women’s Bureau in 1949. Of the 226 member agencies of the Family Service Association for which this information was given in the 1950 directory, nearly three-fourths had women directors. A minimum of 5 or 6 years in case work and supervisory work is necessary for a person to qualify for an executive job. Most voluntary family agencies are free from the practice found in some other agencies under which men with lower qualifications are promoted before wellqualified women. A woman who enters the field of social work in a voluntary family agency may prefer to specialize in other types of work after she has gained some experience in voluntary family service instead of seeking advancement in that particular type of work. The various kinds of related work described in this bulletin and other bulletins in this series indicate many possibilities in both voluntary and public social work. ORGANIZATIONS The principal organization in the field of voluntary family welfare work is the Family Service Association of America (formerly Fam ily Welfare Association of America). It had about 1,000 lay and professional individual members in 1950, and its directory listed 229 agencies which held full memberships. In addition, a number of premember affiliates were listed. Member agencies of the association are required to employ as case workers only those who have completed 2 years of graduate work in an accredited school of social work. General individual memberships are open to those who are or have been active in any family service agency through service on com mittees or boards, or as volunteers, and to other persons who are interested in the association or the family service movement in gen eral. Professional individual memberships are open to members of professional staffs of the member agencies, members of other social work associations, and graduates of accredited schools of social work. The association operates as a voluntary membership federation, serving as a national channel for joint planning and exchange of ex periences among the family service agencies of the country. Specific 29 SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES services, geared to meet changing problems, include field, information, personnel, and public relations services and publications. The as sociation encourages member agencies to adopt certain minimum standards to improve and strengthen agency practices. The official channel of communication for the membership is the monthly High lights. The organization also publishes a monthly professional jour nal, Journal of Social Casework. Many family case workers belong to the national professional or ganization for social workers, the American Association of Social Workers, with 11,500 individual members in 104 chapters in 1949. The National Social Welfare Assembly includes a Social Case Work Counsel, consisting of the representatives of 19 national agencies which meet once a month to discuss common problems and to develop closer relations in social case work fields. I1M Figure 12.—A marriage counselor interviews a troubled husband. 30 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN One sectarian organization has a Family Service Division and de votes a large part of its activities to the family welfare field—the National Conference of Catholic Charities, with 2,500 individual members and 1,700 member organizations and institutions. It pub lishes the monthly Catholic Charities Review. Another sectarian organization, engaging in family case work, the National Conference of Jewish Social Welfare, had 237 member organizations and 725 individual members in 1949 and published a social work magazine entitled, Jewish Social Service Quarterly. The American Association of Marriage Counselors, organized in 1943 and incorporated in 1947, had 49 individual members in 1950, including both active and associate members. Nineteen of the active and 6 of the associate members were women. Active members are individually engaged in marriage counseling, and many are con nected with organizations providing clinical services. Associate members may not be actually engaged in marriage counseling but have made some contribution to the field or have had some recognized clinical experience in marriage counseling. Some members of the association have had training in the field of social work, but the exact number of these is not available. The association is active in establishing and maintaining professional standards and in supply ing information on premarital and marital relations to its member ship, to members of allied professions, and to writers, publishers, and the lay public. SUGGESTIONS TO THOSE INTERESTED IN ENTERING THE VOLUNTARY FAMILY CASE WORK FIELD The young woman who wants to work with a voluntary family agency should prepare herself by obtaining 2 years of training in an accredited graduate school of social work, if this is at all possible. With this training, which includes supervised field work experience, she will be considered qualified by the agency and eligible for a de sirable position, so far as educational requirements are concerned. However, there are a few family agencies where a promising college graduate without such training may be able to obtain a position on the understanding that she will take graduate training within a given length of time and will continue to work with the agency for 1 or 2 years thereafter. In some agencies she may have her entire training financed, while in others she will be granted leave without pay to at tend graduate school. A student must have a good academic record in undergraduate work to qualify for scholarships or educational leave. While graduate training is important, a family case worker must also have a healthy outlook on life and a satisfactory personal adjust SOCIAL CASE> WORK WITH FAMILIES 31 ment before she can aid others with their difficulties and obtain their confidence. Some specialists in this field believe that women are better adapted to this work than men because they have less difficulty in gain ing the confidence of the mothers in the families which apply for service. Some very young women workers, because of their youth, have difficulty at the outset in obtaining the trust of older women receiving aid. With the passage of time, they acquire confidence and skill if they have the interest and the patience that are also requisites for success in this work. Since marriage and motherhood are consid ered assets in this field, provided family responsibilities do not inter fere with the work, a trained woman worker may marry and be a homemaker for a period and later return without difficulty. There is some conflict in opinion regarding the most desirable under graduate curriculum to follow in preparation for graduate training. Over 130 undergraduate schools offered courses in social work in 1950. However, many administrators and educators in the family social work field believe that preparation should be through orientation, social security, and community organization courses rather than through courses which attempt to teach the individual how to do social work. The consensus at present among many outstanding administrators and educators is that a broad liberal arts course with emphasis on the social sciences is the best preparation for family case work and that the student should attempt to gain a clear picture of present-day family life in particular. The student is advised to pursue a well-rounded social science program, to major in one of the social sciences, and to take, if possible, certain home economics courses relating to family life. The American Association of Schools of Social Work has discussed this subject fully in its 1949 bulletin “Preprofessional Education for Social Work.” In voluntary family agencies the choice of personnel is dependent not on merit ratings but on the employer’s appraisal of the training and experience of the applicant. In some agencies a committee of board and staff members sets the standards. Many agencies have job classi fications which are used as an employment basis. The persons who do the selecting usually consider the age of 21 years a minimum, since maturity is needed in this type of work. Good health is a requisite for the family worker, as well as the ability to work at high pressure dur ing certain periods. Physical examinations are usually required before employment, and periodic examinations thereafter are common in many agencies. In addition to meeting these general qualifications, it may be neces sary to meet special qualifications for employment in certain agencies or areas, and these it is desirable to make inquiry about. For instance, a knowledge of languages may be required in some locations for work 932017°—51----- 6 32 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN with foreign-born groups. Some sectarian agencies require that em ployees be members of the sect, while others prefer a variety of reli gious representatives on the staff. Some agencies give preference to local residents. The possession of a car may be necessary in an area where distances are great. A probationary period of employment for G months or a year is customary before a permanent appointment is made. Written con tracts of employment are in general use. Voluntary family case work has developed a prestige and efficiency which makes possible accomplishment and satisfaction. It has become a democratic sharing process in which human dignity is respected throughout treatment {59). More benefits and security are being offered to employees in this field as time goes on. The earnings for beginners are similar to those for beginners in other professional groups; for those with experience attractive salaries as well as work in related fields are possibilities. In developing her ability to advise skillfully and competently and to aid families and their individual members toward self-determination and adjustment, the woman with social consciousness may find great possibilities for her own growth and gratification in her contribution to her community. DEMAND PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II In the early part of the nineteenth century relief societies had vol unteer workers, known as “friendly visitors,” who provided financial aid in a small way to families whose need was overwhelmingly evident. But virtually no emphasis was placed on rehabilitation or preventive work. A more fundamental service to needy families was ushered in when the first family service society was established in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1877. Professional salaried workers gradually began to replace volunteers in local charity organizations in the latter part of the past century. The first professional school of social work to train such workers was set up in New York City in 1898. In 1909 the Russell Sage Foundation established its Charity Organization Department, and in the same year Mary E. Richmond became the director of a department of the Foundation set up to “study, teach and publish in the charity organization field.” Publication in 1917 of her “Social Diagnosis” laid a pattern for present-day method in social case work. She changed the concept of the “poor” into that of the “client,” a person incapable of full self-maintenance in his social setting. This publication also established the generic base in social case work as the process of formulating a social diagnosis, that is, collecting and evaluating evidence and the drawing of inference therefrom. SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 33 Meanwhile, the Family Service Association of America 2 stimulated further development in family social work. Gradually, with the evaluation of data and the development of the treatment process, the basic principles of family social study evolved. That family case work had developed rapidly by 1927 was indicated in a study by tbe Family Service Association of America, which re vealed 1,434 workers in 169 family welfare organizations (). By 1939 more than 2,000 social workers were working in 207 family agencies reporting to the Russell Sage Foundation. A 1936 study indicated that only 6 percent of the social workers in family agencies were men (37). The depression of the 1930’s deluged the family social work agen cies with problems arising out of mass unemployment. They con tributed as much as they could from their limited budgets until State and local public relief agencies were able, with Federal aid, to pro vide more adequate public assistance. The Social Security Act in 1935 provided the basis for a more definite relationship between public and voluntary agencies. The administration of financial assistance became the responsibility of public agencies, and voluntary agencies specialized in preventing individual and family disorganization in tbe community, providing financial aid only in emergencies not covered by public agencies. The opening of the decade of the 1940’s found the family case work field continuing to expand and maintaining a high standard of prep aration for its professional workers. A report of 398 social workers newly hired by member agencies of the Family Welfare Association in 1938 indicated that 58 percent had completed a 2-year course of graduate study in a school of social work and that an additional 31 percent had had some graduate professional training (37). In 1941 the Red Cross provided Home Service in its 3,726 chapters and 6,000 branches throughout the country, through trained social workers wherever possible or through volunteers in the smaller com munities (26). With the launching of the defense program, before the actual hostilities of World War II began, the work of the Red Cross began to expand and assume an even greater importance. The effect of defense measures was also beginning to be felt by the volun tary family agencies in early 1941. A Family Welfare Association survey covering 194 of its 233 member agencies revealed that 86 re ported no change in their personnel for the first 9 months of 1941 but that 108 agencies reported 371 social workers had left during this period. Some of those who left were replaced, and some vacant posi tions were abolished, but 84 vacancies remained which the agencies 2 This association, organized in 1911 as the American Association for Organizing Family Social Work, changed its name in 1930 to Family Welfare Association of America, and again in 1946 to its present name, Family Service Association of America. 34 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN Preparing a veteran’s application form for Government benefits. -xsm Visiting an ill serviceman’s mother. Figure 13.