SWRK 2040 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Structural Level
Document Summary
Structural social work contends that oppression is the basis of all social problems. Most structural social work carried out with or on behalf of oppressed groups. And if we truly want to understand oppression, we must also understand privilege. So, we have an understanding of how structural social workers think about oppression. Privilege is not something we take; it is given to us by society if we possess the characteristics that society values, such as being male, white, heterosexual, affluent, and non-disabled. If we focus only on oppression, the structured invisibility of privilege is reinforced. Similarly, what determines privilege is not any particular advantages a person might have but whether these advantages were earned or given/ascribed by society on the basis of his or her membership in a particular social group. There are two kinds of advantages: earned and unearned. Those that are unearned are considered to be privileges.