Discrimination in social work

As social workers are involved with comparatively powerless people within the community, they are in an influential position with regards to the fair treatment of many disadvantaged individuals. This unfair treatment comes in the forms of discrimination and oppression. Discrimination can be defined as the act of giving less favourable treatment, through prejudice and stereotype, of individuals typically belonging to groups who are a relatively powerless part of society. Discrimination can come in several forms: Direct Discrimination, which can be seen directed against gender when, for example, a female is denied a job interview as it is believed she will not fit into the masculine environment. Indirect Discrimination is present when the intentions of a rule or policy do not display apparent discrimination, but can result in unequal treatment. Harassment is the occurance of unjust treatment towards a person due to a particular characteristic, such as ethnicity, which makes for an undesirable and sometimes hostile environment or brings about a violation of the victim's dignity. Victimisation can occur when a person rightly makes a complaint in line with the Equality Act, and this results in malevolence or negative treatment towards the complainant. From personal experience, I have witnessed this occur within interactions between members of front of house and kitchen staff in a restaurant, wherein an intentionally hostile and cold atmosphere was created for the individual who lodged the complaint.
Oppression is the act of taking the prejudice inherent in Direct and Indirect Discrimination further through negative and unfair wielding of power, inflicting hardship and disadvantage upon those seemingly inferior in the social structure. This power being a force for controlling people which those apparently more dominant in the hierarchy are capable of exerting. The forms Oppression takes include such systems as ageism, sexism, classism, and those in dominant positions