Feminist Social Work Theory and Practice

203 Pages·2002·1.653 MB·English

by  Lena Dominelli

Feminist Social Work Theory and Practice
Also by Lena Dominelli
Love and Wages
*Anti-Racist Social Work
*Feminist Social Work(with Eileen McLeod)
Women and Community Action
Women Across Continents: Feminist Comparative Social Policy
Gender, Sex Offenders and Probation Practice
Anti-Racist Probation Practice(with Lennie Jeffers, Graham Jones,
Sakile Sibanda and Brian Williams)
*Sociology for Social Work
Community Approaches to Child Welfare: International Perspectives
Beyond Racial Divides: Ethnicities in Social Work(with Haluk Soydan
and Walter Lorenz)
*Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates (with Robert Adams
and Malcolm Payne)
*Also published by Palgrave
Feminist Social Work
Theory and Practice
Lena Dominelli
Consultant Editor: Jo Campling
palgrave
© Lena Dominelli 2002
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,
London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author
of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
First published 2002 by
PALGRAVE
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175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of
St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-333-77154-9 ISBN 978-0-230-62820-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-62820-5
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
To my father
Contents
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
Feminists Envisage the Creation of Egalitarian Social Relations 3
Feminist Theory and Practice has Implications for Men and 5
Children
Feminist Social Work 6
Relocating Social Work 8
Researching Feminist Social Work Practice 12
The Structure of the Book 14
Notes 15
1 Theorising Feminist Social Work Practice 17
Introduction 17
Creating New Understandings of Women’s Lives 19
Feminist Theories Encompass a Range of Positions 23
Reconceptualising Feminist Social Work Theory and Practice 36
Conclusions 40
Notes 40
2 Contextualising Feminist Social Work Theory and Practice 41
Dependency: AKey Element in Women’s and Social Workers’ 43
Relationships with the State
Globalisation Changes the Welfare State 45
Privatisation within a Mixed Economy of Care 47
Commodifying Empowerment 51
Deprofessionalising Social Work 52
Privatisation and the Individualising of Collective Welfare 53
Concerns
The Backlash Against Women’s Emancipation and Public 54
Patriarchy
The Insider–Outsider Role 55
Postmodern Welfare 56
Conclusions 62
Notes 63
vii
viii Contents
3 Rede(cid:192)ning Professionalism 64
Professional Social Work 66
Feminist Challenges to Traditional Professionalism 71
Rede(cid:192)ning Professional Social Work from a Feminist 76
Perspective
Conclusions 83
4 Working with Men 84
The Complexities of Sexual Politics 84
Men in Social Work 85
The Men’s Movement 88
Problematising Masculinity 92
Working with Men 93
The Relevance of Feminist Social Work Theory to 96
Working with Men
Gendered Social Relations in Social Work 98
Conclusions 104
5 Working with Children and Families 105
Patriarchal Families 107
Contested Families 110
Children’s Rights as Inalienable Human Rights 112
Women’s Mothering Skills are the Main Focus of 113
Social Work Intervention
Fathering as an Economic Relation 118
The State as Parent 119
Patriarchal Control of Women’s Reproductive Capacities 120
Through ‘New’ Technologies
Conclusions 123
6 Working with Adults 125
Redrawing the Boundaries of Care in the Community 125
Institutionalised Ageism and Creating a Society Fit for 126
All Ages
Rede(cid:192)ning Communities in Caring Situations 128
Shifting Professional Boundaries and Deprofessionalising 135
Social Work with Older People
Caring for the Carers 137
Elder Abuse 139
Conclusions 142
Contents ix
7 Working with Offenders 144
Probation: Rehabilitation or Punishment? 145
Feminist Criminologists Highlight the Link Between 148
Masculinity and Crime
Women Offenders 152
The Criminalisation of Young Offenders 155
Working with Offenders from a Feminist Perspective 157
Conclusions 159
8 Conclusions 161
Bibliography 166
Author Index 181
Subject Index 186
Acknowledgements
Writing a book is never the activity of a single individual. Knowledge is
created through interaction between people. Even the author locked away
in a garret relies on knowledge acquired, created and disseminated by oth-
ers. Also, the act of writing becomes meaningless if no reader engages with
the written words. But writing a book within an academic context has a
further set of conditions that impact upon the author–reader relationship
and place it on a more formal footing: the requirements of academia.
I wish to thank many unnamed people who have assisted me in the cre-
ation of this book: the people who have agreed to be interviewed; the stu-
dents who have engaged with me in a mutual exchange of information in
the teaching and learning relation; and colleagues who have shared their
knowledge with me. However, there are individuals who have made spe-
ci(cid:192)c contributions that I would like to acknowledge by giving my sincerest
thanks: Marilyn Callahan for her invaluable support and feedback after
reading the draft manuscript; my parents for the endless love and wisdom
that saw me through the physical process of writing; my brothers and sis-
ters for their emotional succour when I felt lost; and David and Nicholas
for the love, wit and sympathy in responding to my many absences. Thank
you all. Without your contributions, this book would have been much
poorer.
Summer 1999 Lena Dominelli
x