Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Qualitative Social Work
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hicks, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Gender Role Models . . . who needs 'em?!

Stephen Hicks

University of Salford, UK, s.hicks{at}salford.ac.uk

This article examines the use of socialization theory in social workers' considerations of child development. The author analyses assessments of lesbians and gay men who applied to foster or adopt children, in order to demonstrate social workers' reliance upon `gender role models'. Drawing upon feminist work, the article goes on to critique socialization theory, before outlining versions of `gender' found in discourse theory and ethnomethodology. Using these methodologies, the author proposes that gender role theory does not describe a child development `need', but rather constructs a particular account that is limited and conservative. The article considers the implications of this reliance upon socialization theory for lesbian and gay foster care and adoption, and instead proposes that social work should develop less restrictive accounts of gender and sexuality.

Key Words: discourse • ethnomethodology • gender role • lesbian and gay foster care and adoption • social work • socialization theory

Qualitative Social Work, Vol. 7, No. 1, 43-59 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1473325007086415


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?