Empowerment through Advocacy and Consciousness-Raising: Implications of a Structural Approach to Social Work

Abstract

Empowerment of oppressed clients required of social workers to act as advocates and ti assist clients in changing the dynamics which contribute to self-oppression of the oppression of others. The paper explores a five-stage process wherein oppressed individuals contribute to the social order that devalues them and, in the process, also participate in the oppression of others. The practice implications of a structural approach to social work commotted to client empowerment in each of thses stages are described.