Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Feminist Groupwork explores the purposes, practice and effectiveness of groupwork with women, drawing upon the authors′ own involvement in setting up and running community-based women′s groups.

The book offers clear accounts of the structured content of group sessions and the definitions and measurements of change developed by participants. It makes a convincing case for adopting a feminist approach with women who are isolated in their own communities and who bear the brunt of socio-political disadvantage. Central to the book is the focus on women′s understandings of themselves and their experiences, and how groupwork can lead to potentially liberating interpretations with profound consequences for participants′ lives. Women are encouraged to recognize their resilience, survival skills and strengths.

Feminist Groupwork was awarded a 1992 Distinguished Publication Award by the Association for Women in Psychology, USA.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• The Way In
• The Feminist Sphere of Influence
• Mapping Out the Ground
• The Contours of Planning and Preparation
• Women Making Choices
• Groupwork Revisited
• Group Transformation
• The Dynamic Process of Change
• Women's Groups as Windows into the Self
• Making Connections
• The Broader Context

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Butler and Wintram are government social workers in the UK, one serving in an inner city, the other in a rural area. They describe what North Americans call group therapy, with diverse women some would call disadvantaged. The authors are attuned explicitly to socioeconomic-political dimensions of women's lives and to patterns of oppression in which women participate. Although the book appears to be grounded in deconstructionism and social constructionism, there is little jargon or militancy. Rather, the chapters form a helpfully detailed handbook on the logistics, language, techniques, and ups and downs of doing feminist group work. Numerous quotations from group members reflect their social class and education, their being caught in their own stereotypes and truncated vision, and their gradual liberation to new visions and hopes about themselves and the larger world. Transformation occurs through group interaction, conflict, solutions, sharings, and breakthroughs, not from indoctrination. Definitely a fresh contribution to readers interested in women's studies, group dynamics, group ^D["therapy,^D]" the politics of knowledge, and social change. Appropriate for undergraduates through faculty in social sciences and human service fields.