Occupational Closure within the Social Work Field: Examining the Effect of Social Work Licensure on Social Workers from Racial Minorities

Background and Purpose

Scholars have criticized social work licensure might act as a barrier, preventing racial minorities from becoming social workers. Weberian sociologists have introduced the concept of “occupational closure,” where professional groups create boundaries, often through licensure, to exclude those who have not proven their professional capabilities. However, this occupational closure is not just about professional qualifications; it is also closely intertwined with other factors such as race. The scholars argue that as licensure enhances the prestige of an occupation, dominant groups in society, such as whites, may exclude minority groups from participating in that occupation. This exclusion can take various forms, such as limiting access to resources necessary for obtaining a license. Despite these concerns, there has been limited research to rigorously test whether social work licensure has led to the exclusion of racial minorities from the field. This study aims to empirically investigate how the implementation of social work licensure has influenced the racial composition of social workers in the United States.

Methods

This study utilized Decennial Census data spanning from 1930 to 2000, allowing for the estimation of the total number of social workers across all 50 states. Using this data, we employed a staggered difference-in-differences design, a type of the quasi-experimental methods, to estimate the effect of implementing social work licensure in each state on the racial composition of social workers. The basic idea behind this design is to distinguish the causal effect of a policy from other factors by comparing the changes in outcomes between treated and controlled groups, both before and after the policy’s implementation. Specifically, the staggered difference-in-differences design, a generalized version of this approach, relies on the staggered adoption of policies. Given that social work licensure was adopted by states from the 1940s to the 1990s, this design enables us to isolate the effect of implementing social work licensure.

Results

This study revealed that the implementation of social work licensure tended to decrease the proportion of non-white social workers compared to states before the licensure was introduced. However, this effect did not become apparent immediately after its implementation; rather, it emerged after four decades. This delay can be attributed to the time needed for the establishment of occupational prestige, influenced by licensure, to become deeply ingrained in people's perceptions.

Conclusions and Implications

While some studies have explored the potential drawbacks of social work licensure for minorities in society, there have been limited scholarly attempts to empirically examine its effects. By demonstrating that the implementation of social work licensure in each state tended to decrease the proportion of non-white social workers, this study lends support to the recent discussion advocating for the transformation of social work licensure into a more inclusive system.