What Is Allyship and What Is an Ally in Social Work?

The word “ally” has become an important identifier for those who want to challenge the status quo. Turning this desire into action transforms the act of being an ally into allyship, which can help support vulnerable or marginalized communities.

Allyship can take on many forms and can be organized in numerous ways, from ally programs on college campuses to ally training in corporate offices. For those who have turned their advanced degrees in social work into social work careers, the advocacy of allyship is fundamental to executing the role’s fundamental duties. As society evolves and changes, it is important for those who want to engage in allyship to understand what is allyship in contemporary terms. 

Understanding Allyship: Past and Present 

Allyship is an advocacy-based concept in which a non-marginalized person uses their social clout and privilege to advocate for vulnerable and marginalized groups within society. It is an active concept that does not rely on social media slogans or hashtags to create awareness. It is finding ways to actively seek out ways that privilege can be used to create programs, policies, or activities that uplift and amplify the voices of marginalized communities and individuals. 

While the term “ally” started to be used in this context in the early 1990s, versions of allyship have been around for decades. First popularized during the suffrage movement and civil rights era, allyship centered on anti-sexist and anti-racist activism. Male allies fought for women’s rights, and white allies advocated for equal rights for Black individuals.

Today, allyship is complex and multidimensional. Allies support LGBTQIA+ rights, fight on behalf of immigrants, promote accessibility for individuals with disabilities, create awareness of neurodivergent people, and more. These different forms of advocacy can require different approaches depending on the targeted advocacy group, and this means allyship for one vulnerable group may look different compared to another. However, they all share common threads.

The Ally Model 

The ally model of social justice is a framework for understanding someone’s complex social identity. It is a philosophical approach that emphasizes social justice, inclusion, and human rights by recognizing the experiences of privileged and oppressed groups and acknowledging that an individual can be in multiple groups simultaneously.

Those who practice allyship reject discrimination and take action to eliminate the marginalization of others. Often, allies come from dominant or majority groups, but that is not always the case. Many allies come from other oppressed groups and still use their sphere of influence to effect positive change for others. Regardless of background or motivation, all allies are united by the common belief that everyone deserves equal treatment.

The Characteristics of Allyship 

Many skills, actions, and responsibilities are associated with allyship. Allies engage in self-examination to uncover their own biases and privilege, seek information to increase their awareness about the experiences of others, and find ways to make a positive impact.

Self-Examination and Critical Thinking

Uncovering unconscious bias is a critical first step toward allyship. Unconscious bias can crop up in subtle ways. Examples of this include finding someone who looks like you more trustworthy than someone of a different race or attributing substance use relapse to a lack of motivation or effort. To become a successful ally, you first need to understand your existing beliefs, feelings, and attitudes. Examine your motivations and behaviors with an open mind and a critical lens. What do you believe? Why do you believe what you believe? While challenging, these questions are important to answer. You have to dig into your own oppression and privilege to understand the oppression and privilege of others.

Seeking outside guidance can be helpful during the self-examination process. Attend a diversity and inclusion seminar to help gain insight. Sign up for a workshop to engage with others who are going through the same process. Talk with trusted friends and see if your ideas hold up when others challenge them. In doing so, you can begin to define what allyship means to you and how you can be a better ally.

Self-examination can be uncomfortable, but the ability to think critically and objectively about your own attitudes gets easier with practice.

Awareness and Education

The next key stage of allyship is becoming informed about the issues oppressed groups face, such as sexism in the workplace, race-based police violence, or systemic discrimination. Allies have a responsibility not only to gain foundational awareness of the daily challenges oppressed groups experience but also to develop a deeper understanding of the impact and hardship these challenges create. Educate yourself about the histories, cultures, and concerns of oppressed groups, and learn about the laws and policies that affect them.

Countless resources are available to facilitate the learning process. You can read books that share personal narratives or historical accounts of oppression. You can research current events through news coverage on topics related to discrimination and oppression. Some podcasts focus on relevant topics that provide valuable insight through personal stories and expert critiques of systemic discrimination. 

