GENDER AWARE SOCIAL WORK

INTRODUCTION

Contemporary social issues are highly complex, globally interrelated, and dynamic. Social workers have contradictory roles when dealing with them: they have to act as instruments of government (the social control function) and as advocates of people oppressed by the policies of government and other authorities (the social change function). Under the present circumstances social workers must be able to draw upon many sources of information and different knowledge traditions. Accomplishing this requires them to break out of the truths of objectifying knowledge and the traditional meta-narratives of the profession.

For social work it is important to understand primarily the mechanisms that produce and reproduce social inequalities, and for the purpose of the current paper the inequalities between the genders. The discourse on women is still trapped in a binary understanding of the differences between nature and culture, body and mind, private and public, civil and political, emotional and rational, and so forth, where the first binary pole is said to belong to women and the other to men.

Gender is undoubtedly among the most important issues, without critical reflection on gender in everyday practices, social workers are likely to encourage the reproduction of traditional gender-specific family roles in circumstances in which the constant questioning of them would be more appropriate

Gender Aware Social Work theory and practice has much to offer the practitioners who can adapt its principles for professional practice. The existence of gender aware social work is testimony to their capacities to do so. Gender aware social work has encouraged the assumption of a gender-sensitive stance in working with women and insisted on valuing women’s knowledge, talents and contributions to the profession.

The insights provided by this paradigm have been incorporated into a wide range of social work activities.

The current paper shall deal with the Concept of Gender and placing it at the Centre of the Social Work practice. The paper aims to further discuss the various theoretical and practical issues regarding Gender Aware Social Work.  This paper is by no means a thorough description of Gender Aware Social Work, but instead is a humble attempt to familiarise and understand the importance of Gender in Social Work theory and practice.

UNDERSTANDING GENDER

For many people, the terms “gender” and “sex” are interchangeable. Yet biological sex and gender are different; gender is not inherently connected to one’s physical anatomy.  Sex is biological and includes physical attributes such as sex chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, internal reproductive structures, and external genitalia. At birth, it is used to identify individuals as male or female.  Gender on the other hand is far more complicated. Along with one’s physical traits, it is the complex interrelationship between those traits and one’s internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither as well as one’s outward presentations and behaviours related to that perception.

The French Feminist Simone de Beavoir who is considered as a precursor of gender theories, had analyzed that biological determinism confines women to the sphere of reproductive and nurturing roles. She pointed out the difference between "natural and cultural sex" by saying that a "woman is not born but made" This later on became the basis for gender theories.

Ann Oakley who was among the first few feminists to use this concept says, " Gender is a matter of culture, it refers to the social classification of men and women into masculine and feminine." "Male-ness and female-ness are not biological givens, but rather the result of a long historical process.

Gender refers to the socio-cultural definition of man and woman, the way in which they are differentiated and assigned socially acceptable roles. These are maintained, sustained by multiple structures like family, community, society, ethnicity, and through tools like culture, language, education, media and religion.

For ages we have been socialized into believing that the different categories, roles and status accorded to men and women in society is determined by biology i.e. sex, that they are natural and constant and therefore not changeable. In a way, women and their bodies are held responsible for their specific roles and subsequently their subordinate status in society.

When biological determinism has been accepted as natural, there is obviously no need to address the gender inequalities and injustice that exist in society. However, if biology alone determined our roles, every woman would be only cooking washing sewing etc. But this clearly is not the case because most professional cooks, launderers and tailors happen to be men. The roles also change with time, culture, and region.

Therefore, neither sex nor nature is responsible for the unjustifiable inequalities that exist between women and men. Like the inequalities that exist between classes and races, inequality between women and men are also created by historical constructs and therefore they can be questioned, challenged and changed.

In short, Gender refers to

·         The social differences between men and women

·         Gender is a learned and enforced behaviour

·         Gender varies with culture

·         Gender varies within culture

·         Gender changes over time.

