Quebec unions negotiating with federal, provincial, or municipal governments were studied for two outcomes relevant to women’s social welfare: women’s elective status, and collective agreement provisions favourable to women workers. Multiple analytic methods explored two aims: to develop a model of unions’ interaction with women members, and to derive typologies of unions. Union typologies derived from cluster analysis show that unions ranking high on those measures relevant to women’s welfare show greatest similarity on the following indices: union democracy, educational programs, organizational responsiveness to women members, policy toward political and social change, internal union women’s committees, and percentage of women. Path analytic results reveal that women’s committees are a more effective intra-union strategy than is an electoral strategy; and that progressive union policy is necessary but not sufficient for women to achieve greater equality in collective barganing outcomes. The path model explained 55% of variance in collective agreement outcomes. / Cette etude porte sur deux questions relatives a la condition de la femme dans les syndicats qui, au Quebec, negocient avec les gouvernements federal, provincial et municipal: la representation de la femme dans les postes elus et les dispositions des conventions collectives favorables aux travailleuses. Differentes methodes d’analyses statistiques ont utilisees afin d’etablir un modele d’interaction entre les syndicats et leurs syndiquees ainsi que differentes typologies de syndicats. Ces typologies, derivees des analyses en grappes (cluster analysis), demontrent que les syndicats qui ont obtenu des resultats eleves dans les questions reliees a la la condition feminine ont Ie plus haut degre de similitude dans les indices suivants: democratie syndicale, programmes de formation, ouverture du syndicat face au femmes membres, position syndicale en regard des changements sociaux et politiques, comites internes sur la condition feminine, et proportion de femmes membres. Une illustration graphique selon Ie path analysis revele que les comites intrasyndicaux sur la condition feminine donnent de meilleurs resultats qU’une strategie electorale. Ces analyses indiquent egalement qu’une ideologie syndicale progressiste est necessaire mais non suffisante pour permettre aux femmes d’atteindre une plus grande egalite dans les conventions collectives. Ce modele d’analyse (path model) explique 55% des variances dans les dispositions des conventions collectives.

Coming to terms with breast loss and its effect on body image, femininity and self-esteem are major issues confronting women who have lost a breast to cancer. Furthermore, messages from the media, cosmetic industry and health care profession perpetuate the 'beauty myth' affecting the self-esteem of breast cancer patients. This emphasis on the aesthetic often takes precedence the grief associated with losing a body part that for many women is strongly linked to their self-concept. Based on interviews with nine breast cancer survivors in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Montreal, Quebec, three issues will be addressed: first how the cultural influences that support and perpetuate the 'beauty myth' affect breast cancer survivors; how, as a result of this issue, the grieving process is hindered and third, the experiences of women treated for breast cancer within the medical system. Implications for social work will also be discussed.

Scarce research to date has examined the role of place in the lives of children affected by political violence. The following dissertation explores the concept and meaning of place for children and families living under occupation and experiencing political violence in post-second intifada Palestine. By tackling a theoretical concept such as place, this dissertation tangibly uncovers how and to what extent the occupation and political violence affect Palestinian children and families' relationships with place and how different kinds of places—home, school, neighborhood communities, and nation-state—protect or do not protect children and families. Using an innovative rapid ethnographic approach to data collection, 18 families from various physical settings (e.g., refugee camp, encampment, village, city) throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem participated in collaborative family interviews. Interviews included narrative, drawing, and mapmaking and were each followed by a child-led neighborhood walk tracked with global positioning system (GPS) software. Data were analyzed using grounded theory and ultimately organized according to the socio-ecological layers of home, school, neighborhood community, and nation-state. Data indicate that Palestinian children and families experience multiple contradictions in place in the context of occupation and violence: home can be experienced as a castle and a cage; schools can be both protective and risky; neighborhood communities can be positive and negative; and the nation-state supports feelings of both anger and hope. Findings reaffirm the importance of place in the lives of children and families affected by violence and inform international social work practice and policy. / À ce jour, peu de recherches ont examiné le rôle du concept du lieu dans la vie des enfants touchés par la violence politique. Cette thèse a pour objet principal l'étude du concept du lieu et la signification de cette notion pour les enfants et les familles vivant sous l'occupation et victimes de la violence politique de la seconde Intifada en Palestine. En examinant un concept théorique comme celui de « lieu,» cette thèse dévoile comment et dans quelle mesure l'occupation et la violence politique affectent les enfants palestiniens et les relations familiales avec le lieu et la façon dont les différents types de lieux— le domicile, l'école, les communautés du quartier, et l'État-nation—protègent ou n'arrivent pas à protéger les enfants et les familles. En utilisant une approche innovatrice d'ethnographie rapide pour la collection des données, 18 familles provenant de divers environnements physiques (par exemple, le camp de réfugiés, le campement, le village, la ville) dans toute la Cisjordanie et Jérusalem-Est ont participé à des entretiens familiales collaboratifs. Les entretiens ont inclus le récit, le dessin, et la cartographie et ont été suivis par une promenade du quartier guider par enfant, ce dernier étant surveiller par le logiciel du système de localisation mondial (GPS). Les données ont été analysées en employant la théorie ancrée et ont été organisées selon les couches socio-écologiques de la maison, l'école, la communauté du quartier, et de l'État-nation. Les données indiquent que les enfants et les familles palestiniennes ressentent des contradictions multiples en ce qui concerne le concept du lieu dans le contexte de l'occupation et de la violence: la maison peut être vécue en même temps comme un château et une cage; les écoles peuvent à la fois être considérées comme des lieux sûr et des lieux de danger et de risque; les communautés du quartier peuvent être positifs et négatifs; et l'État-nation provoque à la fois les sentiments de colère et de l'espoir. Les résultats de cette recherche réaffirment l'importance du lieu dans la vie des enfants et des familles touchées par la violence et rend visibles les pratiques et la politique international du travail social.

