LEARNING SURVIVAL SKILLS

FEMINIST COUNSELLING IN SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES -
ALICE BREAU, MARIE-ANGE FOURNIER & HUBERTE GAUTREAU


Alice Breau is a professor of social work at the University of Moncton. She has worked on a number of committees and projects concerned with women's issues, was co-president of Conference 80 - Women and the Economy, and is vice - president of the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers.

Marie Ange Fournier is a professor of nursing at the University of Moncton who has been very active in the New Brunswick Federation of Nurses during their recent struggle for fair wages.

Huberte Gautreau is a professor of nursing at the University of Moncton and currently is involved in the establishment of a transition house for battered women, Carrefour.

This workshop dealt with the recent trend for feminist counseling in the areas of health and social services.

The first part of the talk described how the job of social worker reflects a division of labor based on the sexes; how social sciences still promote discriminatory and extremely dangerous theories regarding the psychological, intellectual and social development of women; and how these theories are being questioned through feminist interventions.

The second part of the talk tried to show how, in the area of health, services available to women create dependence on a sexist medical model, and to show how this dependence on male control is closely linked to the general oppression of women.

This workshop brought together around 20 participants. Discussions proved to be very animated and fruitful; many women shared personal experiences which tended to corroborate the presenters' critical analysis of the structures and systems of existing social and health services.

The participants recognized that the submissiveness of women in these areas was closely linked to the submissiveness of women in general.


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