Knowledge of an individual's gender provides information that ultimately influences how people behave, think, and react to individuals. Hoffman and Pasley assert there are five cognitive structures influenced by gender:

·         Perceptions about men and women

·         Attributions, or explanations based on being male or female

·         Expectancies, or predictions based on whether one is male or female

·         Assumptions regarding the nature of men and women

·      Beliefs or standards, or the underlying systems that define how men and women "should be"

All five of these cognitive structures are dynamic, interrelated, and influenced by gender as a social category.

Gender stereotypes are beliefs or assumptions about men's and women's roles and characteristics; however, they do not necessarily correspond to reality. They have strong prescriptive effects on individuals' responses. Gender stereotypes can lead to prejudice and discrimination. For example, an employer might hold a belief that women are too emotional (a gender stereotype), leading to dislike and prejudice (a negative attitude) toward female employees. Ultimately, this could lead to discrimination (a biased behaviour), as the employer will not hire women for a particular position based on this gender stereotype

GENDER IN SOCIAL WORK

Social work provides a site in which sexual politics are played out so that dynamics endorsing male supremacy operate within social work as well as outside it.

Social work is defined as a ‘women’s profession’. Although numerically dominant, women do not control it. The historical development of Social Work occurred in the tradition of middle class philanthropy, whereby the women of the middle class were active in the works of charity. This trend is argued to be an extension of “caring and nurturing” by these women from the households to their communities.

Prof. Anjali Gandhi argues that “as social work grew into a visible profession with reasonable remuneration and opportunities for career progression, it paved way for the entry of men. While women worked largely at grassroots level, men occupied middle or managerial positions.”

Men are abandoning direct work with ‘clients’. Men have become even more reluctant to join the practitioners’ ranks during the past decade. Unlike women, they use practice as a steppingstone to a management career.

Decision-making processes and policy formulation remain firmly under men’s control. Women practitioners are likely to be managed by men and take this as the norm. Women occupying these positions appear as aberrations because managerial skills are associated with men and their unusualness is remarked upon.

Thus, one could argue that that the current Social Work practice maintains the existing gender order i.e. women as care givers and men working at the level of policy making and administration. It is crucial to point out at this juncture that male dominations is visible not only in the practice but also in the theories and literature of Social Work.

The historical backdrop of the feminist movement and the different waves of feminism provides a context to understand how feminist social work grew. As stated, with women gaining voices and visibility by their activism in the 1960s, feminism challenged the existing gender biases. They were concerned with the lack of representation of women in counseling training programs and in research and the lack of recognition of the role of gender.

Many clinical and counseling theories are based on socially constructed norms of healthy male development. For example, Erik Erikson's developmental theory delineates life-span tasks from birth to death. The goal of every developmental task is for the individual to begin individuating and achieving autonomy in order to develop a healthy ego . One of the main feminist criticisms of Erikson's theory is that the notions of autonomy and independence are based on male norms in Western society. Women, on the other hand, are more relational and strive to be connected in relationships. If women do not fit into this developmental cycle, will they develop pathological symptoms?

The notion of abnormality is heavily influenced by social and cultural norms. Early philosophers have depicted women as irrational beings. Harris and Lighter assert that, historically, when women were the focus of attention in the mental health fields, they were "in the role of patient or repository of psychopathology, not as exemplar of healthy personality development". In the 1700s and 1800s, women's mental illness was linked to sin and vice, and later, women's mental illness was tied to the "weaker" female constitution due to menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Some even argued that a woman's womb moved aimlessly throughout the body, causing insanity and draining life energy.

Some have argued that the negative construction of women's bodies and behaviors essentially functioned as social control. Women's roles were maintained by labelling socially unacceptable behaviours as "hysterical," "insane," or "neurotic.

Thus, there is a need for a paradigm of Social Work theory and practice that takes into consideration the constructions of gender and is more sensitive towards women and their context.

Feminist movements have been the pioneers in bringing forth the critique of the arbitrary construction of gender. Thus, for the understanding that feminists hold regarding Gender, Feminism is an appropriate tool to develop Gender- sensitive Social Work or Gender Aware Social Work. 

Therefore, the following discussion of Feminist Social Work seems essential.

