2018 Volume 15 Pages 31-48
From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Chicago
was a symbolic scene where sociology and social work were divided.
Hull House, one of the first social settlements in North America, was founded
in 1889. Jane Adams and her associates of Hull House worked for social reform,
and their contribution are considered as one of the sources of social work practice.
On the other hand, Robert E. Park, played a leading role in the Department
of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Chicago, saw the city
as laboratories. He differentiated sociology from social work research by positioning
them as women’s method of research.
However, most of the Japanese “social workers” in the first half of the 20th
century were men. It was like an inversion phenomenon of gender roles. Although
researchers and practitioners of social work in Japan were energetically
learning Western social work at that time.
In this paper, I examined the fact that many of the “Homen-iin” members
who practiced social work for the first time in Japan were men. Before the end
of the Second World War, the powerful and influential people in the area, usually
head of the wealthy house, often served as a Homen-iin committee as honorary
workers. Today, more than 60％ of the Welfare Commissioners are female
（Minsei-iin）. This change is considered to indicate that motivation for participation
and changes in community, values and so on have changed in recent years.
Nonetheless, the perspective of regarding “the social” as a combination of selfhelp,
public assistance and mutual help is still seen as steady.