This study in the area of medical social statistics was begun in 1945 when the writer was engaged as a student worker on a fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, in the Social Service Department. It seemed appropriate at that time to undertake some evaluation of the new scheme in medical social statistics which had been inaugurated at that hospital in January of that year. In the course of enquiring into the background of this new plan, the writer found it both necessary and intensely interesting to examine the reports of the department’s work from its beginning in 1905. Special attention was given to the forms of medical social statistical reporting which were developed throughout the years and it soon became evident that running through each of these was the thread of an evolving purpose. That is, that as the function of medical social workers became more clearly defined, the method of statistical reporting changed in accordance with it . With this theory in mind, the writer determined to test it on a broader scale. On returning to Canada in 1946, further consideration of this problem convinced the writer that there was sufficient evidence in the material already assembled to warrant further exploration and development of the emerging theme.[...]

This study examines the lived reality of women caregivers of older adults. Using a microethnographic approach and videographic data collection in the homes of five caregiver - care receiver dyads, the research provides a new account of family caregiving. Grounded in a conceptual framework of embodiment, as articulated by social theorists Pierre Bourdieu and Erving Goffman, the data illustrates that seemingly banal gestures and expressions expose the intimate, often hidden, reality of caregiving. The findings reveal a gendered caregiver habitus characterized by emotional labour, performance, body management, health divestment, and vacillating boundaries between the caregiver and care receiver. The project validates the everyday experiences of women caregivers, proposes recommendations for improved clinical practice, and bridges scholarship on caregiving and the sociology of the body. / Cette étude examine la réalité vécue par les proches aidantes de personnes âgées, à partir d'une approche microethnographique et des données vidéographiques filmées au domicile de cinq dyades proches aidantes – aidé. La recherche fournit un nouveau calvas de prestation de soins familiaux. Ancré dans un cadre conceptuel d'« embodiment », tel que défini par les sociologues Pierre Bourdieu et Erving Goffman, les données recueillies démontrent que les gestes et expressions, de prime abord banals, révèlent une intimité, souvent cachée, des soins prodigués. Les résultats dévoilent un habitus influencé par le genre des aidants qui se caractérise en fonction du travail émotionnel, de la performance, de la gestion du corps, d'un désengagement en matière de santé personnelle, et des frontières poreuses dans la relation entre la proche aidante et l'aidé. Le projet valide les expériences quotidiennes vécues par des proches aidantes, recommande des pistes pour améliorer la pratique clinique et dresse des ponts académiques entre l'étude des soins familiaux et celle de la sociologie du corps.