—Professional Red Cross Home Service workers assist servicemen, veterans, and their families. SOCIAL CASE' WORK WITH FAMILIES 35 were unable to fill. Although the number leaving directly because of defense was reported to be small, the indications were that the defense program was causing dislocations in the labor market which made the procurement of suitable staff members difficult. Agencies which lost staff members with 2 or 3 years of experience and training in the agency suffered severely. The situation seemed to aggravate and intensify difficulties already recognized by some of the smaller agencies in the field, such as low beginning salaries and remoteness from large centers of population. The exodus of staff members was greatest proportionately from small and medium-sized cities. However, a case supervisor in a large city stated in 1941 that she could never recall in 20 years of experience a time as difficult as that year for obtaining promising candidates for positions. More than usual difficulty was being experienced in replacing staff members with those of equal caliber. As a result, agencies tended to hold posi tions open longer than advisable and finally to make replacements with workers who had less experience and training than those who had left (71). WARTIME CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT Trends noticeable in the defense period were accentuated after the United States entered World War II in December 1941 and were radically affected by the course of subsequent events. The most strik ing changes were the reduction in the number of families needing financial help and the increase in the proportion needing intensive work. The case work staff in voluntary family agencies became pro gressively smaller. A report on 59 of these agencies showed a total of 1,147 executives and case workers in 1944, as compared with 1,351 in 1940. The number of students from schools of social work doing field work in these agencies fell during the same period from 324 to 258. This was roughly a 15-percent reduction in paid personnel and a 20-percent reduction in social work students working on cases (36). The high rate of personnel turn-over, which had long characterized social work, coupled with increased demands for social workers out side of family agencies, continued to decimate the case work personnel in family agencies during the war period. Some family case work ers joined the staff of the Selective Service System and the War Re location Authority. Some went to the American Red Cross and the United Service Organizations. All agencies competed for staff mem bers. Further staff dislocation was caused by men on the staff enter ing military service and by the marriage and pregnancy of women staff members or their removal to other communities to be near their husbands in the armed services. As early as 1942 the Family Welfare Association of America esti 36 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN mated that 200 vacancies for professional workers existed in its mem ber agencies. A number of these vacancies had been open for 3 months or longer. A year later they were 2y2 times more numerous. Work ers with less professional training had to be hired as replacements. To make employment more attractive, salaries were increased, per sonnel practices were improved, work-study plans were offered, and more in-service training programs were installed to improve the qual ity of the work (1). Meanwhile, war workers, swarming into areas with small populations, created a demand for skilled family case work ers to cope with the problems of war- workers’ families. A report from Jewish family agencies, covering the period from 1940 to 1944, showed that, while the number of families applying for service was decreasing, the proportion of these families needing inten sive case work treatment was increasing. Families needing financial assistance dropped from 40 percent of the case load in 1940 to about 26 percent in 1944, but over the same period families needing intensive case work treatment increased from 72 to almost 81 percent of the total active cases (IS). The Family Service Association reported for the period from 1938 to 1945 that case workers found it necessary to give increasing amounts of time and attention to individual cases. Over the same period, the association experienced an average decrease of nearly 11 percent in professional personnel throughout its member agencies. While there was less financial need in the war period, the high prices and the rationing of food created problems of budgeting and the wise use of income. Young people leaving high school to supplement the family income needed counseling. Mothers sought advice on parentchild relationships or on the suitability of entering war production or remaining at home. War brides needed counseling in their efforts to adjust themselves to their new lives under trying circumstances. Aging family members needed help in adjusting to a war tempo. The care of children during the clay was a problem for many mothers in war work. At this time 25 voluntary family agencies had provisions for homemaker service for children in their homes, and a number of children’s agencies also offered this service. In these ways the vol untary family agency made an effort to protect the individual from being lost in the mass (28). With the pressure of population on new or suddenly expanded warindustry communities, the Family Service Association began to re ceive many requests for assistance in the development of local serv ices in these communities. To meet this vital need for additional facilities and resources, a war service program began operations in January 1944, jointly planned and financed by the association and other national agencies and known as the American War Community SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 37 Services. This war service program included a personnel recruiting program for the entire field covered by the joint agencies, a veterans’ consultant service, the preparation of publications on counseling in industry and other related material, and a war-service program of liai son with Federal Government activities. This resulted in a greater realization of the value of social case work services in community life and an increased need for trained workers by the agencies (23). The American Red Cross also needed an increasing number of case workers to carry on its diversified services to civilians and the mili tary forces. In 1943, 3,755 chapters were in existence, in almost onethird of which the home service program was directed by profes sionally trained case workers (7). Liaison was possible between serv ice people in the armed forces and their families through the auspices of the Red Cross; veterans returning home were assisted in their read justments to civilian life by the provision of a comprehensive planning service. A comprehensive disaster service was also planned by the agency throughout the country, in case of bombings. These extended services increased the demand for personnel trained in family case work. Other agencies needed family case workers. The United Service Organizations provided health and welfare facilities for military personnel. As a member agency of the United Service Organizations, Travelers Aid stationed family case workers in defense areas where a multiplicity of problems arose as people migrated into these sec tions from all parts of the country. Another drain upon the supply of social case workers resulting from World War II was the recruitment of social workers in 1945 for work outside the country under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Some of the 1,400 to 1,500 pro fessional social workers from various countries employed at the peak of this program in May 1946 were undoubtedly from the family case work field. Among those sent to devastated areas were more than 600 experienced workers from 200 voluntary family agencies in the United States. Some social workers entered military service. Among the WAVE officers who had social work training or experience when they entered military service, at least 5 had been administrators in family and child welfare work. Some others from this field may have been among the 80 WAVE officers who were professional social workers at the time they entered the service but whose special field was not recorded. The American Association of Schools of Social Work carried on a recruitment program which publicized the need for trained workers, and every effort was made to encourage people to enter graduate schools of social work. Nevertheless, the number of new workers entering the family case work field was disappointing. 38 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN Although many war emergency services gradually became unneces sary with the return to peace, the shortage of family case workers continued. The demand for service was intensified by the habit de veloped by many families during the war of seeking skilled help in solving nonfinancial problems. One group of 84 family agencies reported that four-fifths of its families in 1944 sought counseling only. Such service to financially independent families forecast the need for a proportionately larger postwar professional staff (6). VOLUNTEERS Since for many years family welfare work was carried on entirely by volunteers, their continuing use, though in a smaller degree, ap pears natural. By World War II, however, most of the volunteer service, except in the American Red Cross, was confined to clerical, transportation, or similar nonprofessional duties, leaving the profes sional part of the work entirely to paid staff. During the war period the extreme shortage of professional workers compelled voluntary family agencies to make greater use of volunteers, especially in the performance of work complementary to that of the paid workers in direct service to families. The volunteers were used for friendly visits to shut-ins, to accompany elderly persons to agency offices, and to assist in obtaining such necessary records as those of birth, divorce, debts, or ownership. In a 1945 study of 60 family case work agencies scattered through out the country, 11 reported a total of about 40 volunteers assisting in case work at least part of the year, most of whom were in a single agency. Such workers had been used in some agencies over a period of years and were considered a satisfactory addition to the staff. However, the proportion of volunteer workers to paid staff in voluntary agencies is very small (36). Many voluntary agencies have exercised great care in the selection and training of their volunteers. They have set up formal volunteer programs, utilizing a reserve force of retired women or housewives with former case work experience as case aides, case workers, con sultants, or board members. Some act in a public relations capacity by dispensing information about the agencies to the public (JJj). One agency used women volunteers during the war period to certify families for Federal food stamps. These workers, under the direction of a professional supervisor, spent one day a week visiting families. In addition to the time of professional case workers these women saved the agency, they rendered service by creating a better understanding of the agency in the community. The women themselves gained a clearer realization of the social and economic needs of their own SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 39 community (17). Catholic organizations encourage participation in volunteer work among their members. The American National Red Cross uses the largest number of volun teers in work with families, as well as the largest number of paid workers. Many former case workers are among the part-time volun teers of the Home Service of the Red Cross, engaged in vital work with military personnel, veterans, and their families. The peak of volunteer service was reached in this agency in 1945 with approxi mately 1,400 volunteer administrators and supervisors and 14,000 volunteer case workers. The Disaster Service of the Red Cross also keeps a list of available persons in each community who are willing to serve as volunteers when a disaster strikes. If the disaster reaches great proportions, an appeal may be sent out in the stricken area for additional volunteers to work during the emergency. Many administrators believe that volunteers will continue to be useful in administrative and service functions, although because of the complexity of the work involved in executing social service pro grams, they can be used on the whole only in a somewhat limited capacity in assisting the case worker with her professional duties. 40 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN Visiting a man receiving aid to the blind. Visiting a nine-member family where the father is unemployed. Arranging for the delivery of Government surplus foods to a needy family where the father suffered a crushed hand. Figure 14.—A visitor’s typical day. Part II. Public Assistance THE SETTING In 1949, some 31,500 public assistance workers, about four-fifths of them women, were employed by State or local government agencies to provide financial assistance to families and individuals outside of institutions who needed such help. Sometimes called “public welfare workers” because they work in departments of public welfare, they are called “public assistance workers” in this bulletin to distinguish them from other social workers in public welfare departments. Those engaged in direct work with families are usually referred to as “visitors,” the term most frequently used for them by the families themselves. Public assistance workers usually comprise the largest group within a department of public welfare. For instance, one midwestern county department of public welfare in 1949 had 130 public assistance workers as compared with less than 100 in all its other activities, including institutional work, court work, and guidance clinics. Another large midwestern county department of public welfare in 1950 had a public assistance division with 233 social workers. Its other welfare activ ities were carried on by a children’s services division with 30 social workers, a women’s services division (for unmarried mothers and pregnant girls) with 3 social workers, an intake unit (which took applications for all welfare service) with 35 to 40 social workers, a homemakers’ service with 1 social worker, 2 schools for delin quents with 4 social workers, and a shelter for indigent men with 2 social workers. In this county three-fourths of the social workers in the public welfare department were in public assistance work. Even when all social workers in voluntary as well as public agencies are included, public assistance workers still rank as the largest group. For instance, more than one-third (35.5 percent) of the 3,500 social workers in Michigan in 1948, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, were public assistance workers (18). The next largest group (8.8 percent) was in voluntary family service work. This State-wide study also revealed that more than three-fourths (77.8 percent) of the public assistance workers in Michigan were women. The typical public assistance visitor is employed in a local public welfare agency serving a county, a city, or a township. In some States the local offices are branches of the State administration. In 41 42 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN other States the local agencies are administrative units of the local government and operate under the supervision of the State agency responsible for the public assistance program. In almost all States assistance is available to the aged, the blind, and dependent children, and Federal funds are available under the Social Security Act to assist States with such programs. General assistance to the unem ployed and others needing financial help is available in many com munities and is financed by State and/or local funds. The typical visitor interviews persons who come to the office to apply for public assistance and gives them information about the eligibility requirements. She also interviews persons in their homes to secure information to establish their eligibility in accordance with the rules and regulations governing the public assistance program. When necessary, she obtains additional information from other per sons through visits or correspondence to establish eligibility such as proof of age and information about ownership or property. The visitor determines whether the person has enough income to provide him with the essentials of living included in the assistance standard developed by that particular State and, if not, how much financial assistance can be paid in accordance with the policies and procedures governing the assistance programs. She then makes recommenda tions regarding the initial payment and takes care of any subsequent changes in the amount of payment or cancellations of payment, as necessary. She assists the family in utilizing available resources both in and outside of the public agency for health care, recreation, employ ment, legal aid, and a variety of other services. She records informa tion on eligibility for financial assistance and welfare services and prepares the required agency forms, reports, and correspondence. If the family is dissatisfied with the decision about eligibility or the amount of the payment, the visitor informs the family of their right to a fair hearing before a State agency, and, if they so desire, the visitor assists them to request such a hearing. She also receives any complaints and makes possible adjustments. As a staff member, she participates in the agency interpretation of its program and of community needs. In the larger centers of population, the visitor has the advantage of the resources of other public agencies and of voluntary agencies to which she may refer families in need of specialized case work services not provided by her agency {19). Duplication of effort among the various agencies in large communities is avoided through interagency clearance on policies and programs and through a social service ex change accessible to both voluntary and public agencies which records the agencies that have already served the family. Duplication in current services is further avoided by having periodic money payments SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 43 come, for the most part, only from the public assistance agency. When voluntary family agencies give occasional financial aid, it is usually for items which the public