Abraham Flexner circa 1910, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Flexner
Donna Aguiniga returns to discuss Abraham Flexner's infamous-to-social-workers speech at the National Conference of Charities and Correction (Baltimore, 1915) titled "Is Social Work a Profession?" Spoiler alert: in his opinion, no. Jennie, Terry, and Donna discuss the history of professionalization, how the experience of professionalization was different for fields dominated by women, and how Flexner's speech had positive and negative ramifications for social work as a profession for decades after the speech was given. How is professionalism and how we think of professionals shaped by the prevailing culture, and what does this mean for emerging professional fields today?
Links and resources:
A transcript of the Flexner speech is here: https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/social-work/is-social-work-a-profession-1915/
Austin, David M. "The Flexner Myth and the History of Social Work." Social Service Review 57, no. 3 (1983): 357–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30011656.