Social businesses have been developed outside of formal mental health systems in order to improve the employment prospects of people with mental illness whose unemployment rates are the highest of all disability groups. This study aims to better understand how social businesses experience, and influence, the stigma of mental illness in employment, where stigma is thought to be operating with particular force. A comparative case study of five social businesses located in three Canadian cities was conducted. Data sources included participant observation; 44 individual and group interviews with 76 study participants; and documents. Based on a multiple-case analysis of the data using a constant comparative method, the findings describe the efforts of social business promoters to create legitimate, economically viable, and stigma-reduced workplaces where employees with mental illness may identify as capable workers and ordinary citizens. Risks for the stigma of mental illness emerged in the context of business conditions and social marketing; in connections between social businesses and the mental health system; and in the impact of public stigma, and employee self stigma, on business operations and environments. Elements that might reduce or neutralize the stigma of mental illness in employment, as well as implications for Social Work, are discussed. / Les entreprises sociales ont été développées à l'extérieur du système de santé mentale officiel afin d'augmenter les perspectives d'embauche des personnes avec un problème de santé mentale qui, par ailleurs, détiennent le taux de chômage le plus élevé de tous les groupes de personnes ayant un handicap. Cette étude a pour but de mieux comprendre comment ces entreprises sociales expérimentent et influencent la stigmatisation des personnes atteintes de maladies mentales où celle-ci est connue pour être particulièrement présente et bien ancrée. Une étude de cas comparative a été menée auprès de cinq entreprises sociales situées dans des villes canadiennes. Des sources de données incluaient l'observation de participants; 44 interviews individuels et de groupe avec 76 participants à l'étude; et documents. Basés sur une analyse de cas multiple des données utilisant une méthode comparative constante, les résultats décrivent les efforts des promoteurs d'entreprises sociales de créer un lieu de travail légitime et économiquement viable où la stigmatisation est réduite, et où les employés atteints de maladie mentale peuvent s'identifier comme des travaillants capables et comme des citoyens ordinaires. Les risques de stigmatisation de la maladie mentale ont émergé dans le contexte des conditions d'affaires et du marketing social; par rapport avec les entreprises sociales et le système en santé mentale, l'impact de la stigmatisation provenant du public et la stigmatisation de l'employé sur les opérations d'affaires et d'environnements. Les éléments qui pourraient réduire ou neutraliser la stigmatisation de personnes atteintes de maladie mentale ayant un emploi, aussi bien que des implications de l`étude pour le Service Social, sont discutés.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among several demographic and emotional/relational variables, and physical abuse victimization in conjugal relations. Participants were eighty-two individuals, involving 41 heterosexual couples in permanent relationships, who were being seen in marital therapy for discordant relationships. This was a cross-sectional sample, with participants selected from four community-based couple and family therapy treatment facilities. Couple participants completed a questionnaire package which measured their standing on a number of socio-demographic (age, income, duration of marriage, employment, education), emotional/relationship (attachment, differentiation, self esteem, marital satisfaction, global distress, problem solving communication), and violence (aggression, physical and non-physical abuse) variables. The emotional variables selected for this study drew on principles from both attachment and Bowen family systems theory. The design of this study differentiated victims of physical violence from non-victims of violence and included multiple measures of abuse. / The findings revealed significant gender correlations in terms of level of aggression in relationships. For females, level of global distress and problem solving communication were positively associated with higher levels of marital aggression. An association between poor differentiation and marital aggression was identified for females, while self esteem only approached significance. For males, a significant correlation was identified between level of aggression and the dismissing attachment style. For males the anxious attachment style was negatively correlated with being a victim of physical violence, with self-differentiation and with having a dismissive attachment style. / The central findings were identified through the use of logistic regression analysis. Attachment style was found to be the more powerful predictor for both females and males in predicting victimization of physical violence. Separate gender analysis revealed evidence that women's anxious attachment style is a significant predictor of physical violence victimization. For males, the dismissing style was less powerful a predictor of male victimization, however the combined female-anxious, male-dismissing attachment combination was found to be highly predictive of relationship violence. Logistic regression has provided evidence for the combination of female-anxious and male-dismissing attachment pattern with poor problem solving and communication skill, within the context of a longer relationship, as significant predictors of relationship violence for the whole sample. These three variables, anxious-dismissing attachment style, poor problem solving communication and longer duration of marriage taken together have provided a predictor model or couple profile for conjugal violence in a sample of discordant couples. / Results of the final couple analysis have contributed to an emerging hypothesis, with the identification of a particular "toxic" gender defined couple attachment pattern, that can predispose a couple for relationship violence. Results have identified that anxious females coupled with dismissing males significantly increased the odds of relationship violence. Research findings were discussed in terms of clinical applications and implications for theory and future research.