agency cannot legally provide or to supple ment the assistance grant. In addition to the customary duties of determining the eligibility of families for financial assistance, many visitors help in the rehabili tation of those who can be made employable and provide other con structive and preventive service to those included in their case load. The purpose of such a plan is to aid the needy to live satisfying and useful lives consistent with their potentialities. This type of planning is interesting and challenging to the public assistance staff and adds to the variety of the work. The visitors’ case loads vary greatly from State to State, and sometimes from county to county. Case loads may also vary in ac cordance with the categories of assistance provided, since the work required by one category may call for a greater number of visits and be more time-consuming than the work required by another category. For example, visitors assigned only old-age cases by one midwestern agency in 1949 were assigned 300 cases. Other visitors were as signed 100 cases of families with dependent children or general as sistance cases. Still other visitors had 175 single-person cases (generally known as one-member family cases, as problems such as those of food and rent costs are similar for both large and small families). The average number of visits per day, including visits not only to those receiving assistance but visits to landlords and employers, for example, was 3y2. In some offices case loads are not specialized, but all types of cases are present in one case load. In fact, most States follow the practice of giving mixed case loads to their visitors. Estimates of the size of case loads made for June 1949 by the Bureau of Public Assistance indicated that in about one-half of the 28 States for which data were available a mixed case load fell between 140 and 230 families per visitor. In the same month the median number of cases carried by a full-time visitor, working on one type of case only, was estimated at 228 if she worked only on blind cases; 224, if on old-age cases; 113, if on dependent children cases; and 108, if on general assistance cases (SO). This indicates that general assistance and aid to de pendent children require more of a visitor’s time per case than is required in the other types of assistance. The ideal number of cases is difficult to determine, but mixed case loads exceeding 200 are generally conceded to be too large for efficient service. About 2,000, or 6 percent, of all public assistance workers in 1949 were employed in State offices of public assistance in specialized tech nical or social work. Some were field representatives who had super 44 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN visory responsibility over local offices with respect to general administration, determination of eligibility for needy families, and provision of financial assistance and other social services. Others were supervisors who participated in case conferences or had training responsibility for the professional or clerical staff. Some did highly specialized work such as participating with fiscal officers in the prep aration of a budget, contributing to the preparation of social legis lation, acting as consultants in committee meetings, writing policy, or developing professional ethics in the organization. About 100 other public assistance workers were employed in the Bureau of Public Assistance of the Federal Security Agency to administer those parts of the Social Security Act which provided grants-in-aid to the States for the care of the needy aged, the blind, and dependent children. THE OUTLOOK With vacancies reported in over 2,000 public assistance positions in State and local public assistance offices in June 1949, with the need for replacements as time passes, and with a continuing demand for the services offered by this type of aid, there will be good op portunities for employment in this field for adequately trained people for some years to come. In June 1949, 2,600,000 persons in the United States were receiving old-age assistance; 537,000 families, including 1.366.000 children, were receiving dependent children grants; nearly 71.000 needy blind persons were receiving Federal aid; and about 461.000 needy families, including approximately 1,000,000 persons, were being ajded through general assistance. The number of people over 65 in the United States is expected to increase from the 10 million reported in 1945 to over 17 million in 1975, if the present trends in population growth continue {60). Al though social insurance will tend to reduce the proportion of the population needing public assistance, it may be some time before coverage by and amounts payable under social insurance will be such as to reduce materially the need of the aged, children, and' the unemployed for supplementary assistance. Whenever the needs for economic assistance decrease, however, the visitor experienced in public assistance work will find opportunities for case work service beyond that directly connected with financial aid, judging from trends in communities with well-established pro grams. With the public’s growing realization of the need for and support of preventive and remedial as well as financial assistance programs, some welfare departments have been adding other services to those of public assistance. For instance, one large midwestern city in 1949, through its department of public welfare, arranged for SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 45 groups of aged people to spend ten autumn days in camps used by children in the summer months. In the same city hobby shows were held annually to exhibit and sell craft products made by elderly persons. The demand for such specialized welfare services, especially in communities where voluntary agencies are not available or are not adequate, is expected to keep active the demand for adequately trained social workers in public welfare agencies. If there is any lessening of need for economic assistance, public assistance workers are sure to find new outlets for their training and experience in such activities. The shortage of visitors in public assistance programs reported in 1949, however, indicated that the gap between demand and supply in this field would not be filled for a number of years, under the most favorable circumstances. Actually, the supply in this work is diffi cult to estimate because of the varying requirements for the work in the different States. But the oncoming supply of individuals with Figure 15.—A case worker in a county welfare department prepares application forms for old age assistance. 46 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN training in social work was known to be entirely inadequate for fill ing current vacancies for beginning visitors, much less to meet grad ually increasing needs. It is a conservative assumption that at least 2,000 persons will be needed each year merely to replace those who withdraw from public assistance work each year. Relatively few of the 2,000 persons, in cluding 1,454 women, who were graduated in 1949 from schools of social work accredited by the American Association of Schools of Social Work were added to the supply of visitors. Rot many schools were offering courses in public assistance and many of the students were already committed to jobs in medical, psychiatric, and child welfare settings, as well as to administrative and supervisory posi tions in public assistance. One graduate school of social work, which reported in 1949 that most of its graduates work in public agencies, indicated that the majority of its 1950 graduates were already com mitted to jobs, many being on scholarship leave from public agencies to which they had promised to return. Such graduates cannot be considered a new addition to the supply. Many of the graduates of the member schools of the Rational Asso ciation of Schools of Social Administration in 1949 were expected to go into public assistance work. According to the association, their undergraduate training was aimed at giving them some immedi ate preparation for such jobs, with the idea that later they would complete their training in a graduate school on a part-time or workleave basis. Ro statistics are available on the total number graduating from these schools in 1949. However, the latest report from the association showed the September 1949 enrollment of students major ing in social work courses in its 21 member schools to be 153 graduate students and 818 juniors and seniors (83). (In 1950, 33 schools were affiliated with the association. See list, appendix, p. 75.) In mem ber schools of the American Association of Schools of Social Work, another 2,000 undergraduate students were enrolled in 1948-49 social work courses. However, the total number of students coming to public assistance work both from accredited graduate schools of social work and directly from undergraduate courses is not enough to supply the needs. DEMAND AND SUPPLY The great majority of public assistance workers are employed in local public welfare offices, of which there are more than 3,000 through out the country. A smaller number are employed by State agencies and a few in the Public Assistance Bureau of the Federal Security SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 47 Agency. The distribution of social workers doing public assistance work in State and local agencies in 1949 was approximately as follows: Number employed Total______31,500 Local agencies Visitors__________________ Supervisors-------------------Consultants, etc_________ Executives, directors, etc State agencies. Directors____________ Field representatives. Supervisors-------------Case workers________ Consultants-------------- 22,800 2,500 800 3,400 2,000 400 600 100 400 500 In local offices.—In most States the local offices served a single coun ty, but in a few States the area served comprised more than a county (as in Texas) or less than a county (as in Massachusetts). Some cities, such as New York, have a public assistance department covering only the city in its jurisdiction. Almost 12 percent of all public as sistance workers in the country were reported to be employed in New York City in 1950. In some other large cities, the county government operates a centralized organization covering both the city and the county surrounding it, as for example, Allegheny County, Pa., in which Pittsburgh is situated. About 80 percent of the 29,500 public assistance workers in local offices are women. In 1949 the largest group of public assistance workers in local offices—about 22,800—were visitors. About 2,500 supervisors were in charge of these visitors and about 800 other workers, not visitors, were employed in the local office as consultants or in other capacities. The number of visitors in local offices varies considerably. Accord ing to local reports, there were extremely large staffs in such cities as New York with 4,000 and Los Angeles with more than 1,000 in 1950. Cook County, 111., including Chicago, had about 800 in 1949 (38). Cleveland, Ohio, had 215 public assistance workers in 194G (72). In rural sections, however, there may be a small office that has only one director-worker, who handles all aspects of public welfare, in cluding public assistance. Hundreds of offices employ only one or two persons. More than 80 percent of the local offices had fewer than 10 full-time public assistance workers, according to a survey by the Bureau of Public Assistance made in 1946 (9). 48 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN Heading about 1,700 smaller offices in 1949 were director-workers whose duties combined those of administration and direct services to families, and, usually, the administration of all other public wel fare activities. In some areas the case load is so small that the di rector-worker may be employed only part time. Again, she may wTork full time but administer other health and welfare programs, serving, not strictly as a public assistance worker, but as the “welfare lady,’’ who in a rural setting is often called upon for a variety of services. In addition to these director-workers, there were about 1,700 di rectors in larger communities who were engaged exclusively in ad ministrative duties in public assistance and who had one or more visitors on their staffs. Reports are that in the director group men are in the majority but that among the visitors and supervisors women predominate. How ever, the proportion of directors who are women varies in different parts of the country. In North Dakota, for example, in 1949, half of the county public assistance directors were women; and in Alabama, in 1950, all were women. InState agencies.—State public assistance agencies employed about 2,000 persons in executive and social work positions in June 1949. Included in this number were about 400 with the rank of director. In 51 jurisdictions of the United States (including Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia), there were, in December 1949, 56 agencies administering public assistance programs at the State level, of which 4 wei'e headed by women. In addition to this executive group, there were about 600 field representatives, about 100 super visors, 400 case workers, and about 500 other social workers with vari ous other duties as consultants or specialists. About 75 percent of the field representatives were women. The practice at the State level, even more than at the local level, for the most part seemed to be to advance women into supervisory positions but to prefer men for administra tive work. Vacancies at both the State and local levels in 1949 were roughly 6 percent of the total positions. In the Federal Security Agency.—At the Federal level, 9 social work positions out of 103 budgeted in the Bureau of Public Assistance in the Federal Security Agency, were vacant in 1950. Persons in these positions need experience in the public assistance field as well as sound social work training, in order to administer the grants-in-aid program, advise State officials, and review State plans for the ad ministration of assistance to insure conformity with the Social Secu rity Act. Eighty-five of the 94 persons holding social work positions in this Bureau were women. In teaching and research.—Other workers with experience in the public assistance field are needed in teaching and research. As far as 49 SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES can be determined from school bulletins, about 75 persons, of whom 38 were women, were engaged in teaching public assistance or other courses in public welfare in accredited graduate schools of social work in the United States in 1949. Twenty-two research workers, of whom 13 were women, were employed in both supervisory and nonsupervisory positions in research work in the Federal Bureau of Public As sistance in early 1950. According to the Bureau, about 125 research workers were engaged in research in the State offices, and about 20 worked in the research field in the larger county public assistance offices. Opportunities for these specialists will be treated at greater length in another bulletin in this series on social work teaching and research. Geographic Variations in Employment On the whole, public assistance programs, although not evenly devel oped, are general throughout the country, as indicated by a 1949 study of public assistance workers in State and local offices by the Bureau of Public Assistance of the Federal Security Agency (66). The Northeastern States, and the West had a somewhat larger proportion of social workers than of population, and the North Central and Southern States had a somewhat smaller proportion. (See table 2.) The distribution of visitors alone, the largest group among the pro fessional staff, follows closely that of all public assistance workers. Relative to the estimated population, the Northeastern and Western States apparently had a greater proportion of public assistance work ers than the North Central and Southern States in 1949. Table 2.—Geographic Distribution of Professional State and Local Public Assistance Workers in the United States, June 1949, Compared -with the General Population '■ Public assistance workers Executives 3 and visitors Number Percent Visitors only (included in preceding columns) Number Percent Estimated population of United States, 1949 * Percent Continental United States-------- ----- 31,322 100.0 23,003 100.0 100.0 Northeastern States------------------------------North Central States------------- 10,171 8, 673 7, 559 4,9iy 32.5 27.7 24 1 15.7 7, 482 6,159 5. 