Historically, the country has progressed in various forms putting forward the needs of its citizens that are viewed worthy. Although social policies are positioned to benefit the country, they are stratified by socioeconomic class, resulting in an unbalance and unequal distribution of support to working class folks. Most laws benefit white men predominantly leaving at a disadvantage womyn, children, and men of color to gain capital. Individuals hardship were taken into account in social work and social policies according to The Altruistic Imagination and Sociological Imagination, A History of Social Work and Social Policy in the United States by John H. Ehrenreich (Chapters 1-3).
When in reality it was used as a tactic to keep people in place. It is still viewed as a system of rehabilitation and to support the welfare of children, womyn, and men. To this day social work and social policies are viewed as negative implications to working class folks. Since its, something that was implemented to help those in need supposedly. When in reality there are complications in social work and social policies to helping working-class citizens.
There are protocols to follow that determine whether a person is eligible before it was based on a moral system which was even more hindering. It is demonstrated that capitalism will succeed in the nation when implementing social policies that would eliminate working class folks from progressing. During the progressive movement, the country sought to deal with the chaos of the new industrial order(Ehrenreich, pg.24).
However, it does not improve any situations it instead caused more tension in the country. Although one would think that capitalism can be dismantled there are people that would disagree and would still want it to stay in place because they assume that society will be stable with it and modification can be made (Ehrenreich, pg.28). It is necessary to find reforms that will benefit all individuals not just those in monopolies. That is why we need to understand the history of the implementation of social work and social policy since it shifted how things are done in the country.
It also contributes to how capitalism is still able to control aspects of working-class citizens and non-citizens. Such actions are placed to excluded certain individuals from gaining support due to criteria that are viewed acceptable. For instance, a womyn would gain support if her husband was not present (Ehrenreich,pg.101). During the era, the book was written feminism was not addressed nor the thought of the definition of family.
A nuclear family is just viewed as a male, female, and children excluding lgbtqa families. Even to this day, there are limitations on resources lgbtqa families can access as well as undocumented families. There is still a need for improvements in social work and social policies that support citizens that are struggling in the community. This country was built undocumented folks that deserve to be represented in social work and social policy in particular to excelling in society.
It is necessary that everybody is represented like Hooks stated in her book Feminism is for Everybody we all deserve the opportunity to be taken into account when policies are placed. In order to reach equity and social representation, our country needs to implement reforms that benefit all the people. The welfare system also needs to be reconstructed, and it should be supported by capitalism. It would be ideal. However, those in power would disagree.