This qualitative study examines sixteen women's understanding of their experiences in community organizing in a northern urban context. While most front-line community organizing is done by women, there is a paucity of research giving voice to their particular realities. Similarly, there is little information describing community organizing in a northern urban context. The study's conceptual frameworks draw on theory and research from rural and northern social work, activist mothering, feminist social policy, diversity and exclusion, and the social construction of identities. It follows a feminist research paradigm. The study illustrates women community organizers' sense of place and their perceptions of the politics of language, cultural and linguistic tensions, and the influences of northern economic and geographic realities. The research findings demonstrate the processes of community organizing in a northern setting, community organizers' demoralization because of increasingly less generous social policy environments, and the challenges of racial and linguistic divisions in community organizing. The study challenges the urban lens dominating social work education and highlights the legitimacy of community organizing within social work education. It discusses future research possibilities for cross-cultural community organizing involving minority francophone and ethnocultural populations as well as the relativity of notions of oppression within francophone spheres.

The last ten years has witnessed the inflow of a large number of new immigrant and refugee children, many from Africa, into Canada. These new immigrants and displaced persons (refugees) undergo a cycle of adaptation in a new society; a process that takes much longer time than the host society allows them. Most children of refugees and new immigrants enter the school system few months after their arrival in Canada when they have barely had the time to adapt to their new socio-cultural environment. However, little research has been done on the cultural adaptation of African immigrant and refugee youth in the Canadian educational system. / This study examined the social integration and educational experiences of teenage immigrant and refugee youth mainly from minority backgrounds in their first few years of contacts with the Quebec educational system. Using a qualitative methodology, interviews were conducted with ten youth, eight parents, four community leaders, two social service reception center workers and a school administrator together with information from focus group discussions with a number of youth and parents from the same backgrounds. The cultural and acculturating patterns that emerged in the context of school, family, peers, and community as well as the way in which the respondents negotiate, create, and maintain their identities were examined. / The findings showed that culture and cultural adaptation play very significant roles in the social and educational integration of immigrant and refugee children in Canadian society. They further pointed to how acculturation difficulties have led to many of these children feeling less motivated to study, losing interest in education, or dropping out of the school system altogether. / Implications of this research for curriculum development in education and social work practice with this population group are offered. These include the need for social service professionals and educators working with refugee youth to have an understanding of the different needs and history or cultural context of the country of origin of the refugees. Others are the need for teachers to be culturally responsive and competent as they deal with increasingly diverse student populations. Also of equal importance for policy formulators in the educational field is the need for curriculum that is designed to address the distinctive challenges of acculturation that these new arrivals face especially at the High School levels in Quebec. / Recommendations are made for directions for future research in the social work and education fields including structuring a longitudinal study to follow these youth participants over a period of time to examine the evolution of their ethnic identity, bicultural development, cultural values, their educational attainment and the challenges they face as adults. Furthermore, a nationwide or an inter-provincial study with similar population groups (with language as a significant variable) would provide a broader understanding of the integration issues associated with this population group.

Guided by a feminist intersectionality framework and conducted within an action research paradigm, this dissertation reports on how social workers in community health care respond to concerns of intimate partner abuse in the lives of older women. The study was undertaken in 18 publicly-funded community health and social services agencies (CLSCs) in Quebec, Canada. Interviews were carried out with 30 social workers and three focus groups were held with some of the same social workers. / In this dissertation, I argue that social workers in community health care might benefit from using certain theoretical frameworks, as they tend to see older women as a homogeneous group, view older women's agency as problematic, and lack a cohesive understanding of the problem of intimate partner abuse -- all of which leaves them less than optimally equipped for intervention. Furthermore, certain features of intimate partner abuse at the intersection of gender, age, and disability can make intervention very complex. As a result, social workers tend to view intimate partner abuse in the lives of older women as an intractable problem, rife with double-binds, contradictions, and tensions, which can leave them feeling powerless. / In the first three chapters of this dissertation I present the study's theoretical framework, its location within the empirical scholarship on intimate partner abuse, and the methods used. I also provide background information on the Quebec context of practice. Chapters 4 and 5 are empirical chapters reporting the findings as they relate to social workers' understandings and their responses. Chapter 6 is the concluding chapter and discusses the three principal findings. The first key finding was that the practice setting shapes social workers' understandings of and responses to the problem. The second key finding was that social workers could benefit from certain theoretical frameworks that would greatly enhance their practice. The third finding is that social workers view intimate partner abuse as both enduring and changing in form, frequency, and intensity over time. The implications for theory, practice, and research are offered for each key finding.