667 3,695 32.5 26.8 24.6 16.1 26.4 29.7 30.6 13.3 West 1 See footnote 1, p. 17. 2 Bureau of Public Assistance, Pederal Security Agency (66). 3 Executives include directors, director-workers, supervisors, field representatives, consultants, and all social workers other than visitors. * U. S. Bureau of the Census (61). Supply Public assistance workers are largely employed through civil serv ice or merit examinations held by Federal, State, or local agencies. 50 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN Amendments to the Social Security Act, effective January 1, 1940, require an approved merit system for State and local personnel who administer assistance programs financed partially by the Federal Government. Although the Federal Government provides funds for a large part of the public assistance program throughout the country, it has no authority over the selection, tenure of office, or the com pensation of the individual employees hired in accordance with the required merit system. In some States, visitors in local offices who administer general assistance alone are not under the merit system, although visitors assigned to the aged, the blind, and dependent chil dren cases in these offices are subject to a civil service or merit system under the regulations of the Social Security Act. The machinery for establishing merit and the minimum requirement for visitors varies greatly in State and local communities. In some States, visitors are under a merit system established by the State for a limited number of State agencies, or by the State public assistance agency for all county public assistance agencies. In a few States the visitors in one or more counties are included under a county-wide civil service system. Ex aminations, whether given by the State or county to set up lists for those eligible for appointment, usually provide for a rating of educa tion and experience, a written test, and an oral test. Before an appointment is made permanent, a probationary period, usually of 6 months, is customary. Five States in 1949 stipulated no educational requirement for those taking the examination for the position of visitor, and 37 made a high school education a minimum requirement. A few required at least 2 years of college work or a college diploma. None required training in a graduate school of social work for beginning workers in 1950. Many leaders in social work hope that some time in the future a pro fessional education in a graduate school of social work will be required for applicants in this field. Actually, persons who have such train ing are more likely to obtain a high place on the list of those who pass the merit examination. Persons with educational background which is not qualifying, if permitted to take the examination, are less likely to be placed on the list of eligibles. One western State reported that t>6 percent of the applicants for jobs in its local offices were college graduates and that higher standards for appointment than those that prevailed during the war period were possible in 1950. (See ap pendix, p. 73, for minimum requirements for visitors in the District of Columbia in 1949.) In spite of the relatively low educational requirements for employ ment, the supply has not kept pace with the ever-growing needs of the field, as indicated by the 2,000 vacancies in public assistance posi tions at the State and local levels in June 1949. In addition, many SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 51 local positions were filled with persons having poor educational quali fications who would not have been employed if better-trained appli cants had been available. The most important shortage was reported to be in the supervisory group. As experienced visitors and supervisors were drained off from public assistance work (as from other social work) during World War II by expanding agencies like the American Red Cross, the United Service Organizations, and the Veterans’ Administration, they were usually replaced, when replacements were available, by persons with less training and experience, who in turn created a need for un available, highly competent supervision. Reports from local communities illustrate the supply problem. One large midwestern city in 1948 recommended waiving both State and county residence requirements to obtain applicants for two advanced supervisory jobs paying $300 to $400 a month. One local public as sistance office reported a recruitment problem in 1949 which it tried to solve by making use of 25 students from the nearby State university who worked part time under the supervision of university and staff supervisors. Such student programs are generally considered in effective and unsatisfactory. A shortage of visitors was also reported in 1950 in the District of Columbia agency where salaries were set by the Federal civil service system. Residence requirements, the un certainty of Federal appropriations, and the infrequency of examina tions given by the Civil Service Commission were reported to be the causes of the five vacancies reported in 1950. Supervisory and adminis trative jobs were especially difficult to fill in this local agency. Also in other large cities and in States the lag in civil service or merit recruitments was reported to complicate actual placements. In many instances, when the registers of those who had passed the examination became exhausted, the lapse of time before new examinations could be given and new lists prepared caused delays in placements. In addi tion, many persons on registers apparently had taken the examination as a sort of insurance and, when called, reported themselves unavail able. In one State in 1948, because the registers were used up very quickly, merit examinations for visitors were given monthly. Another State reported in 1947 that its civil service registers for visitors were exhausted almost as soon as they were published and new employees were being hired at starting salaries above the minimum. Sometimes provisional appointments were made to fill the vacancies. Also militating against obtaining workers in this field were low salaries (in some offices); fear of poor supervision; heavy case loads; insecurity of tenure because of the possibility of legislative interference (in a few States); and restrictive conditions of work (in some offices)—for instance, the necessity of owning a car. The residence 52 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN requirements imposed by some States for all or certain positions also tend to limit the supply. A study of social work education currently being made under the sponsorship of professional associations in the field of social work shows their interest in and concern with the supply problem. The report on the study, due in 1951, will undoubtedly prove helpful in ana lyzing the problem and in suggesting solutions (S3). Meanwhile, authorities in public assistance programs'say that the proportion of graduates of schools of social work who enter the public assistance field has been declining during the past few years; they stress the impor tance of interesting more students in the held of public assistance. A large eastern graduate school of social work, whose graduates have traditionally entered public assistance agencies, states that of 976 graduates in 1944 only 65 entered the public assistance field and that half of these were in administrative work. Many beginning visitors have come from the ranks of college teachers, personnel workers, indus trial employees, and military services, rather than from schools of Figure 16.—A case worker confers with an assessor concerning property values in making allowances for tax payments. SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 53 social work. The major problem of supply is to find ways and means to prepare adequately the more than 2,000 persons needed annually in public assistance work. TRAINING The ideal training for public assistance workers, according to some administrators in this field, is 2 years of graduate training in a social work school. In actual practice, many visitors lack graduate training, and some, although a declining proportion, have had no undergradu ate college work. This unusually lowT educational level for beginning positions, which are generally conceded to require a high degree of judgment and of skill in social case work, resulted in part from the rapid expansion of the emergency relief program during the depres sion days of the 1930's, when adequately trained personnel were not available in sufficient numbers. The situation was further compli cated in the war period of the 1940’s, when social workers were offered many opportunities and higher salaries in fields other than public welfare and public assistance. As a result, it wTas necessary to employ untrained people and to give them training on the job in order to continue the assistance program to those in need. According to authorities in the public assistance field in 1949, a minority of the visitors had some training in schools of social work. For example, 22 percent of the more than 500 visitors in Georgia in 1949 had had some graduate social work training. In Michigan, the proportion was apparently higher. There, a survey of 771 visitors out of a total of 1,535, indicated that 43 percent had attended a graduate school of social work (S3). . The trend is toward higher standards in this field. State officials in general have approved the requirement of a college degree for new employees. They desire also to raise the requirements for beginners as soon as the situation permits. Beginners, they believe, should have at least 1 year of training, including field work training in a local public assistance office, in one of the graduate schools of social work approved by the American Association of Schools of Social Work (1$). (See list of member schools, appendix, p. 73.) Alabama pro vides an example of the trend: Here about half of the local office visitors' in 1946, but four-fifths of those hired in 1949, were college graduates. In a southwestern State, where only 30 of 600 visitors had had at least 1 year of training in a graduate school of social work and only 6 had master’s degrees, the State director reported in 1948 that improved preparation among new visitors was becoming a reality. The merit requirements of the agency were 2 years of college undergraduate work, totaling 60 semester hours, although ex perience in any recognized social agency might be substituted for education, year for year. 54 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN It is evident that in the past few persons have entered public assist■ ance work with the 2 years of graduate social work training considered desirable for case workers in public as well as voluntary agencies. Recognizing this situation and the need for some specialized training below the 2-year graduate school level for those who were entering public assistance work immediately upon graduation from college, the National Association of Schools of Social Administration was formed in 1942 to promote training in undergraduate social work. Under the association’s program undergraduate curricula were developed for students who, it was hoped, would augment the small numbers of social workers available during the war in such fields as public assistance and recreation. Social work training and agency experience were offered for those who intended to take positions in welfare agencies immediately upon completion of their undergraduate work. How ever, students who could go on to graduate schools of social work were urged to do so, and some member schools of the National Asso ciation of Schools of Social Administration offered a year of graduate work (47) (7^). More numerous were the almost 400 undergraduate colleges which offered at least a course or two in social work (33). In Alabama, for instance, 18 out of 31 colleges offered special courses in social work, not including sociology, in 1946. However, such courses were meant to be introductory only, and few offered the practice or field work deemed as necessary in social work as an internship is in medi cine. The American Association of Schools of Social Work has con sistently encouraged colleges and universities to offer some under graduate social work training and has also maintained consulting service to schools and colleges. In its 1949 pamphlet on “Preprofes sional Education for Social Work,” the American Association of Schools of Social Work has discussed the undergraduate preparation it considers appropriate or desirable for entrance to its member schools. Also, in the colleges and universities where the association’s member schools were located, undergraduate courses in social work were offered in which 2,000 students were enrolled in 1948^49. Some individuals believe that social work training should be excluded en tirely from undergraduate colleges, because, they say, college students need the more general arts and sciences, are too immature, do not have the proper background, and lack the time to profit by such courses. They believe that basic information courses are more important and useful to such students. Most public assistance agencies have encouraged their visitors to make up their deficiencies in training, and many offer educational leave with scholarships for this purpose. In communities where schools of social work are accessible, the agencies encourage visitors SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 55 who have not. completed their training to attend classes in the late afternoons or evenings or on Saturdays. Work schedules are some times changed to make class attendance possible. Employees usually pay their own tuition and expenses under this system. In-service training has also been used extensively by public assist ance agencies, although they have been faced by the dilemma of a wide variation in educational backgrounds of the visitors and a short age of visitors which limits the time available for training. However, most agencies concerned with maintaining high standards of service attempt to improve staff competence and performance. In some States new visitors are taken to State headquarters or to local orienta tion centers for training. One State, for instance, assigns the new visitor, after 3y2 days of orientation in the local office, to a specialized training district where supervised field work and class instruction are given. Many States follow the practice, usual in merit systems, of having a limited 6-month training period after hiring during which the new visitor is on probation. At the end of the probationary period, if the visitor is satisfactory, she becomes a permanent member of the staff, participates in regular staff training, and is expected to carry a case load of at least 75 cases (21). The staff training varies from individual conferences to formal group participation. Some States also provide training for the supervisory personnel, at the State offices or in training centers. The Bureau of Public As sistance in the Federal Security Agency in Washington, D. C., has provided consultation and advice to the State agencies in establishing adequate training programs (61±). Scholarships and Fellowships Educators in the field of social work have expressed the belief that the public assistance field will not recover from the wartime drain on its personnel without a large degree of scholarship aid. Efforts in that direction have increased the aid available. The report of the American Association of Social Workers for the school term of 1947— 48 indicated that, of all students in its accredited schools, two-thirds were the recipients of scholarship aid. Of these 65 percent were re ceiving aid from public agencies, 23 percent from voluntary agencies, and 12 percent from schools of social work. Scholarships for visitors come from various sources. The Hart ford, Conn., Department of Assistance in 1949 awarded $2,000 to a staff member for training in family case work. The Grace Abbott Fellowship in Public Welfare Administration, amounting to $1,000, is open annually to any woman who is a graduate of an accredited college and employed in public welfare or public assistance programs and who plans to return to such work after the completion of the study financed by the fellowship (2). In 1943 to 1945, 38 States 56 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN granted educational leave to 468 visitors; 30 of these States granted the leave without pay (.fj). One Southern State granted tuition for 1 year of graduate work, plus $100 a month for 9 months, to college graduates, employed or not yet employed on the