FEMINIST APPROACH TO SOCIAL WORK

Feminist Social Work could be defined as a form of social work practice that takes women’s experience of the world as the starting point of its analysis and by focusing on the links between a woman’s position in society and her individual predicament, responds to her specific needs, creates egalitarian relations in ‘client’–worker interactions and addresses structural inequalities.

Meeting women’s particular needs in a holistic manner and dealing with the complexities of their lives – including the numerous tensions and diverse forms of oppression impacting upon them, is an integral part of feminist social work. Its focus on the interdependent nature of social relations ensures that it also addresses the needs of those that women interact with – men, children and other women.

Feminist social workers have been first to root women’s troubles in their social positions and roles as women. In creating feminist social work, women activists have drawn on feminist insights more generally and woven these into their own unique patterns of theory and practice

Feminist social workers have challenged gender-blind theories and practices that have treated women as offshoots of men under the guise of the universal human being that although un-gendered resounds to men’s ways of thinking, living and working. In social work, these have been replaced with woman-centred approaches that advocate sensitive gendered responses to the needs of women ‘clients’ and women workers. More recently, feminist social work has incorporated men more fully into its theory and practice.

By placing gender on the social work map, feminist social workers have challenged the gender neutrality regarding this social division usually upheld in traditional professional social work theories and practice. Feminists have questioned traditional practitioners’ reliance on a Universalist discourse that uses men as the yardstick for measuring (all) women’s experiences because locating women in these spaces denies women’s specific experiences in the routines of daily life and presupposes their dependent status.

According to Domineli, Feminist social workers have examined the contexts in which social work practice is undertaken by both relocating social work within a patriarchal capitalist global social structure and focusing on the gendered nature of social relations which are locality specific and differentiated across multiple social dimensions.

Whilst social work is understood within its legislative frameworks and specific national and cultural contexts, feminists attempt to identify those elements that women share with other women. Hence, feminist social workers seek to bridge gaps amongst women by examining the commonalities they share with each other alongside the specificities of their particular positions.

However, their focus on similarities between women has been criticised by postmodernists. The postmodernists questioned the validity of the Feminist approach as one that treats women as a singular, uniform category. She terms these ‘essentialist’ for ignoring the impact of ‘race’, disability, age, sexual orientations and other social divisions upon gender relations, despite their commitment to examining women in their social situations. Nevertheless, the importance of the Feminist Approach to Social Work is not undermined by such arguments.

Gender Aware Social Work is not exclusively women centric. However, since women have been victims of systemic oppression, women are the apparent focus of Gender Awareness Social Work. This approach has a crucial role to play in working with men also.

The importance of social workers responding to men’s needs, particularly in relation to assisting men in the tasks of improving their psycho-social functioning and re-education regarding the formation of non-abusive intimate relationships with less socially powerful women and children, has been identified and acted upon.  The scope of this approach for working with men shall be discussed later in the course of this paper.

Feminist social work has shed important insights on this issue because it takes women’s well-being as the starting point, though not necessarily the end of its analyses and has made creating egalitarian social relations an integral part of practice.

According to Harding, Feminist Social Work has the following features:

1)      challenging men’s experiences as the yardstick for measuring women’s;

2)      unpacking universalist standards and exposing their failure to describe, understand or value women’s diverse lifestyles and contributions to society;

3)      critiquing dualist thinking and the concepts that formulate knowledge as binary categories operating in opposition to each other;

4)      recognising identity politics as a central dynamic in how social relations are organised and reproduced;

5)      respecting women’s multiple and fluid identities;

6)      acknowledging the significance of gendered power relations in shaping the opportunities available for men and women to build their lives in accordance with their views of their needs; and

7)      recognising the capacity of women to take action on their own behalf and to demonstrate solidarity across a range of social divisions.

IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS

Feminist theory has impacted not only Individual and collective lives but ways In which knowledge about Individuals and society is developed and used. Feminism is transforming both social thought and social action.

