The paper is an overview of a number of contemporary issues in counselling women. The primary focus is on concerns relative to theory and models, skills, attitudes and values as the underlying bases for counselling women. Question is raised as to the adequacy of a focus on counselling women.
The impetus for a paper on contemporary issues in counselling women was derived from several sources. The author has been involved in counselling women and in research related to theories and models for counselling women for the past decade. Participation in the Ninth IRTAC working group on Counselling for New and Different Sex Roles served to bring the area into a comparative, cross-cultural context. In addition, several current articles, particularly Smith's (1980) metaanalysis which questioned the existence of bias against women i,n counselling studies, encouraged an examination of contemporary issues in counselling women.
Some Contemporary Issues
Three major dimensions of the counselling process have been identified as critical in counselling women. First, a clear knowledge base is necessary Johnson and Scarato, 1979) to enhance all counsellors' awareness, including the history and sociology of sex-role stereotyping, both from a cultural and a personality perspective, psychophysiology of both sexes, theories of personality and sex-role development, traditional and alternative counselling models, lifespan and career development, and knowledge of special populations such as handicapped and minority women.