State welfare pro gram ; unless employment of 18 months followed, however, the amount of money advanced under the scholarship plan was to be repaid over a period of time (68). To States which match them, Federal funds also are available to help to finance educational leave for public assistance workers. The Bureau of Public Assistance in the Federal Security Agency an nounced a new educational leave policy, effective September 1, 1948, for probationary or permanent employees in the field of public as sistance under the State merit systems. According to the regulations, the employee on educational leave retains job status during the period absent from the agency. The leave payment may include money for tuition, incidental school expenses, maintenance in the community, travel, and per diem payments to and from school. The school must be one accredited by the American Association of Schools of Social Work, but the employee has the choice of the school. The minimum period of attendance is 1 year, and the employee must sign an agree ment to return to the agency to work 2 years for each year of study, although the local agency may arrange a shorter period of service. In 1949, 11 States had taken advantage of this leave policy. The small number may be explained by the fact that before Federal funds are made available matching funds from the State or locality must be provided. Liberal educational leave and work-study plans offered in public assistance work provide unusual opportunities for college graduates. The visitor can improve her educational background, obtain training in an accredited school of social work, and thus qualify for advance ment in her agency and in her chosen field. Information on scholarships and fellowships may be obtained from the American Association of Social Workers, One Park Avenue, New York, N. Y., which publishes lists of scholarships and fellowships periodically (2). EARNINGS, WORKING CONDITIONS, AND ADVANCEMENT Earnings Salaries for public assistance workers vary by locality and State. In general salaries have been low in rural communities and have in creased with the size of the community. The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study, already mentioned, on salaries of social workers in Michigan in 1948 shows that in that State the median annual salary SOCIAL CASE' WORK WITH FAMILIES 57 of women social workers in voluntary agencies and women visitors in governmental agencies was identical—$2,640. For women super visors in government agencies, the median was $3,420; for women executives, $4,000. About half received between $1,980 and $2,760. The great majority of government workers were employed as visitors in public assistance programs, although no separate statistics on their earnings were available (18). A similar Nation-wide study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, begun in 1950, will supply comprehensive information for the country as a whole. A study made by the Bureau of Public Assistance found that in 1946 the salaries of almost 15,000 visitors averaged $1,980 a year, with half receiving from $1,740 to $2,340. For supervisors, who comprised about 1,700 of the professional personnel and who were employed only in the larger offices, the median salary was $2,520. Included in the study were about 2,500 directors, who were the re sponsible heads of their offices. For them the median salary was $2,220, hut salaries varied (in part with the size of the office) from less than $1,440 to $4,560 and over (65). However, authorities on the public assistance program state that salary rates and ranges have increased since 1946. Many States, it is reported, recognize that true economy is effected by employing well-trained personnel to administer assist ance in a competent way and have tried to raise salary levels. Pros pects of public assistance workers were on the whole much better in 1949 than they had been in the past. Although in some communities salary rates were still reported to be too low to permit the employ ment of really qualified personnel (34), rates offered in others were encouraging. Salaries for beginning visitors in a number of States in 1948 ranged from $1,700 to $2,700, but in some urban centers they were as high as $3,000 to $3,100. Higher-paid staff workers included senior case workers, supervisors, and consultants. Scattered information on the salaries of these workers indicated that experienced case workers were paid up to $3,784 and supervisors and consultants, up to $5,000. The directors’ salaries in some rural counties were quite low, but most salaries offered in 1949 ranged from $3,600 to $10,000. Minimum salaries for State directors in 1947 ranged from $3,000 to $16,500 a year, with a median minimum of $6,778, according to a study made by the American Public Welfare Association. Salaries at the Fed eral level in the Bureau of Public Assistance in the Federal Security Agency ranged from $4,600 to $11,000 per year in 1950. Hours and Working Conditions According to a 1946 report, the number of hours of work per week required of public assistance workers in local offices varied from 33 58 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN to 48. Thirty-five States had a workweek of 40 hours or less. Only two States had a maximum of 48 hours in some of their local offices. Although the 5-day week pattern was generally followed in other States, it was the custom in some local offices to have at least a portion of the staff on duty for part or all of Saturday, in case of emergency calls (65). In Michigan in 1948, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics found that four-fifths of the social workers in government agencies were on a 40-hour week and that the schedule of hours of government workers varied less than that of voluntary agency employees. About 7 out of 10 workers in both voluntary and public agencies stated that they were sometimes required to work beyond the normal weekly schedule. Half of these reported some overtime compensation, usually in time off rather than in additional cash pay (18). More current, Nation-wide information on hours and other conditions of work will be available from the study now being made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Working conditions are believed to be improving on the whole. Public agencies appear to be less liberal than voluntary agencies in the matter of paid vacations, if the 1948 Michigan study by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics is indicative of the country as a whole. Only 1 in 14 of the public agencies reported a paid 4-week annual vacation after 1 year of service. One day a month was the most common provision for a vacation, and the same amount of sick leave was usual. Maternity leave, however, was more common in the governmental agencies in Michigan than in voluntary agencies, although more than half of all types of workers reported that they were entitled to maternity leave, mostly without pay. Six out of 7 social workers in both public and voluntary agencies stated that they were covered by some sort of retirement plan, and 1 out of 3 workers reported provision for some type of insurance, most usually life insurance. Government agencies provided retire ment pensions more frequently and other insurance plans less fre quently than did voluntary agencies (18). Like some social workers in private agencies, some public assistance employees in local offices work in undesirable quarters, in a basement or a condemned building which may have been donated or offered at a low rental to the agency. Relatively few public assistance em ployees work in modern office buildings centrally located and equipped with adequate comforts and facilities. One southern State reported in 1949 that 28 of its county offices were in fair to good condition but that the other 38 were in poor condition and needed replacement. The possession of an automobile is virtually a requirement in certain sections of the country where families on the assistance rolls live long distances from the office, and there it is the practice to hire a visitor SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 59 willing to supply his own car. Although a mileage rate is paid, it is often too low to provide adequately for the upkeep of the car. In some States cars are provided by the agency. Welfare administrators contend that their employees, like employees in other State and local agencies, should be provided with agency-owned cars when they are needed. Advancement The possibility of advancement within a local public assistance office depends in part upon its size. A survey by the Bureau of Public Assistance in 1948 indicated that more than 80 percent of the local offices had fewer than 10 full-time employees (9). In many small rural communities, in which only 1 or 2 people operate the assistance pro gram, the only possibility for advancement is transfer to another county that has a larger staff. Where offices are well staffed and where a number of offices exist in one county or city, as is common in industrialized districts, the opportunity for advancement is greater. After a few years of experience as a visitor, a woman may be advanced to a higher salary grade as a senior visitor and be given more difficult cases. Or she may become an assistant supervisor over a group of 5 or 6 workers. After'some experience at this beginning supervisory work, she may be given a more responsible supervisory position with a greater number of persons to supervise and more administrative duties, may be made a supervisor of several assistant supervisors, or may have responsibility for orientation courses for beginners on the staff and for providing leadership to other aspects of staff training. The highest administrative official in charge of one of the larger local offices is usually known as the local director. A figure on the proportion of local directors who are women is not available, but in 1950 about one-third of the members of the National Council of Local Public Welfare Administrators of the American Public Welfare As sociation were women. Many of these directors have other duties besides the operation of public assistance programs and may be respon sible for child welfare, foster care, and related medical programs. In large local welfare departments, however, there is usually a division of public assistance, often headed by a woman. At the supervisory level, as well as at other levels, opportunities not only in public assistance but also in other programs under the department of public welfare may offer variety or advancement. A visitor, for instance, may become supervisor of a homemaker service in the welfare department which supplies housekeepers to families in which the homemaker is absent. Within the welfare department, a visitor may transfer to institutional work with the aged or with chil dren or adolescents. Other alternatives are work with transients, or work in voluntary family agencies, or even international social 60 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN Figure 17.—The supervisor in line with her duties confers with a case worker under her supervision. work. Transfer to State or Federal work is another possibility. Some public assistance workers with appropriate educational quali fications become consultants or field representatives. These repre sentatives act as liaison between the larger and the smaller governmental units to assure a fair, consistent, and effective adminis tration of assistance in conformity with the law. Records indicate that State offices in many instances fill their vacancies from local offices within the States and that the Bureau of Public Assistance in the Federal Security Agency prefers people with extensive experience in local or State agencies. The Federal Bureau of Public Assistance in 1950 was headed by a woman with a long and distinguished career in social work, and there were 85 women on the social work staff of the Bureau. This is further evidence of the possibilities for the employment of women and their advancement in this type of work. The top level executive in the public assistance program in a State is usually the director of public welfare, but great diversity exists among the States as to the status and duties of the chief executive of the assistance program. A few directors of public assistance are SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 61 cabinet officers in their State and have no connection with the welfare department. Others may head up a division of public assistance in a department of health and welfare and be directly subordinate to the commissioner or director of health and welfare who is a cabinet officer. The heads of public assistance agencies are usually appointed by the executive of the State or by the State welfare board. In some States the director of public assistance must qualify under the State merit system, but in other States this official is the only one in the program, other than the State director of welfare, who is exempt from the merit system. The opportunities for women as State direc tors are not as good as they are in lower levels of administrative jobs, since men predominate at the highest level. State directors or com missioners of health and welfare, in the States which have a depart ment of assistance as a division in the more comprehensive program, usually have had no previous experience in social work agencies. In 1918 about five were professional social workers, and of the remainder, about half had a background of business experience, and the others had administrative and professional experience other than social work. Some visitors may achieve advancement through having specialized in teaching, research, or public relations in public assistance. (Such specialists are also recruited from other social sciences, or from law or journalism, as well as from social work.) Whatever their profes sional background, they need special skills in these respective fields, in addition to an understanding of the purpose and operation of social work programs. ORGANIZATIONS The principal professional organization for social workers in public assistance and other public welfare work is the American Public Welfare Association, organized in 1930, having over 4,000 individual members and 400 organization members in 1949. In 1948, of nearly 3,000 members listed in its directory, 59 percent were women. Infor mation on the proportion of these members employed in public assist ance is not available. Active membership in the association is open to those who are employed in public welfare work, including those in public assistance programs and also those in such public agencies as the Veterans’ Administration. Associate membership is open to other social workers and interested persons. The association assists in the development and maintenance of sound principles and effective administration of public welfare serv ices throughout the country and provides technical, consultive, and advisory services to legislative and administrative authorities and to public welfare and assistance officials. It acts as a clearinghouse for the exchange of thought and experience in this field and promotes the development of methods of training public welfare and public 62 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN assistance personnel. In these activities the association cooperates with Federal agencies and with national organizations in public and voluntary fields. The association holds an annual conference in December and has, in addition, a program of regional conferences to serve its entire member ship. It has committees on services for children, personnel, welfare, policy, medical care, administrative practices, and social work educa tion. Monthly publications of the association include the Letter to Members and Public Welfare {29). The National Council of State Public Assistance and Welfare Ad ministrators and the National Council of Local Public Welfare Administrators are organized within the American Public Welfare Association. Membership in these groups is open only to those who qualify because of their administrative responsibility for welfare or assistance programs in a State or local unit. In 1950 the Council of State Administrators had 60 members, of whom 5 were women, and the Council of Local Administrators had 1,431 members, of whom 550 were women. Among the members of the American Public 'Wel fare Association itself, according to a recent directory, were 661 public welfare administrators, of whom 121, or about 20 percent, were women. Of these, 42 were listed as directors in public assistance work exclusively (5). Many public assistance workers, together with other trained social workers who meet the education and experience requirements, belong to the American Association of Social Workers. About 40 percent of the 11,500 members of this association in 1949 were in the field of public welfare, including public assistance (53). Public assistance workers are eligible for membership in several labor organizations for government employees. Two of these are AFL affiliates: The American Federation of Government Employees, with a membership of 46,000 in 1949, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees with a membership of 90,000. The Government and Civic Employees Organizing Committee (CIO) received its charter early in 1950 and had over 200 locals in 1951. There is also an independent union, the National Federation of Fed eral Employees, which had 93,000 members in 1949. Other unions are also in existence, some in a state of reorganization. In a number of States local directors of public welfare have organi zations which provide the opportunity for exchange of experience and for cooperation as a group on administration and program develop ment. Also, the State and National Conferences of Social Work offer opportunity for professional contacts for all persons in the public wel fare field. (These are discussed more fully in the bulletin in this series on Community Organization.) 