Text By UB Professor Applies Feminist Theories to Social Work Field

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The first comprehensive social-work text to combine feminist theories and their practical application has been published by Christine Flynn Saulnier, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at the University at Buffalo.

Flynn Saulnier's book, "Feminist Theories and Social Work: Approaches and Applications" (1996, Haworth Press, Inc.), counteracts the notion that feminist theory is a single theory with many contradictions.

Instead, she identifies and describes each of the eight theories in easy-to-understand terminology, avoiding the "jargon" often associated with theoretical subject matter.

Individual chapters focus on liberal, radical, socialist, lesbian, cultural, womanist, postmodern and global feminism.

Every chapter ends with real-world examples of how the theories have been used by administrators, community organizers, policy-makers, group workers, case workers and researchers.

The final chapter is a concise wrap-up that looks at four areas -- battering, sex work, employment issues and alcohol problems -- from a few different perspectives. It describes contradictions and overlaps, for instance, between liberal and radical-feminist approaches to alcohol problems.

Flynn Saulnier, an assistant professor of social work at UB, has plenty of "real-life" experience, with nine years spent in providing services to people with disabilities and six more in alcohol and health treatment.

Her current research focuses on alcohol and drug service delivery, specialized alcohol services for women and social-service needs of lesbian and bisexual women.

She earned a master's degree from Boston University and a doctorate in social welfare from the University of California at Berkeley.