Social work has also been influenced by and influencing feminist thought and action. Recent literature calls for a re-examination of social work learning and practice based upon new knowledge about women as well as new interpretations of previously existing theories and beliefs about women's roles in society.

Feminist theory forms the basis for the study of the experiences of women in society, specifically of women's status and position within that society, on the premise that women's experience emerge from its social, political and economical structure.

Feminist thought assumes that women's interests and perspectives are valid in and of themselves, are not inferior or secondary to those of men's, nor should they be defined only in relation to or as a deviation from men's experiences. The absence of these assumptions in traditional sociological, psychological, historical and philosophical scholarship is one of the criticisms which have emerged in feminist scholarship.

While feminism is grounded in these fundamental premises, there is no single or universally accepted version of feminism. Each framework yields a different interpretation of the social world and influences the assumptions, observations, and conclusions that are made regarding women's experiences in society as well as the change strategies that are employed to alter that status and those experiences.

The main currents of Feminist theory are briefly described below:

Liberal feminism locates the origins of women's oppression in women's lack of equal civil rights and equal opportunities as well as in past tradition and learned psychology associated with the sex role socialization process. Based upon this analysis, liberal feminism purports that women's liberation will be achieved with the removal of sexist discrimination so that women have the opportunity to pursue their potential for individual development just as fully as men do.

This feminist perspective emphasizes social and legal reform through pol1cies designed to create equal opportunities for women and to establish individual civil rights so that no one is denied access to the existing social-economic system because of sex, race, or class. Liberal feminism further assumes that the re-education of the public concerning the sex role socialization process is a means towards achieving more liberated and egalitarian gender relations.

Socialist feminism locates the origins of women's oppression in the interaction of the capitalist system based on class inequalities, with the patriarchal system based on gender inequities. As a result of this interaction, women are subordinated and exploited through misuse of their labor In the marketplace, for which they are persistently underpaid, and of their labor in the home, for which they are not paid at all. Current reality is viewed in terms of an economically based class system reinforced by sexist attitudes and practices.

According to this analysis, feminism aims to abolish both capitalism and male dominance in order to end women's oppression. In contrast to the reform-oriented liberal feminist perspective, socialist feminism emphasizes the necessity for revolutionary societal changes in order to eliminate the existing unequal distribution of power.

Equality is viewed not only in terms of opportunity but, more crucially, in terms of rewards. This perspective necessitates and facilitates an understanding of the experiences of women of all classes and races as a means of understanding oppression. An essential feminist strategy for achieving the liberation of women involves al1gnment with other oppressed groups in order to find their common grounds of oppression and to resist women's subordination in the marketplace and in the home.

Radical feminism locates the origins of women's oppression in the patriarchal control of female sexuality and female fertility. This perspective Identifies male power and privilege in patriarchal relations as the essential determinant of women's subordination. Radical feminism emphasizes that in the existing social order women are oppressed and exploited primarily in sexual and procreative relations in the home, which is the sphere of life defined by the male culture as personal rather than as political.

Just as with socialist feminism, radical feminism challenges society's basic structure and identifies the need for revolutionizing its existing organization. An essential strategy for eliminating women's oppression is the establ1shment of a woman culture separate from the lives of men, thus redefining social relations and overthrowing or undermining the present dominant patriarchy.

Some of the other popular feminist theories are mentioned below:

Cultural feminism argues that certain qualities or characteristics (e.g., nurturing) are more prevalent in women. Cultural feminists believe these characteristics should be honored and valued as opposed to focusing on the similarities between men and women. According to this school of feminism, society should be restructured in such a way that emphasizes cooperation rather than aggression

Women-of-color feminism asserts that many of the other feminist perspectives do not take into account other factors of female diversity, such as race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation, although these dimensions affect the lives of women as well . For example, a lesbian woman's life experiences will be uniquely different from a heterosexual woman's due to the different experiences and forms of discrimination.

Postmodernist feminism: Postmodernism is an intellectual movement that argues against the traditional and universal ways of theorizing and reasoning and Western notions of science. Postmodernists are also opposed to the language of binary opposites (e.g., male/female, white/black, etc.). Postmodernist feminists emphasize the importance of deconstructing discourse to identify sexist and patriarchal tones and biases in Western culture.