63 SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES WELFARE Figure 18.—A family case worker obtains information from the mother of a patient in a county hospital while others wait to see her. SUGGESTIONS TO THOSE INTERESTED IN ENTERING PUBLIC ASSISTANCE WORK A local public assistance office encounters a variety of problems and emergencies on which individuals seek help for their families. Al though few visitors still use snowshoes or rowboats to reach isolated families, assist at births, or prepare bodies for burial, they are part of a public organization which deals with manifold human prob lems and must be ready to respond in emergencies and be resourceful in handling them. Emotional maturity is the quality most often stressed by administrators as important for this type of work. This includes a consideration and a respect for other personalities and an appreciation for customs and traditions which differ from one’s own. The visitor needs sympathetic understanding and sensitivity, com bined with integrity and the ability to maintain a calm perspective in emergencies {19). Opinions vary as to the most advisable type of undergraduate work for the person who desires to become a visitor. Some educators sug gest a broad foundation in the social sciences, such as economics, politi cal science, psychology, or sociology; some prefer a full major in sociology. Others stress a college curriculum which gives compre 64 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN hensive training in the humanities and natural sciences and specialized courses in delinquency, unemployment, housing, and nutrition prob lems, they believe such a curriculum will become increasingly desir able for visitors in the next decade (33). Still others would add an introductory course in social welfare. Administrators in public assistance generally give preference to those with adequate educational preparation. A year in a graduate school of social work is of great assistance in acquiring the necessary background and training for this work (20), and 2 years of graduate work with a master’s degree give an applicant a preferred position in applying for work in public assistance. Field work under super vision of a public assistance agency is very valuable to the beginner (42). Some administrators believe that a year or two of work in a local office before undertaking graduate work is preferable to contin uing on in graduate school immediately following completion of un dergraduate work. On the other hand, training in case work in a graduate school is of great value to the beginner in a public assistance agency. A visitor so trained can concentrate to a large extent on the maze of agency policy and regulations. She is not forced to learn both agency policy and case work procedure at the beginning of her employment, as is the new visitor who lacks case work training. Those who rise to administrative posts in public assistance are sub ject to constant public scrutiny and criticism and need the bulwark of confidence that possession of adequate training provides. Further, visitors who do their work under specific laws and practices of the government, must learn the extent to which aid can be extended to a family and be able to explain the services offered, as well as the inade quacies which, because funds are insufficient, may arise under the organization s policy. Although the visitor may be part of a large organization, she must disassociate herself from the idea of mass ap proach, with its connotation of low standards and lack of warmth and understanding. She must be friendly without making personal friends of the family members, be able to individualize needs, and be interested and helpful without destroying the recipients’ initiative. In addition, she should have attained some skill in writing during her training period, so that she knows how to write letters with warmth, courtesy, and understanding in simple language and how to prepare adequate reports for the permanent records. But she must also fit into the team pattern of her agency, be able to disagree without rancor, and learn to conform to the many specific regulations which charac terize Government employment. In work with the aged, the blind, and dependent children under the provisions of the Social Security Act, the visitor is subject to merit or civil service regulations in all States in which these services are SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 65 offered, and in certain States visitors with general assistance cases are also under a merit system. The applicant for a position in public as sistance work should know in advance the requirements for positions in the State and community in which she wishes to work. The woman who does not obtain this information may find herself disqualified for failure to fulfill some requirement, although she may be exceptionally well trained in the profession. For instance, residence requirements, rigid in some States, may be waived in others or be nonexistent. Merit and civil service systems confer a measure of job security upon the public assistance worker which the nongovernmental worker does not have. In addition, sound promotion schedules evolved in many of these agencies enable the beginner to rise to higher levels with increases in pay in the course of time, providing her work is satisfac tory. Programs of staff development in operation in many offices offer training in the philosophy and in the specific activities of the public assistance program. The numerous possibilities of educational leave and scholarships are attractive to those with ambition to progress. One advantage of this type of work is that it may be combined well with marriage and family responsibilities. It is possible for women to continue on their jobs under the merit system, either as full time or part-time workers, after marriage. Some have found it pos sible to leave the field for a time and to return later when family responsibilities permit. Maturity and the experience of successfully rearing a family may be considered assets in this type of work, although some agencies prefer younger workers. The many social vrnrk journals are helpful both to those progressing in the field and to women who wish to keep abreast of developments while rearing their families at home. A special Public Welfare Index, available in most reference libraries, lists articles appearing in profes sional and popular journals concerned with this type of work. Within the public assistance program, the future offers both variety and challenge. Because this work is comparatively new as a Nation wide program, dating from the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, the visitor entering an agency can expect to have a part in the actual development of various phases of the program (31). New fields of specialization, as in work with the aged, challenge the visitor. Adding immeasurably to the interest of the work is the fact that no two cases are exactly alike and the method of approach must be worked out on an individual basis for each family. Moreover, the woman in public assistance who sees her task as more than a routine job will find an excellent opportunity for her own growth. As she considers the needs of the people she serves and their right to understanding and intelligent helpfulness, she will be dissatisfied with anything less than the well-rounded expansion of her talents and skills in their 66 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN behalf. In working toward such a goal, she will find widening hori zons for herself as well as a growing satisfaction in her work for the public. Women who take training in graduate schools of social work during the next few years with the idea of entering public assistance work are bound to find their services in demand. Ultimately they will also have unusual opportunity for leadership in a program important to the welfare of the community. DEMAND PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II The early administration of aid for the poor under local authorities in the United States was patterned after the pauper relief legislation of an Elizabethan statute, passed in England in 1601 (14). From colonial days until the latter part of the nineteenth century, almshouse care and other forms of institutional relief, with some assistance to families in their homes, called “out-door relief,” were dispensed by a political appointee, working usually within the confines of the county (54-) ■ Gradually, some States, as well as local communities, estab lished an organized program for direct financial assistance, as well as for institutional care (40). The first conference of the Boards of Public Charities was held in New York City in 1874. Women early became active in this type of service; in 1915 a woman held the posi- Figure 19-—A county director of welfare at her desk confers with a staff member. SOCIAL CASE. WORK WITH FAMILIES 67 tion of director of the Department of Social Work of the City and County of Denver, Colo. (5). In the 1920’s an increasing emphasis on relief outside of institutions included aid to special groups in their homes, such as aid to needy mothers, the aged, the blind, and veterans (54) ■ For example, in 1922 most of the counties in Virginia began such service with one relief worker and a clerical assistant in each county. The depression of the early 1930’s, which exhausted relief funds of many local communities and States, confronted the Federal Govern ment with requests from these areas for funds for the relief of the unemployed. In 1933 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration was established which gave grants to the States for work relief and general aid to the needy, the first direct assumption of relief by the Federal Government. The director in charge of the New York State Temporary Emergency Relief Administration was appointed to take charge of the Federal program. During the next few years a number of federally sponsored work programs were launched to offset the paralysis of large-scale unemployment which gripped the Nation and placed as many as 40 percent of the population in some States on public relief (52) (11). The Federal programs included the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Youth Administration, and the Works Progress Administration. In 1934 one-fifth of the people in the country were receiving aid of various types, including aid through work programs and in kind. Since those who received help under these programs had to prove their need, a tremendous work load was placed on local and State relief agencies administering the programs in their areas. No criteria were set up by the Federal Government at this time for local personnel employed as social workers or investigators. Num bers of social case workers were loaned or released by voluntary agen cies to administer public relief, and most of these workers remained in the public field in supervisory or administrative capacities (8). The rapid expansion of public relief, for which the social work field was unprepared, soon exhausted the supply of trained social workers. Low civil service requirements in some States, insecurity of tenure, and meager salaries discouraged many of the more capable students contemplating careers in social work from entering this work (27). Staffs were recruited hastily, in some instances including unqualified persons obtained from the rolls of the unemployed. Although a few States were able to require 4 years of college training from their re cruits, other States were forced to capitulate to the realities of the situation and accept lower standards (12). An effort was made later to weed out the more unsuitable workers and to supply in-service training for those who showed some aptitude for the work. 68 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN ■SfcJ Figure 20.—A widowed mother who has applied for aid to dependent children for her three youngest children is interviewed in her home by a visitor. SOCIAL CASE) WORK WITH FAMILIES 69 Later, as the need lessened, the Federal Government withdrew its emergency program from the general relief field but assumed a perma nent responsibility for grants to the States for limited assistance programs under the Social Security Act. Enacted in August 1935, this act provided funds to States for use in old-age assistance and aid to the blind and to dependent children. In addition, the act provided for unemployment insurance, a system of old-age benefits and sur vivors’ allowances, and certain health and welfare services. Public assistance in categories other than aid to the aged, the blind, and dependent children became entirely a concern of State or local governments. Until the latter part of the 1930’s some of the States considered their public assistance programs as emergency measures. Even in New York State, from 1931 until 1937, staffs in local assistance offices were employed on an emergency basis. Finally the permanent need for the program was recognized, and in 1937 employees were given status under the State civil service system by legislative action {13). To obtain supervisors and consultants capable of teaching and guiding the staff in local offices and of forming policy in this new and rapidly expanding assistance program, the more able visitors were encouraged to attend graduate schools of social work which offered suitable instruction. Leave of absence was granted for this purpose in some instances. In 1936 and 1937, 147 fellowships were given to visitors in New York State, exclusive of those from New York City {13). During this period also, the Federal Emergency Relief Ad ministration financed undergraduate scholarships. That women were gaining a place in public assistance administration was evident from the lists of public welfare administrators published by the American Public Welfare Association in 1939. In 114 city and county public welfare administrations in areas exceeding 100,000 population, 22 women had administrative positions (3), and of the 95 officials at the State level administering public welfare, 28 were women (4). These public welfare administrators in many instances controlled related services, as well as public assistance programs. Another development at the end of the 1930’s was enactment of the merit-system amendments to the Social Security Act, effective Jan uary 1,1940, which applied to the personnel of the Federal, State, and local agencies administering old-age assistance, aid to the blind, and aid to dependent children. Some States had merit systems in opera tion at this time, but those that lacked them set about establishing some type of merit rating system in order to comply with the amended Federal law, so that Federal grants for the three special categories would be continued. No general type of merit system was recom mended, and the State and local agencies were free to choose their 70 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN own, so long as tlie system adopted was effective and would provide for the necessary methods of administration and for the establishment and maintenance of personnel standards. Each State or local agency was free to make provision for its own