Social Work's Intervention into Rural Women's Empowerment in Australia and China

This thesis focuses on the practices that social workers adopt to empower rural women in Australia and China. Countries differ in terms of their political, economic, social, and cultural structures. These differences generate divergent knowledge, value systems, and power networks in the local social work profession, and this is demonstrated in complex social work practices. Research exploring social workers’ empowerment practices with rural women in Australia and China identifies discourses of professionalization, indigenization, internationalization, and feminist practices. The research demonstrates that there can be mutual understanding and an exchange of knowledge between Australia and China.