Global feminists emphasize the issues of oppression, marginalization, and discrimination among all women globally. They focus on oppression as it relates to neo-colonialism (economic structures created by former colonial powers to maintain colonies' dependencies) and global capitalism. Issues such as education, prostitution, and access to health care are important topics for global feminists.

FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK- THEORY AND PRACTICE

Social work occupies an interesting position within the nation-state as the collective expression of its desire to care for others in difficult circumstances, and as a professional activity whose practitioners work in the interstices between the national and local levels, and between the personal and political planes. Social workers as public officials who represent the public’s wish to intervene in the private lives of fellow citizens, if necessary without their consent in cases of mental illness or child protection, engage with the contradictions encapsulated by this divide. Consequently, the division between the public and private sphere is crossed at a number of different points in practice.

Feminist insights about the nature of the public–private divide can contribute to reconceptualising it. In social workers’ encounters with women, the division of women’s lives into public and private domains is important. Many ugly secrets about the horrific abuse of women and children within the privacy of family settings become routine knowledge within the social work domain. Ironically, this knowledge becomes privately appropriated by remaining ‘confidential’ information between practitioners and ‘clients’, rarely being shared beyond the realm of supervisory relationships and case files. Feminists have pressed for government action in subverting the public–private divide by passing

laws against domestic violence and child abuse in the home proposing laws against rape in marriage, building women’s shelters; and providing resources to help men desist from abusive behaviours.

In the context of the traditional Social Work practice with families provides sites in which patriarchal relations can be reproduced. Social workers engage in their perpetuation by enforcing women’s roles as mothers and nurturers whilst excluding men from being involved in these.

Feminist social work has sought to identify the inadequacies of this approach to women, children and men within family settings and provided principles on which more egalitarian relationships can be established.

Working with men

Feminism is not against men’s well-being, but it is firmly against sexism and privileging men’s welfare over women’s. This includes privileges emanating from practices that: endorse the preferential treatment of men over women on sexist grounds in any arena; give preference to boy children over girls; require women to subordinate their needs to those of the men in their lives; and exert unilateral forms of control over women’s sexual and reproductive capacities. Social workers cannot support a sexist status quo be anti-sexist, feminist, pro-feminist or woman-centered. Feminist social workers would address questions of which interventions best ensure the well-being of women, men and children. Instead of conceptualising women’s welfare as being gained at the expense of men or children or vice versa, they think of how to end gender oppression and affirm the wellbeing of all as an outcome of the process of empowering women.

The internalisation of the sexism implicit in hegemonic social relations between men and women may result in women practitioners colluding with sexist assumptions held by male ‘clients’. A woman social worker may relate to a man on a stereotypical basis if she is not aware of gendered power. Moreover, in their relationships with men ‘clients’, women practitioners should not think of power as existing only along gender lines. Social workers can impose power over relations on men ‘clients’ along other social divisions such as ‘race’ and class.

The principles of solidarity and social worker’s legal remit suggest that feminist theoretical formulations and principles of practice ought to include men, albeit on a different, though not unequal basis, to women. Whilst allowing for this opportunity, the space for women to work with women must remain protected. This is to facilitate women’s growth as women and enable them to establish their own agendas for change.

Working with men requires a re-conceptualisation of masculinity in accordance with feminist insights and a holistic approach to men and the relationships in which they engage. Men’s emotional needs, have to be brought centrally into the equation. Moreover, the social positions of both men and women as they are currently defined have to change.

Problematising masculinity has been an important feminist contribution that has prompted a reconsideration of men’s roles in society and redefinition of their relationships with women and children. Progress in this arena also requires a reformulation of men’s relationships with other men. Securing changes in all these directions means that women and men have to work to support each other’s emancipator endeavours. To facilitate this, feminist social workers have to dialogue with men social workers to identify areas in which women can work with men and those that men are solely responsible for addressing. Men social workers will also have to reconsider the nature of the relationships to be established between men social workers and men ‘clients’ if feminist principles are to be upheld.