selection of personnel, tenure of office, and compensation. WARTIME CHANGES IN EMPLOYMENT Defense preparations, begun in the 1940’s, and later World War II brought many changes to the public assistance program. Case loads contracted steadily as opportunities for employment increased. The effect of old-age and survivors’ insurance also was beginning to be felt, reducing the need of some older persons and of children for public assistance (44) ■ General assistance cases, country-wide, fell from 1,239,000 in 1940 to 354,000 in 1943 (SO). In Milwaukee County the costs of the program declined from $10 million in 1940 to $4 million in 1945 (36). Although the shrinkage of case loads for a time eased the problem of replacing visitors leaving public assistance agencies, the loss of public assistance personnel soon assumed alarming proportions. The competing demands of Selective Service, the Federal Government, the American Red Cross, and the member agencies of the United Service Organizations made it impossible to retain a well-trained social work staff. A large Louisiana parish reported the resignation of 5 case supervisors and 69 visitors in 1941 and found no trained personnel available to replace them (67). In Rochester, N. Y., 292 visitors were employed in 1941, as compared with 400 in 1939. More than three-fifths had left for higher-paying positions in voluntary social work or in other fields, and one-fifth because of marriage (46). By 1942 there were only 20,000 to 25,000 visitors left in public assist ance agencies, and a shortage of 1,500 public assistance workers was reported (32). As the proportion of inexperienced persons on public assistance staffs increased, social workers who were graduates of schools of social work were in demand for supervisory and administrative jobs to supervise and train the staff. Twenty-two of 179 women, who reported their employment the year following their graduation from one school of social work in 1941-42, were in public assistance and pub lic welfare agencies (46). In some instances relatively inexperienced persons trained and supervised new workers. In Louisiana, for ex ample, supervision in the majority of smaller offices was given by su pervisors who lacked professional training and who had learned through apprenticeship methods (56). Under these circumstances, the need for staff training was imper ative. Where social work schools were available, visitors were en- SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 71 . Figure 21.—A visitor at the end of the day plans for the following day’s work. couraged to take night or Saturday classes. States receiving funds under the Social Security program were encouraged to permit edu cational leave for staff members (J$). Public assistance officials kept as a goal a broad social service preparation with 2 years of professional training in a graduate school but realized that this could not be ex pected under the existing conditions. The war brought the visitor many new problems. In most offices case loads were ultimately increased because of personnel shortages. State and local public assistance staffs were called upon by the Selec tive Service Boards to aid in determining whether need existed for deferment from military service because of dependency. The short age of rubber for tires and gasoline rationing curtailed the use of motor cars in visiting families. The visitor, however, continued to administer financial assistance and such other aid as was available in the community. She never lost sight of the opportunity to re habilitate those who were capable of employment and tried to estab lish the best possible living arrangements for those who were unem ployable. In December 1945, after the close of World War II, an estimated 23,900 persons were employed in executive and social work positions in public assistance in the United States. Of these persons, 18,700 were director-workers and visitors. Eight out of every 100 budgeted positions were reported to be vacant at that time. VOLUNTEERS Volunteers in public assistance work are sometimes used for routine clerical work in the offices, or to assist clients with transportation problems by driving them to and from clinics, doctors’ offices, or hos pitals. All persons administering public assistance under the Social 72 OUTLOOK FOE WOMEN Security Act to the aged, the blind, and dependent children must have qualified under a merit system. Therefore, volunteers are not used in the areas of direct administration, supervision, and case work. Furthermore, the family-worker relationship is considered confiden tial, and the family receiving assistance usually expects its identity to be protected and would resent the employment of anyone other than the visitor on the case. However, a number of women serve on State and local boards of public assistance with no remuneration except expense payments. These lay boards, composed of men and women from various com munity groups according to law, have advisory or policy forming powers in the administration of public assistance in their communi ties. 1 hey also gain support for the agencies’ program through de velopment of informational and public relations programs. W hile not directly associated with welfare organizations, many women’s groups, such as women’s clubs, church organizations, and civic clubs, have welfare activities and provide supplementary funds and services for needs not covered by public appropriations and agency regulations. APPENDIX Minimum Requirements for a Beginning Federal Civil Service Position as Social Worker 1 (As taken from the Civil Service Announcement No. 99, assembled, Code P-185 1-3; issued May 4, 1948, closed October 5, 1948.) (This is the last examination given in this type of employment up to the early part of 1951.) 2 Citizenship in the United States. Age: Over 18 years and up to but not including 62 years. Physically capable of performing the duties of the position. Passing of a physical examination is necessary for appointment. Education and Experience: Applicants must have one of the following or a combination of them: A. Completion of one full year of study in an accredited school of social work. B. Completion of a course of study leading to a bachelor’s degree from a college or university of recognized standing plus one year of experience in social case work. C. Five years of experience in social case work. Note: A number of types of social workers were included in this examination. Those significant to this study were public welfare workers in the District of Columbia and other social workers in Federal service throughout the United States. Schools of Social Work in the Continental United States Accredited by the American Association of Schools of Social Work3 [As of September 1950] Atlanta University School of Social Bryn Mawr College,4 Carola Woerishoffer Graduate Depart Work, ment of Social Economy and Social 247 Henry St. SW., Research, Atlanta, Ga. Bryn Mawr, Pa. Boston College, Carnegie Institute of Technology, School of Social Work, Department of Social Work, 126 Newbury St., Pittsburgh 13, Pa. Boston 16, Mass. Boston University, School of Social Work, 264 Bay State Road, Boston 15, Mass. Catholic University of America,4 National Catholic School of Social Serv ice, Washington 17, D. C. ] The beginning salary was $3,100 in 1950 for a GS-5 (P-1) position. 2 For more complete and later information, consult announcements of the Civil Service Commission posted in first- and second-class post offices. 3 This list is subject to change. For more complete and later information, write to the American Association of Schools of Social Work, 1 Park Ave., New York 16, N. Y. Cata logues are available on request to the individual schools. 4 Offers doctor’s degree in social work. 73 74 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN College of William and Mary, Richmond-School of Social Work, 901 Franklin St., Richmond 20, Va. Simmons College, School of Social Work, 51 Commonwealth Ave., Boston 16, Mass. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla. Smith College, School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass. Fordham University, School of Social Service, 134 Bast 39th St., New York 10, N. Y. Howard University, Graduate School of Social Work, Washington i, D. C. Tulane University, School of Social Work, New Orleans 15, La. University of Buffalo, School of Social Work, 25 Niagara Sq., Buffalo 2, N. Y. Indiana University, Division of Social Service, 122 East Michigan St., Indianapolis 4, Ind. University of California, School of Social Welfare, Berkeley 4, Calif. Louisiana State University, School of Social Welfare, Baton Rouge 3, La. University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Social Welfare, Los Angeles 24, Calif. Loyola University, School of Social Work, S20 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 11, 111. University of Chicago,4 School of Social Service Administra tion, Chicago 37, 111. Nashville School of Social Work, 412—21st Ave. South, Nashville 4, Tenn. University of Connecticut, School of Social Work, 17 Broad St., Hartford 5, Conn. New York School of Social Work Columbia University,4 2 Bast 91st St., New York 28, N. Y. University of Denver, School of Social Work, Denver 10, Colo. Ohio State University,4 School of Social Administration, Graduate Program, Columbus 10, Ohio. University of Illinois, Division of Social Welfare Administra tion, Urbana, 111. Our Lady of the Lake College, Worden School of Social Service, San Antonio 7, Tex. University of Kansas, Department of Social Work, Lawrence, Kans. St. Louis University, School of Social Service, 221 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis 3, Mo. University of Louisville, Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work, Louisville 8, Ky. 4 Offers doctor’s degree in social work. SOCIAL CASE: work with families University of Michigan, Institute of Social Work, 60 Farnsworth Ave., Detroit 2, Mich. University of Minnesota,* School of Social Work, Minneapolis 14, Minn. University of Missouri, Department of Social Work, Columbia, Mo. University of Nebraska, Graduate School of Social Work, Lincoln 8, Nebr. 75 University of South Carolina, School of Social Work, Columbia, S. C. University of Southern California, School of Social Work, Los Angeles 7, Calif. University of Utah, School of Social Work, Salt Lake City 1, Utah. University of Washington, Graduate School of Social Work, Seattle 5, Wash. University of Wisconsin, Department of Social Work, Madison 6, Wis. University of North Carolina, Division of Public Welfare and Social Washington University, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Work, Chapel Hill, N. C. St. Louis 5, Mo. University of Oklahoma, Wayne University, School of Social Work, School of Public Affairs and Social Norman, Okla. Work, Detroit 2, Mich. University of Pennsylvania,1 School of Social Work, 2410 Pine St., Philadelphia 3, Pa. West Virginia University, Department of Social Work, Morgantown, W. Va. University of Pittsburgh,4 School of Social Work, Pittsburgh 13, Pa. Western Reserve University, School of Applied Social Sciences, Cleveland 6, Ohio. Member Schools of the National Association of Schools of Social Administration 5 Alabama College, Montevallo, Ala. Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich. Bradley University, Peoria, 111. Loyola University, New Orleans, La. Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, Bast Lansing, Mich. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla. Montana State University, Missoula, Mont. George Williams College, Chicago, 111. Nazareth College, Nazareth, Mich. 4 Offers doctor’s degree in social work. 6 List subject to change. For more complete and later information, write to Mrs. Mattie Cal Maxted, National Association of Schools of Social Administration, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. Catalogues are available on request to the individual schools. 76 OUTLOOK FOE WOMEN Ohio University, Athens, Ohio University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N. Dak. Southwestern Louisiana Institute, Lafayette, La. University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. Tennessee A. & I. State College, Nashville, Tenn. University of Oregon, Eugene, Oreg. University of Alabama, University, Ala. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. University of Houston, Houston, Tex. University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. University of Maine, Orono, Maine. University of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C. University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S. Dak. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn. University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo. Utah State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah. Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind. University of New Hampshire, Durham, N. H. Western Michigan College of Education, Kalamazoo, Mich. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. Mex. Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio. Organizations Represented in the Social Case Work Council of the National Social Welfare Assembly American Association of Medical Social Workers American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers American Federation of International Institutes American National Red Cross American Public Welfare Association Association of Junior Leagues of America Bureau of Public Assistance Child Welfare League of America Community Chests and Councils of America Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds Department for Displaced Persons, Church World Service Episcopal Service for Youth Family Service Association of America International Social Service National Board, Y. W. C. A., Counseling Service National Conference of Catholic Charities National Travelers Aid Association The Salvation Army United Service for New Americans SOURCES TO WHICH REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT (1) American Association of Schools of Social Work. Professional education for social welfare services in wartime. Pittsburgh, Pa., the Association, 1943. 66 pp. Mimeo. (2) American Association of Social Workers. Social work fellowships and scholarships offered during the year 1948-49. New York, N. Y., the Association, October 1947. 18 pp. (3) American Public Welfare Association. Directory of city and county pub lic welfare administrators in cities of over 100,000 population. Chicago, 111., the Association, Sept. 1, 1989. 15 pp. (4) ------ — Directory of State agencies and officials administering public wel fare functions. Chicago, 111., the Association, June 1, 1939. 49 pp. (5) ------ — The public welfare directory, 1948. Chicago, 111., the Association, 1948. 310 pp. (.6) Bernstein, Philip. Jewish social work. In Social Work Yearbook, 1947. New York, N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1947. Pp. 248-261. (7) Bondy, Robert E. Special welfare services to families of men in service. In National Conference of Social Work Proceedings, 1943. New York, N. Y., Columbia University Press, 1943. Pp. 76-84. (8) Brown, Josephine Chapin. Public relief 1929-1939. New York, N. Y., Henry Holt and Co., 1940. 524 pp. (9) Browning, Grace. Public administration and human welfare. The Social Service Review 22: 10-19, March 1949. (10) --------- Rural social programs. In Social Work Yearbook, 1949. New York, N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1949. Pp. 446-453. (11) Bruno, Frank J. Trends in social work as reflected in Proceedings of National Conference of Social Work 1874-1946. New York, N. Y., Colum bia University Press, 1948. 387 pp. (12) Chiekering, Martha A. What a visitor in a public agency should know. In National Conference of Social Work Proceedings, 1938. Chicago, 111., University of Chicago Press, 1938. Pp. 541-550. (13) Clarke, George. Recruiting of personnel in public welfare administration. In National Conference of Social Work Proceedings, 1938. Chicago, 111., University of Chicago Press, 1938. Pp. 574r-584. (14) Clarke, Helen Isabel. Principles and practices of social work. New York, N. Y., D. Appleton-Century Co., Inc., 1947. 450 pp. (15) Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. Trends—Jewish social service—5 years 1940-1944. New York, N. Y., the Council, 1945. 9 pp. Mimeo. (16) Current and future directions in family service programs. Highlights 10: 17-31, February 1949. (17) Daniloff, Gladys T. Using volunteers with clients. Survey Midmonthly 79: 111-113, April 1943. (18) David, Lily Mary. Social work salaries and working conditions in Michigan. Social Work Journal 30 : 63-66, April 1949. (19) de Schweinitz, Karl. The basic skill in social security. Reprint from Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1944. 