Inbar Livnat and Michal Almog-Bar
This article asks how gender, ethnicity and other identities intersect and shape the employment experiences of social workers. During recent decades, governments have contracted…
Abstract
Purpose
This article asks how gender, ethnicity and other identities intersect and shape the employment experiences of social workers. During recent decades, governments have contracted social care to for-profit and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) globally as a part of the adaption of the neoliberal approach. Most employees in these organizations are women. However, there is a lack of knowledge about women working in social service NPOs and their unique working environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This article explores the experiences of women employed as social workers in social care NPOs in Israel regarding intersectionality. 27 in-depth interviews were conducted with women social workers working in social service NPOs. Participants reflected diversity in ethnicity, religion and full-time and part-time jobs. Thematic analysis was used.
Findings
The findings shed light on: (1) the contradiction social workers experienced between the stated values of the social care NPO and those values’ conduct, (2) intersectional discrimination among social workers from vulnerable populations and (3) the lack of gender-aware policies.
Social implications
The need to raise awareness of the social care sector and governments to those contradictions and to promote diversity through gender-aware policies and practices.
Originality/value
The article suggests a conceptualization describing gender employment contradictions in social care NPOs, discusses how the angle of intersectionality expands the understanding of the complexities and pressures exerted on social workers from minority groups and emphasizes the need for social care NPOs to acknowledge and deal with these contradictions.
Details
Keywords
Michal Almog-Bar and Ester Zychlinski
The aim of this paper is to examine collaboration between the government and philanthropic foundations in the age of new governance. This focuses on analysing the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to examine collaboration between the government and philanthropic foundations in the age of new governance. This focuses on analysing the relationship that was formed between PFs and the government in Israel during the development and operation of two joint projects initiated by PFs, which aimed to promote collaboration between the two sectors in the fields of children at risk and the public education system.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative, thematic content analysis was used to study the relationships that emerged between the PFs and the government. Data were collected from an examination of documented materials and interviews with key participants in the two projects from both parties.
Findings
The article presents the interface between government and philanthropic foundations in the age of new governance. Several major factors that shape these relations in collaborative projects emerged from the comparative analysis of the two case studies and are relevant to public sector management: the different perceptions of government and philanthropic foundations that guide the collaborations, the politics of collaboration and the power relations between PFs and government.
Research limitations/implications
Further research might examine other examples of collaboration between PFs and government, since the research reported here comprises only two case studies.
Originality/value
As collaborations between government and philanthropic foundations are expanding in many countries as part of new-governance structures, the article presents a valuable insight for both academics and practitioners about relationships between these two sectors, and especially collaboration that involves actors from the New Philanthropy.