Feminist Social work well placed to work with men in anti-sexist or pro-feminist ways. To begin with, social workers are obliged to work with whoever asks for their services. Its value orientation endorses self-determination, respect for the person, and non-judgmental attitude. These values are useful when working with men.

PRINCIPLES OF FEMINIST SOCIAL WORK

Whilst there is a great deal of diversity in feminism and feminist approaches to social work / welfare, there are some principles which are common to many forms of feminism and which writers in this area have suggested are consistent with a feminist approach to practice, both individually and organizationally.

The Personal is Political: This is obviously one of the most significant phrases to come out of the feminist movement. The "guts" of the statement is probably quite obvious. It is a worthwhile and I think, enlightening experience to actually explore in some detail the ways in which our personal experiences are actually linked to the political, social system. It is certainly suggested here that one of the ways that change to the social system has been avoided is through the separation of this connection between the individual and the social.

Valuing Process and Product: The idea that the way that you go about something is just as (if not more important) than the actual end product or goal that you might achieve, is one of the strong messages that has come from feminism to social work. In many ways this seems to be a key principle for (my) social work practice. Part of this includes the importance of relationships, learning to value the simplest things (like listening and simply being there for someone), and processes that value and affirm people. It seems to be those process issues - the issues about how we go about our interactions with people - that often really make a difference in people's lives.

Reconceptualising Power: The whole notion of power as it is currently understood by mainstream society seems to be about power over others rather than the power to live one's life in the way that we might choose. Feminism has had a great interest in exploring the ways that power has been used as an oppressive force in women's lives, as well as developing ideas about ways in which women can reclaim some sort of power in their own lives. In terms of social work practice I think the notions of empowerment and choice really need to be explored and clarified so that we avoid perpetuating people's powerlessness by putting them in positions of impossible empowerment.

Challenging Separations: Feminism suggests that our whole way of living is characterised by dualisms. We are either  male or female, black or white, good or bad, right or wrong, rational or emotional, and soon. The separations between things such as theory and practice for example, seem to be more about keeping apart things that actually need to be considered together. It is this wholistic, integrated aspect to feminism that is being stressed here.

Valuing Difference: One of the ways in which we have been able to perpetuate a social system that values some over others, is through a culture of intolerance of difference. One of the significant contributions of feminist theory has been a reconceptualisation of difference so that difference might come to be seen as a positive and enriching thing to be celebrated rather than a justification for oppressive behaviours and fears. Given that women are obviously all different, and that women have been subjected to oppressive experiences primarily because of their constructed differences from men, it would seem that there is a lot to be gained through the celebration of difference.

Feminism as Ontology: Feminism is often considered to be a world view. By this I mean that people who feel committed to the ideas of feminism tend to attempt to live these views in all aspects of their lives. In this sense, I question whether feminism can be something that you only incorporate into your working life for example. It seems to me that most feminists would recognise the importance of striving for some sort of consistency between what we ask of others and what we ask of ourselves. Needless to say, this is a hugely difficult thing to achieve and given the dominant social pressures in our lives it's not surprising that we often find ourselves acting or thinking in ways that seem inconsistent with our beliefs.

Women’s Experiences: Women's experiences have been traditionally underrepresented and devalued in the sciences and social sciences. In the feminist clinical context, clients should feel that their voices are heard and placed within the context of women's, not men's, experiences.

Focus on Change: One of the predominant goals of traditional therapy is to reduce symptoms and bring the client back to a state of equilibrium. The goal of feminist therapy is not to simply reduce symptoms but to bring about long-lasting positive change. One aspect of this change is an engagement in skills development . According to the APA, contemporary feminist counseling is conceptualized by "a shift from focusing the 'microscope' on individual change and responsibility to the more balanced focus on identifying and working to effect environmental and institutional change" 

Empowerment and Social Change: Because gender stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice, and other forms of oppression are rooted and reinforced at institutional levels, social action is needed to bring about change. The notion of empowerment is key when working with women in this feminist context. Empowerment results when individuals are assisted to develop skills and enhance their inner capabilities.

