The internationalization of left-leaning social work in the 1930s: Margaret Gould and her European tour

This paper is part of the symposium: Historical research on social work, social services, social welfare, and social justice.This paper will present findings from an ongoing study on Margaret Gould (1900-1981), an influential... [ view full abstract ]

This paper is part of the symposium: Historical research on social work, social services, social welfare, and social justice.This paper will present findings from an ongoing study on Margaret Gould (1900-1981), an influential Canadian social worker, socialist feminist, and social critic. Particularly, I will discuss Gould’s participation in international socialist feminism and left-leaning journalism during the 1930s and consider how this influenced her performance of social work. In the first half of the twentieth century, the internationalization of social work resulted in the circulation of knowledge and ideas (Chambon, 2014). The transnational organising of women between 1900 and the Second World War (Rupp, 1997) as well as the growth of international socialist coalitions opposing the rise of fascism in the 1930s (McKay, 2005)resulted in the formation of a vibrant community of left leaning social workers in Toronto. Margaret Gould was unusually well educated with a Bachelor Degree from University of Toronto (1923) and then a Master’s Degree from Stanford, California (1928). Gould was radicalized by the Jewish school system during her adolescence. She pursued two careers, firstly as a social worker in a progressive welfare agency in Toronto (1929-1936) and later as an editorial journalist for the Toronto Star (1937-1957). In 1936, Gould toured Scandanavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland), because “of their early leadership in social legislation and reform” followed by England and the Soviet Union because “it is the latest frontier in social development” (Gould, 1937,1). When she returned to Toronto, Gould wrote political travelogues for the Star and gave didactic public presentations in social work agencies. By adopting a transnational perspective (Wimmer, 2003) and recognising that Gould was not only a single social work actor but also a participant on the national and the international stage, the reciprocal influence of this knowledge exchange will be analysed and discussed.