Full metadata
Title
From clients to caseworkers: women of color in the nonprofit sector
Description
ABSTRACT
As a graduate student earning both a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights and a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership Management, I have tried to bridge the theoretical and the empirical in a meaningful way. A problematic chasm between the nonprofit professional and the client being served existed, and I wanted to research this chasm. I wanted to understand what challenges a woman of color faced if she was both a client and a nonprofit professional, possessing dual identities and engaging in a sort of welfare system border crossing. There was a gap in the academic research on women in the nonprofit sector, more specifically the charitable, human services sector, and there was little to no research on women who have been both clients and caseworkers. Therefore, I conducted a series five of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women of color working at a local food bank. As an employee of the food bank, I recorded my own observations and field notes in order to write a feminist institutional ethnography. I employed interpretive, less conventional design methods, which were aligned with my commitment to social justice. The research highlighted many negative stories about oppression and exclusion women faced in the nonprofit sector. It also confronted the problematic stereotype welfare recipients, specifically women of color, are faced with as a result of the politics of disgust and dominant myth of the Welfare Queen. The research sought to explain how and why women of color transition in and out of the welfare state, and how they manage to work within a food bank, where they are constantly surrounded by inequalities.
As a graduate student earning both a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights and a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership Management, I have tried to bridge the theoretical and the empirical in a meaningful way. A problematic chasm between the nonprofit professional and the client being served existed, and I wanted to research this chasm. I wanted to understand what challenges a woman of color faced if she was both a client and a nonprofit professional, possessing dual identities and engaging in a sort of welfare system border crossing. There was a gap in the academic research on women in the nonprofit sector, more specifically the charitable, human services sector, and there was little to no research on women who have been both clients and caseworkers. Therefore, I conducted a series five of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with women of color working at a local food bank. As an employee of the food bank, I recorded my own observations and field notes in order to write a feminist institutional ethnography. I employed interpretive, less conventional design methods, which were aligned with my commitment to social justice. The research highlighted many negative stories about oppression and exclusion women faced in the nonprofit sector. It also confronted the problematic stereotype welfare recipients, specifically women of color, are faced with as a result of the politics of disgust and dominant myth of the Welfare Queen. The research sought to explain how and why women of color transition in and out of the welfare state, and how they manage to work within a food bank, where they are constantly surrounded by inequalities.
Date Created
2015
Contributors
- Roland, Kimberly (Author)
- Behl, Natasha (Thesis advisor)
- Murphy Erfani, Julie (Committee member)
- Elenes, C. Alejandra (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
- Women's Studies
- Political Science
- Gender Studies
- Feminist Ethnography
- Nonprofit Management
- Nonprofits
- Poverty Studies
- Social Justice Research
- Welfare
- Minority women--Services for--United States.
- Minority women
- Poor women--Services for--United States.
- Poor women
- Public welfare--United States.
- Minority volunteers--United States.
- Minority volunteers
- Women in charitable work--United States.
- Women in charitable work
- Women in nonprofit organizations--United States.
- Women in nonprofit organizations
Resource Type
Extent
iii, 91 pages : illustrations (some color)
Language
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.29960
Statement of Responsibility
by Kimberly Roland
Description Source
Viewed on July 13, 2015
Level of coding
full
Note
Partial requirement for: M.A., Arizona State University, 2015
Note type
thesis
Includes bibliographical references (pages 81-82)
Note type
bibliography
Field of study: Social justice and human rights
System Created
- 2015-06-01 08:15:12
System Modified
- 2021-08-30 01:28:37
- 3 years ago
Additional Formats