The implications of gender and role relationship categories for public attitudes towards social workers in Israel

The purpose of the current study was to explore the association between gender and previous acquaintance with social workers (SWs) and between attitudes towards SWs. Attention was given to three categories of role relationships, reflecting respondents’ status with regard to SWs: (i) current and former clients of social services departments (SSDs), (ii) activists and volunteers at SSDs and (iii) people who never had any interpersonal interaction with SWs. Data were collected in Israel by means of structured questionnaires among 806 participants aged twenty-one and older. The findings show that women have more positive attitudes towards SWs than men and rank them higher than do men for professionalism and effectiveness. In almost all parameters related to attitudes towards SWs (aside from appreciation), current and former clients of SSDs indicated more negative attitudes than volunteers and activists or than people who never had any interpersonal interaction with SWs. The conclusions were that personal encounters with SWs, as part of the therapist-client relationship, do not necessarily guarantee better attitudes towards them. Additionally, based on the finding that men have more negative attitudes towards SWs than women, it is also important to promote men’s awareness and knowledge of the functions of SWs.