Counseling women : a course in awareness

Traditionally, women have been viewed as biologically inferior human beings. This attitude effects their lives, their attitudes, their psyches; indeed, their entire potential as human beings. In addition, it effects society in the resultant loss of productive and creative energy. Sex stereotypes and biases are currently being challenged by feminist ideology and the women's liberation movement. Counselors, as most people in this society, subscribe to the same limited views of women. Counselors must accept the realities of these biases and begin to develop new perspectives. They can learn from the critiques and analyses of women's role in society from the extensive work done by feminists in psychology, sociology, and the women's liberation movement in general. The problem of this thesis is the development of a graduate course in counselor education. It is intended to integrate feminist ideology into a concrete program for training counselors and to give prospective counselors the opportunity to examine their values and goals for their female clients. The course is intended to aid in the development of a new model of counseling which eliminates sexism from the counseling relationship.