Building on Women's Strengths (PDF)

Build a woman-centered social work practice for the new millennium!“How do we take the strengths women have--have always had--and use them to build a world that is validating, liberating, and inclusive?” This is the question at the heart of Building on Women's Strengths. This groundbreaking book explores the ways a woman-centered worldview can transform social policy, social services, and direct practice. Updated to honor the memory of Liane V. Davis, who died in 1995, this new edition of Building on Women's Strengths offers updated information to reflect the enormous changes that have occurred since 1994 in women's lives. Many of the original selections have been revised or totally rewritten to reflect those changes and the more integrated policy/practice focus of this edition. New chapters were added on working with women who have been incarcerated, women on welfare who experience violence, and lesbian and bisexual women. Building on Women's Strengths presents a woman-centered approach to understanding and analyzing the issues women must confront in their daily lives, including:

• family violence
• welfare reform
• mental health
• child welfare
• aging
• racism
• being silenced by society

The Journal of the National Association of Social Workers said of the first edition, “Each chapter presents with skill and rigor an opening for respectful and challenging discourse.” This edition of Building on Women's Strengths offers an even more comprehensive view of the ways to overcome oppression in women's lives. It is an essential volume for social workers, policymakers, mental health professionals, and anyone working toward social justice for all women.