Author Question: The Reagan and G.W. Bush years constituted the largest redistribution of resources and rights upward ... (Read 112 times)

Kikoku · **on:** Jul 2, 2018

The Reagan and G.W. Bush years constituted the largest redistribution of resources and rights upward in the nation's history.

Indicate whether the statement is true or false

Question 2

Summarize the nine principles of feminist intervention.

What will be an ideal response?

frankwu0507 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 2, 2018

Answer to Question 1

True

Answer to Question 2

The following nine principles of feminist intervention have been identified.
1. A client's problems should be viewed within a sociopolitical framework. Feminist intervention is concerned with the inequitable power relationships between women and men and is opposed to all power-over relationships, regardless of gender, race, class, age, and so on. Feminism seeks to change all social, economic, and political structures based on relationships between haves and have-nots. Another way of stating this principle is that personal is political. A primary distinguishing characteristic of feminist treatment is helping a client to analyze how her problems are related to systematic difficulties experienced by women in a sexist, classist, and racist society.

2. Traditional sex roles are pathological, and clients need encouragement to free themselves from traditional gender-role bonds. Traditionally, women have been socialized to fill a learned helplessness role. In feminist treatment, clients are helped to see that, by internalizing traditional sex roles, they have set themselves up to play passive, submissive roles and to experience low self-esteem and self-hatred. The feminist approach encourages clients to make their own choices and to pursue the tasks and goals they desire rather than being constrained by traditional sex roles.

3. Intervention should focus on client empowerment. Empowerment can be fostered in a variety of ways: (a) by helping the client to define her own needs and clarify her personal goals so that she can then derive a sense of purposefulness; (b) by providing the client with education and access to resources; (c) by helping the client to believe that the ability to change lies within herself-that alterations in her life will result only from her own undertakings; and (d) by focusing on the identification and enhancement of the client's strengths rather than pathologies. Empowered women are ones who have learned to control their environments in order to get what they need.

4. The self-esteem of clients should be enhanced. Self-esteem and self-confidence are essential for empowerment. The worker should seek to be an encouraging person, helping clients to identify and recognize their unique qualities and strengths. Many clients with low self-esteem tend to blame themselves for everything that is wrong. For example, a battered woman typically blames herself for being battered. Such clients need to look more realistically at those areas for which they are blaming themselves and feeling guilty so they can distinguish where their responsibility for dysfunctional interactions ends and other individuals' begins.

5. Clients should be encouraged to develop their identity (sense of self) based on their own strengths, attributes, interests, and achievements. It is a serious mistake for women to define themselves in terms of their husbands or boyfriends, their children, their friends, or their relatives. Women need an independent identity that is not based on their relationships with others.

6. Clients need to value other women and to develop social support systems with them. In a society that devalues women, it is all too easy for some females to view other females as insignificant. With social support systems, women can vent their concerns and share their experiences and the solutions they've found to similar problems. They can serve as brokers in identifying resources, and they can provide emotional support and nurturance to one another.

7. Clients need to find an effective balance between work and personal relationships. Feminist intervention encourages both women and men to share in the nurturant aspects of their lives and in providing economic resources.

8. The nature of the relationship between practitioner and client should approach equality as much as possible. Feminist practitioners view themselves not as experts in resolving clients' problems but as catalysts in helping clients empower themselves. Feminist practitioners seek to eliminate dominant-submissive relationships.

9. Clients should be helped to express themselves assertively. Many women are socialized to be passive and nonassertive. Through individual and group counseling, clients can become more assertive, which will increase their self-confidence and self-esteem. They will be better able to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Also, learning to express oneself is an important component in empowerment. Many women feel anger over being victimized by sex discrimination and gender stereotyping. Some of these women turn their angry feelings inward, which often results in depression. Assertiveness training can help such women recognize that they have a right to be angry; it can also help them identify and practice constructive ways of expressing their anger.