Gender, money and professional identity: medical social work and the coming of the British National Health Service
Abstract
The arrival of the British National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 heralded significant changes for all health workers, but the establishment of a ‘free’ health service was especially meaningful for the hospital almoners—or medical social workers, as they were starting to be known—who had previously been responsible for the assessment and collection of patient payments. It was on this basis they had gained a foothold in the hospital, capitalising on gendered assumptions of financial understanding and behaviour. Yet what might have caused an identity crisis was embraced. This was a dual strategy of both repositioning the profession in alignment with the planned NHS and of asserting an enhanced professional status by distancing themselves from the handling of payment. It was an episode in the history of this distinctly female profession that speaks to women’s historic relationship with money.Citation
Gosling, G.C. (2018) Gender, money and professional identity: medical social work and the coming of the British National Health Service, Women's History Review, 27(2), pp. 310-328, DOI: 10.1080/09612025.2017.1328760Publisher
Taylor & FrancisJournal
Women's History ReviewAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09612025.2017.1328760Type
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Taylor and Francis. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2017.1328760ISSN
0961-2025Sponsors
Wellcome Trustae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/09612025.2017.1328760
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/