Resistance, identity, and empowerment: A postmodern feminist analysis of clients in a human service organization

Abstract

Abstract This article presents the results of a postmodern feminist analysis of interview and observation data collected at a Women's Social Service Organization (WSSO)‐a social service organization designed to assist low‐income, single parents in obtaining education and job training to support their families independently of welfare. Many authors (e.g., Ferguson, 1984; Fraser, 1989) argue that clients in human service organizations, like WSSO, are often positioned by organizational discourse as passive, deficient, and depoliticized recipients of predefined services. Clients, however, are rarely completely passive; their marginal voices resist dominant organizational discourses in a plurality of ways. In the spirit of Foucault's (1978, 1979, 1980) genealogy, this study aimed to give voice to the submerged voices of clients in a human service organization and to locate and learn from their struggles against power. More specifically, it articulates the local, immediate, and fragmentary forms of client resistance at WSSO and the attendant transformations of organizational practices, organizational relationships, and client identities. Finally, the implications of resistance for client empowerment are explored. Key words: ResistanceIdentityEmpowerment