FEMINIST INTERVENTIONS AND STRATEGIES

Gender Role Analysis: The goal of gender role analysis is to assist clients to identify the specific gender role expectations and messages that influence their behaviours. Five steps are necessary in true gender role analysis. First, the Worker helps the client to identify various gender role beliefs and expectations experienced from early childhood. Second, the clinician and the client discuss how these expectations have affected the client's life negatively and positively. Third, the client works to identify internalized beliefs based on these gender role expectations. Fourth, with the help of the clinician, the client will decide which of the internalized beliefs he/she would like to address. Finally, a specific plan is developed to implement and monitor changes.

Assertiveness Training: Sharf defines assertiveness as behaviors that involve standing up for one's rights without violating the rights of other. Many feminist practitioners argue that women may need to be taught assertiveness skills due to the fact that assertiveness is not usually considered a desirable female attribute. The underlying assumption of assertiveness training is that after women are educated about their personal rights and taught skills to overcome perceived barriers, other positive outcomes (e.g., enhanced self-esteem) will follow.

Balancing Power: Feminist practitioners work with clients to promote awareness of the differences in power relations between men and women in society. The first step is to explore definitions of power with the client and to assist clients to identify which definition of power best fits within the client's value orientation. Subsequent steps involve helping the client to recognize internalized messages about power and to alter them. In order to model egalitarian relationships, the therapeutic environment becomes crucial. As discussed, in feminist social work the  relationship between client and worker is collaborative.

It is important to remember that the heart of feminist Social Work is changing the larger community in which the client exists. In other words, it is not enough to simply work with a couple in conducting a gender-role analysis in how traditional gender role socializations have influenced their domestic decisions. Working in an advocacy and consultant capacity in the community to educate and raise awareness about gender issues in order to promote change in areas such as child care, education, and occupational policies is equally as important.

CONCLUSION

Feminist theory and practice has much to offer feminist practitioners who can adapt its principles for professional practice. The existence of feminist social work is testimony to their capacities to do so.

Feminist social work has encouraged the assumption of a gender-sensitive stance in working with women and insisted on valuing women’s knowledge, talents and contributions to the profession. It has already had a substantial impact on social work theory and practice (Dominelli, 1992). Consequently, women have been acknowledged as beings with their own interests; specific aspirations

for themselves, their families and close others; and their own ways of knowing; valuing and doing things  Despite feminist social work’s failure to become the dominant paradigm in the discipline, its insights have been incorporated into a wide range of social work activities

Feminist theories have the capacity to play a greater role in enabling social work practice to become more effectively anti-oppressive and inclusive.  For this to occur, academics and practitioners have to validate women’s lives by incorporating into their work the conceptual frameworks and experiential knowledges that feminists have highlighted. These include the differentiated concepts of interdependence, mutuality, reciprocity and citizenship. Additionally, they have to recognise women as agents with the ability to determine their own futures.

REFRENCES

·         Adams, R., Dominelli, L. and Payne, M. (1998) Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates (London: Macmillan – now Palgrave).

·         Basu, M. (1997) The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective (Boulder: Westview Press).

·         Brandwein, R. (1986) ‘A Feminist Approach to Social Policy’, in N. Van Den Berg and L. Cooper (eds) Feminist Visions for Social Work

·         Dale, J. and Foster, P. (1986) Feminists and State Welfare (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).

·         Dominelli, L. (1997) ‘Feminist Theory’ in M. Davies (ed), The Blackwell Companion to Social Work (Oxford: Blackwell).

·         Dominelli, L. (1997c) Sociology for Social Work (London: Macmillan – now Palgrave).

·         Gandhi,  Anjali  ‘Mainstreaming Gender in Social Work Education’

·         Mazumdar K (1998) Gender Awareness in field instruction, Indian Journal of Social Work. Vol 59, issue 4 pp 969-980

·         Pease, B. (1981) Men and Feminism. Paper presented at Women and Social Work Seminar.

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