Setting the Record Straight: Social Work is Not a Female-Dominated Profession (Commentary‪)‬

The social work profession is frequently described as a "female-dominated profession" in the social work and other professional literature. Most frequently social work is grouped with nursing, teaching, and library science as similarly female-dominated professions (Stromberg, 1988). However, representing social work as a female-dominated profession is a mischaracterization of social work's past and present. This commentary seeks to debunk the myth of social work as a female-dominated profession. Such a challenge is not new (Giovannoni & Purvine, 1974; Meyer, 1982), and the myth's endurance despite evidence to the contrary is surprisingly strong. Giovannoni and Purvine (1974) examined the reasons for social work's designation as a women's profession, including "its functions, repeatedly characterized as an extension of the traditional female nurturing role, or from its high proportion of women, or from the prominence of women in its early development" (p. 166). These characteristics have often led to the misunderstanding of social work as a female-dominated profession.