(In)security of Social Workers in the Workplace in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The role of women in the social work profession from the beginnings to today, is greatly significant and indisputable. Long since, social work studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina were enrolled more often by women than by men, which is why many authors refer to social work as a “women’s profession”.The reason why women are more interested in social work studies is in the traditional understanding of women’s roles through care and welfare, and it is therefore not surprising that women more than men settle for the assisting profession.Due to the strong representation of women in the social work profession, the aim of this paper is to analyze and interpret the specific role of women in the process of professionalizing social work in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The paper pays attention to the problems and challenges faced by social workers, and in particular the level of insecurity in the workplace, the threats and attacks they are exposed to on a daily basis. The semi-structured interview (N = 14) came to conclusion that social workers are often victims of verbal and physical assaults, which makes them feel unprotected in their workplace. Due to the increasing frequency of attacks on social workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they need to enable official status as soon as possible, hire security guards at all social work centers and social welfare institutions, and to sanction any form of violence to protect these professionals and not to victimize theirusers.