It is also crucial to gain the perspective of people different from you. Talking with people from oppressed groups and listening to what they have to say is a key practice of successful allyship. Be open-minded and understand that what you hear might be incompatible with your assumptions. Many marginalized people are accustomed to not being believed. Challenge yourself to listen, learn, and trust what they have to say, even when that means confronting your own bias.

Action

Self-exploration, critical thinking, and education all build a foundation for future change. To effect meaningful change, however, allies need to participate in the fight for social justice.

Every ally can work within their sphere of influence to create change. For many, this means being an ally at a personal level, listening to a friend talk about their depression, or supporting a relative with autism. Some participate in allyship through activism, campaigning for change through protests and spreading the word about social justice causes. Others focus their efforts on advocacy, circulating petitions, and volunteering in election campaigns with the goal of implementing change at a policy level. However, all allies have a responsibility to talk about injustice.

An ally’s ability to speak up when they witness oppression is one of the most valuable actions they have to offer. Push back against offensive jokes by challenging the joke teller to explain why they found the punchline funny. You can leverage common ground to broach a contentious topic with your family. This may apply when explaining why immigration reform is important by appealing to your mom as a loving parent who would do anything for her children.

You will encounter many avenues for action in allyship. Look for ways to make positive changes in your circles, big or small. If you are willing to feel uncomfortable and take risks, small actions can make a big impact.

What Is Allyship in Social Work? 

Cultivating allyship skills is important for all social workers, but social work and allyship are not distinct roles. In fact, the characteristics of allies lie at the heart of social work, informing how social workers engage with the people they serve.

All social workers need to combat their personal biases to become aware of how their experiences with privilege and oppression impact the way they see the world and, in turn, the communities with which they work. In addition, this practice allows social workers to identify and leverage the strengths of others from all cultures, calling upon the self-examination, critical thinking, and cultural awareness skills that form the foundation upon which all social work stands.

Education and awareness are also vital to successful social work. Rather than just reading about oppression in a textbook, social workers need to root their practice in informed, direct interaction with their communities.

Finally, social workers are dedicated to taking action against social injustice, so social work as a field is, by definition, action oriented. On an individual level, social workers can advocate for their clients or specific communities. At a broader systems level, social workers can promote policy and social justice reform that benefit entire communities.

How Allyship Shows Up in Social Work Careers

Allyship plays a fundamental role in the field of social work, and using it can make it possible for social workers to support marginalized communities. How it is applied, however, can depend on what type of career path the social worker follows. 

Social workers who focus their careers on a specific group will focus their allyship toward the people in that group. For example, social workers concentrating on people with mental health challenges can promote programs that create awareness of these challenges and advocate for properly supporting their needs. The underlying goal for these social workers may be to reduce the stigma around mental health issues and, in turn, could make it easier or more acceptable for these people to receive the help they need.

A social worker involved with policy and planning could foster allyship through the creation and development of regulations and policies designed to address systemic inequalities. For example, their work can involve conducting research that demonstrates issues caused by systemic racism and proposing legislation that works toward correcting the root causes of such oppression. They may also create partnerships with other groups possessing similar outlooks to create wider-reaching programs designed to cover larger population areas.

Develop Your Allyship Skills 

It is not enough to know what allyship is. It is more crucial to understand how allyship can be applied. If you are a social worker, informing your practice with allyship can allow you to better serve diverse communities. They can even transform the social work field, helping foster a culture that is ethical, informed, and empathetic. Ultimately, allyship can make it possible to make significant strides toward making the world a better place for everybody.

The skills central to allyship are also key components of Tulane University’s Online Master of Social Work program. The curriculum pushes students to engage in self-examination and critical thinking. Students hone these skills through meaningful collaborative projects, both in and out of class, gaining exposure to culturally relevant social work practice. 

In this program, students spend a minimum of 900 hours in the field working with diverse communities firsthand. This fieldwork experience, combined with the rest of the curriculum, immerses students in a supportive environment that allows them to engage in the full breadth of the educational experience. 

Learn how we can help you cultivate your allyship skills and empower communities.