8 pp. (20) --------- People and process in social security. Washington, D. C., American Council on Education, 1948. 165 pp. 77 78 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN (21) Eisner, Clara. Specifics of training new workers in public assistance agencies. Journal of Social Casework 28: 382-388, December 1947. (22) Family Service Association of America, Find your career in family social work. New York, N. Y., the Association, undated (1950 publication). 14 pp. (23) —------ (Formerly Family Welfare Association of America) War years in family social work, 1938-1945. Highlights 6: 3-24a, March 1945. (24) Fink, Arthur E. The field of social work. New York, N. Y., Henry Holt and Co., 1949. 577 pp. (25) Gomberg, M. Robert. The specific nature of family case work. In A Functional Approach to Family Case Work. Jessie Taft, editor. Phila delphia, Pa., University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944. Pp. 111-147. (26) Hagan, Margaret. Techniques of psychiatric case work with the service man and his family. In New York State Conference on Social Work Papers. Buffalo, N. Y., the Conference, 1941. Pp. 40-47. (27) Hathway, Marion. Education for public social services. In National Conference of Social Work Proceedings, 1940. New York, N. Y., Columbia University Press, 1940. Pp. 585-597. (28) Hertel, Frank J. Case work services offered by family agencies. The Family 23: 129-134, June 1942. (29) Hodges, Margaret, ed. Social Work Yearbook. New York, N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1949. P. 589. (30) Hoey, Jane M. The impact of the war on the public assistance pirogram. Social Service Review 17 : 472-483, December 1943. (31) --------- - Public assistance in 1948. Journal of Social Casework 29: 123-130, April 1948. (32) --------- The public social welfare services. In War demands for trained personnel, 1942, Conn. New London, Conn., the Institute of Women’s Professional Relations, Research Headquarters, Connecticut College, 1942. Pp. 179-182. Mimeo. (33) Hollis, Ernest V., and Taylor, Alice L. Social work education looks ahead. New York, N. Y., Columbia University Press. (In press.) (34) Howard, Donald J. Public assistance returns to page one—II. Compass 29: 114^120, July 1948. (35) Hunter, Joel D. Summary of reports. Milwaukee County survey of social welfare and health service, ine., July 1949. 94 pp. (36) Hurlin, Ralph Gibney. Operation statistics of selected family casework agencies—1945, with trend data for the period 1936-1944. New York, N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1946. 31 pp. (37) --------- Recent hiring practices in private family agencies. In The Family 20 : 286-289 and 20: 181-184, October 1939 and January 1940. (38) Illinois Public Aid Commission. Summary of public aid in Illinois and Commission activities. Presented by Carl K. Schmidt, Jr., March 4, 1949. 51 pp. Mimeo. (Exhibit B.) (39) Isham, Mary Elizabeth. State registration of social workers in California. Berkeley, Calif., University of California, School of Social Work, 1948. 110 pp. Ms. Thesis. (40) James, Arthur Wilson. The State becomes a social worker: An adminis trative interpretation. Richmond, Va., Garrett and Massie, Inc., 1942. 368 pp. (41) King, Anna E. Education for social work. In Social Work Yearbook, 1947. New York, N. Y„ Russell Sage Foundation, 1947. Pp. 157-166. SOCIAL CASE WORK WITH FAMILIES 79 ^42) Lehrman, Louis .T. Field work training in a public assistance setting. Social Casework 31: 145-150, April 1950. (43) Manning, Catherine M. The impact of defense on a public agency pro gram. In New York State Conference on Social Work Papers. Buffalo, N. Y., the Conference, 1941. Pp. 25-33. (44) McHugh, Rose J. Public assistance. In Social Work Yearbook, 1947. New York, N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1947. Pp. 371-387. (45) National Social Welfare Assembly, Committee of the Social Case Work Council. Report of a study of volunteer services in selected case work agencies. New York, N. Y., the Assembly, 1947. 55 pp. Mimeo. (46) New York School of Social Work, General announcement, 1943-1944. New York, N. Y., Columbia University, April 1943. 47 pp. (47) New York (State of). The 104th annual report of the Prison Associa tion of New York. New York, N. Y., Publishers Printing Co., 1948. 102 pp. (Legislative Document No. 43-1949.) (48) Odencrantz, Louise C. The social worker in family, medical, and psychi atric social work. New York, N. Y., Harper Bros., 1929. 374 pp. (49) Pan American Child Congress, 8th. Economic and social services for families and children. Training for social work. Vol. 6. May 2-9, 1942. 15 pp. (50) Personnel in State and local public assistance agencies, June 1949. Social Security Bulletin 13 : 7-12, April 1950. (51) Public Administration Clearing House. Public administration organiza tions, 1948. Chicago, 111., 1948. 216 pp. (52) Russell, Howard L. Public welfare. In Social Work Yearbook, 1947. New York, N. Y„ Russell Sage Foundation, 1947. Pp. 409-418. (53) Schneider, David M. A. A. S. W. members, as revealed by 1945 member ship census. Compass 27: 4-8, June 1946. (54) Schneider, David M. and Deutsch, Albert. The history of public welfare in New York State 1867-1940. Chicago, 111., University of Chicago, 1941. 410 pp. (55) Sieder, Violet M. Public welfare—local community council relationships. In New York State Conference on Social Work Papers. Syracuse, N. Y., the Conference, 1945. Pp. 113-129. (56) Spencer, Sue W. Case supervision in a public assistance agency. The Family 22: 336-343, February 1942. (57) Starr, Josephine S. Family social work. In Social Work Yearbook, 1941. New York, N. Y., Russell Sage Foundation, 1941. Pp. 207-212. (58) Swift, Linton B. The purpose and program of a family case work agency. The Family 20: 3-7, March 1939. (59) Turner, J. Sheldon. Considerations basic to the review of the policy and practice In the administration of public assistance. Statement made August 15,1946, Hartford, Conn. 11 pp. Mimeo. (60) U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Forecasts of the population of the U. S., 1945 to 1975. Washington. D. C., U. S. Government printing office, 1947. 113 pp. (61) --------- --------- . Provisional estimates of the population of the United States by regions, divisions and States, July 1949. Washington, D. C., the Bureau, Nov. 4, 1949. 2 pp. (Current population reports, population estimates, Series P-25 No. 32.) (62) ------ -—------------ 16th Census of the United States, 1940. Population, Volume III. The labor force. Part I. U. S. Summary. Washington, D. C., U. S. Government printing office, 1943. 301 pp. 80 OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN (63) U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Employment Security. Dictionary of occupational titles. Volume I. Definitions of titles. Washington, D. 0., U. S. Government printing office, March 1949. P. 204. (2nd ed.) (64) U. S. Federal Security Agency, Social Security Administration, Bureau of Public Assistance. Case records in public assistance. Volume I, No. 2. Washington, D. C., the Bureau, January 1919. 237 pp. Mimeo. (65) --------- ■--------- —------ Personnel in local offices of State public assistance agencies, 1946. Part I, Salaries. Washington, D. C., the Bureau, August 1947. 60 pp. (Report No. 12.) (66) ----------------- ------ - Public assistance personnel, January-June 1949. ^ Table 2. Washington, D. C., the Bureau, April 28, 1950. 23 pp. Mimeo. (67) U. S. Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services. Shortages of quali fied social welfare personnel in 1941. Washington, D. C., the Office. March 14, 1942. 17 pp. (68) Virginia (State of), State Board of Education. Work for those _ interested in public welfare. In Work and Training 9: 7, May 1950. (69) Waite, Florence T. Selection of scholarship students. Journal of Social Casework 28: 337-342, November 1947, ((0) Walling, Lorraine D. State leadership in local staff development. Journal of Social Casework 28: 228-235, June 1947. (71) Mead, Margaret. Personnel changes in member agencies of the Family Welfare Association of America. Washington, D. C., Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services, Dec. 22, 1941. 4 pp. Mimeo. (72) Welfare Federation of Cleveland. Study of turnover of professional social work personnel in greater Cleveland. Cleveland, Ohio, Research Department, the Federation, May 1947. 50 pp. (73) Younker, Ira M. Family counseling in action today. Journal of Social Casework 29 : 106-111, March 1948. CURRENT PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU FACTS ON WOMEN WORKERS—Issued monthly. 4 pages. (Latest statistics on employment of women; earnings ; labor laws affecting women; news items of interest to women workers; women in the international scene.) 1950 HANDBOOK OF FACTS ON WOMEN WORKERS. 1950. Bull. 237. 106 pp. 300. THE AMERICAN WOMAN—Her Changing Role as Worker, Homemaker, Citizen. (Women’s Bureau Conference, 1948.) Bull. 224. 210 pp. 1948. EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK AND TRAINING FOR WOMEN The Outlook for Women in Occupations in the Medical and Other Health Services, Bull. 203: 1. Physical Therapists. 14 pp. 1945. Out of print. 2. Occupational Therapists. 15 pp. 1945. Out of print. 3. Professional Nurses. 66 pp. 1946. 150. 4. Medical Laboratory Technicians. 10 pp. 1945. 50. 5. Practical Nurses and Hospital Attendants. 20 pp. 1945. 100. 6. Medical Record Librarians. 9 pp. 1945. 50. 7. Women Physicians. 28 pp. 1945. 100. 8. X-ray Technicians. 14 pp. 1945. 100. 9. Women Dentists. 21 pp. 1945. 100. 10. Dental Hygienists. 17 pp. 1945. 100. 11. Physicians’ and Dentists’ Assistants. 15 pp. 1945. 100. 12. Trends and Their Effect Upon the Demand for Women Workers. 55 pp. 1946. 150. The Outlook for Women in Science. Bull. 223 : 1. Science. [General introduction to the series.] 81 pp. 1949. 200. 2. Chemistry. 65 pp. 1948. 250. 3. Biological Sciences. 87 pp. 1948. 250. 4. Mathematics and Statistics. 21 pp. 1948. 100. 5. Architecture and Engineering. 88 pp. 1948. 250. 6. Physics and Astronomy. 32 pp. 1948. 150. 7. Geology, Geography, and Meteorology. 52 pp. 1948. 200. 8. Occupations Related to Science. 33 pp. 1948. 150. The Outlook for Women in Police Work. Bull. 231. 31 pp. 1949. 150. Home Economics Occupation Series. Bull. 234. The Outlook for Women in: 1. Dietetics. 80 pp. 1950. 250. (Others in preparation.) Social Work Series. Bull. 235. The Outlook for Women in : 1. Social Case Work in a Medical Setting. 59 pp. 1950. 250. 2. Social Case Work in a Psychiatric Setting. 60 pp. 1950. 250. 3. Social Case Work with Children. (In press.) 4. Social Case Work with Families. (Instant publication.) 5. Community Organization in Social Work. (In press.) Others in prep aration. 6. Social Work Administration, Teachings, and Research. (In press.) Your Job Future After College. Leaflet. 1948. 50. Your Job Future After High School. Leaflet. 1949. 50. Occupations for Girls and Women—Selected References. Bull. 229. 105 pp. 1949. 300. 81 82 Training for Jobs—for Women and Girls. vocational training purposes.] Leaflet 1. [Under public funds available for 1047. 5<f. EARNINGS Earnings of Women in Selected Manufacturing Industries. 14 pp. 1948. 100. 1946. Bull. 219. LABOR LAWS Summary of State Labor Laws for Women. 8 pp. 1950. Mimeo. State Legislation of Special Interest to Women. Mimeos. for 1948 and 1949. Minimum Wage State Minimum-Wage Laws and Orders, 1942: An Analysis. Bull. 191. 52 pp. 1942. 200. Supplement, July 1, 1942-July 1, 1950. Bull. 227. (Revised.) 68 pp. 1950. 200. State Minimum-Wage Laws. Leaflet 1. 1948. Model Bill for State minimum-wage law for women. Mimeo. Map showing States having minimum-wage laws. (Desk size; wall size.) State Minimum-Wage Orders Becoming Effective Since End of World War II. 1950. Multilith. Equal Pay Equal Pay for Women. Leaflet. 1949. 50 ea. $1.75 per 100. Chart analyzing State equal-pay laws and Model Bill. Mimeo. Texts of State laws (separates). Mimeo. Model Bill for State equal-pay law. Mimeo. Selected References on Equal Pay for Women. 10 pp. 1949. Mimeo. Movement for Equal-Pay Legislation in the United States. 5 pp. 1949. lith. Multi Hours of Work and Other Labor Laws State Labor Laws for Women, with Wartime Modifications, Dec. 15, 1944. Bull. 202: I. Analysis of Hour Laws. 110 pp. 1945. 150. II. Analysis of Plant Facilities Laws. 43 pp. 1945. 100. III. Analysis of Regulatory Laws, Prohibitory Laws, Maternity Laws. 12 pp. 1945. 50. IV. Analysis of Industrial Home-Work Laws. 26 pp. 1945. 100. V. Explanation and Appraisal. 66 pp. 1946. 150. Working Women and Unemployment Insurance. Leaflet. 1949, 50. Maps of United States showing State hour laws, daily and weekly. (Desk size; wall size.) LEGAL STATUS OP WOMEN International Documents on the Status of Women. Bull. 217, 116 pp. 1947. 250. Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: United States Summary. Bull. 157. (Revised.) (In press.) Reports for States, Territories, and Possessions (separates). Bulls. 157-1 through 157-50. (Revised.) • 50 and 100 each. The Political and Civil Status of Women in the United States of America. Sum mary, including Principal Sex Distinctions, as of January 1, 1948. Leaflet 1948. Women’s Eligibility for Jury Duty. Leaflet. July 1, 1950. 50. 83 Reply of United States Government to Questionnaire of United Nations Economic and Social Council on the Legal Status and Treatment of Women. Part I. Public Law. In 6 Sections: A and B, Franchise and Public Office; C, Public Services and Functions; D, Educational and Professional Opportunities; E. Fiscal Laws; F, Civil Liberties; and G, Nationality. Mimeo. HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYMENT Old-Age Insurance for Household Workers. Bull. 220. 20 pp. 19-L. 1Q$Community Household Employment Programs. Bull. 221. 70 pp. 1948. 20$. RECOMMENDED STANDARDS for women’s working conditions, safety, and health. Standards for Employment of Women. Leaflet. 1950. When You Hire Women. Sp. Bull. 14. 16 pp. 1944. 10$. The Industrial Nurse and the Woman Worker. Bull. 228. (Partial revision of Sp. Bull. 19. 1944.) 48 pp. 1949. 15$. Women’s Effective War Work Requires Good Posture. Sp. Bull. 10. 6 pp. 1943. 5$. Washing and Toilet Facilities for Women in Industry. 1942. 5$. Lifting and Carrying Weights by Women in Industry. Sp. Bull. 4. . Sp. Bull. 2. 11 pp. (Rev. 1946.) 12 pp. 5$. Safety Clothing for Women in Industry. Sp. Bull. 3. 11 pp. 1941. 10$. Supplements: Safety Caps; Safety Shoes. 4 pp. each. 1944. 5$ each. Poster—Work Clothes for Safety and Efficiency. WOMEN UNDER UNION CONTRACTS Maternity-Benefits Under Union-Contract Health Insurance Plans. 19 pp. 1947. Bull. 214. 10$. COST OF LIVING BUDGETS Working Women’s Budgets in Twelve States. Bull. 226. 36 pp. 1948. 15$. EMPLOYMENT Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades. Bull. 218. 260 pp. 1947. 45$. Women’s Jobs: Advance and Growth. Bull. 232. 88 pp. 1949. 30$. Popular version. Employment of Women in the Early Postwar Period, with Background of Pre war and War Data. Bull. 211. 14 pp. 1946. 10$. Women Workers in Ten War Production Areas and Their Postwar Employ ment Plans. Bull. 209. 56 pp. 1946. 15$. Women in Higher-Level Positions. Bull. 236. 86 pp. 1950. 25$. Baltimore Women War Workers in the Postwar Period. 61 pp. 1948. Mimeo. INDUSTRY Women Workers in Power Laundries. Bull. 215. 71 pp. 1947. 20$. The Woman Telephone Worker [1944]. Bull. 207. 28 pp. 1946. 10$. Typical Women’s Jobs in the Telephone Industry [1944], Bull. 207-A. 52 pp. 1947. 15$. Women in the Federal Service. Part I. Trends in Employment, 1923-1947. Bull. 230-1. 81 pp. 1949. 25$. Part II. Occupational Information. Bull. 230-11. 87 pp. 1950. 25$. Night Work for Women in Hotels and Restaurants. Bull. 233. 59 pp. 1949. 20$. 84 WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA Women Workers in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Bull. 195. 15 pp 1942 5 <t. Women Workers in Brazil. Bull. 206. 42 pp. 1946. 10^. Women Workers in Paraguay. Bull. 210. 16 pp. 1946. 10<L Women Workers in Peru. Bull. 213. 41 pp. 1947. lot-. Social and Labor Problems of Peru and Uruguay. 1944. Mimeo. Women in Latin America: Legal Rights and Restrictions. (Address before the National Association of Women Lawyers.) THE WOMEN’S BUREAU—Its Purpose and Functions. Leaflet. 1950. For complete list of publications available for distribution, icrite— The Women’s Bureau U. S. Department op Labor Washington 25, D. C. o