It's feminist because I say so: feminism, social work and critical practice in the UK

J. Orme

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    43 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This article explores the contribution of feminism to critical social work practice within the UK. It does so by examining a claim that social work students and practitioners have taken a simplistic stance to feminist theory: `it's feminist because I say so'. While this position might be a consequence of unease with theory within some approaches to feminism it is compounded by arrangements for social work education in the UK. It is argued that such a stance denies the complexities of feminist theory and fails to recognize some of the tensions within feminism. Identifying that in UK social work there are struggles to reconcile `standpointism' with postmodern feminism, the article uses the examples of feminist analyses of care and researching domestic violence to argue that critical practice is enriched by explorations of theoretical differences.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)131-154
    Number of pages24
    JournalQualitative Social Work
    Volume2
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2003

    Keywords

    • feminism
    • social work
    • social work practice

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