Affirmative Action Programs in Social Service Agencies: Status of the Female M.S.W.

Job status and salary inequities between men and women have only recently been documented (Kravetz 1976). The federal government, over the past few decades, through various acts and executive orders, has created legislation to prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin in all employment practices. The question is to what extent this legislation has permeated social service agencies and affected their employment patterns, particularly with respect to administrative positions. In 1976, the Women\u27s Issues Committee of the Oregon Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), addressed this question by initiating a study of social work employment in Oregon. The first part of the study examined the salaries and positions of NASW members in this state. The second part of the study was designed to study more specifically the employment patterns of women MSWs in Oregon\u27s social service agencies. Under the auspices of the Women\u27s Issues Committee, the second part of the study was designed and conducted by eight graduate students at the School of Social Work at Portland State University. One objective of the study was to find out the proportion of men and women filling the management positions in local social service agencies. But the primary purpose of the study was to examine the management-executive employment patterns in agencies before and after affirmative action programs were instituted. An attempt was then made to determine the effects, if any, of such programs. It was hoped that the results would clarify how agencies implement their affirmative action programs, the effects of implementation, and the barriers to the employment of women in management positions