Contemporary Feminisms in Social Work Practice
Contemporary Feminisms in Social Work Practice explores feminism as core to social work knowledge, practice and ethics. It demonstrates how gender-neutral perspectives and practices obscure gender discourses and power relations. It also shows feminist social work practice can transform areas of social work not specifically concerned with gender, through its emphasis on relationships and power.
Within and outside feminism, there is a growing assumption that equality has been won and is readily available to all women. However, women continue to dominate the ranks of the poor in developed and developing countries around the world; male perpetrated violence against women and children has not reduced; women outnumber men by up to three to one in the diagnosis of common mental health problems; and women continue to be severely underrepresented in every realm of power, decision making and wealth. This worrying context draws attention to the ways gender relations structure most of the problems faced by the women, men and children in the day-to-day worlds in which social work operates. Drawing together key contemporary thinking about feminism and its place in social work, this international collection looks both at core curriculum areas taught in social work programmes and at a wide range of practice fields that involve key challenges and opportunities for future feminist social work.
This book is suitable for all social work students and academics. It examines the nuanced nature of power relationships in the everyday and areas such as working with cross-cultural communities, mental health, interpersonal violence and abuse, homelessness, child protection, ageing, disability and sexuality.
Sarah Wendt is a Professor of Social Work at Flinders University, South Australia.
Nicole Moulding is a Senior Lecturer in social work at the University of South Australia.
Routledge Advances in Social Work
New titles
Analysing Social Work Communication
Discourse in practice
Edited by Christopher Hall, Kirsi Juhila, Maureen Matarese and Carolus van Nijnatten
Feminisms in Social Work Research
Promise and possibilities for justice-based knowledge
Edited by Stphanie Wahab, Ben Anderson-Nathe and Christina Gringeri
Chronic Illness, Vulnerability and Social Work
Autoimmunity and the contemporary disease experience
Liz Walker and Elizabeth Price
Social Work in a Global Context
Issues and challenges
Edited by George Palattiyil, Dina Sidhva and Mono Chakrabarti
Contemporary Feminisms in Social Work Practice
Edited by Sarah Wendt and Nicole Moulding Forthcoming titles
Domestic Violence Perpetrators
Evidence-informed responses
John Devaney, Anne Lazenbatt and Maurice Mahon
Transnational Social Work and Social Welfare
Challenges for the social work profession
Edited by Ursula Kmmerer-Rtten, Alexandra Schleyer-Lindemann, Beatrix Schwarzer and Yafang Wang
Responsibilization at the Margins of Welfare Services
Edited by Kirsi Juhila, Suvi Raitakari and Christopher Hall
Homelessness and Social Work
An intersectional approach
Carole Zufferey
Supporting Care Leavers Educational Transitions
Jennifer Driscoll
First published 2016
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2016 Sarah Wendt and Nicole Moulding
The right of Sarah Wendt and Nicole Moulding to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Contemporary feminisms in social work practice / edited by Sarah
Wendt and Nicole Moulding.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Wendt, Sarah, editor. II. Moulding, Nicole, editor.
[DNLM: 1. Social Work-methods. 2. Feminism. 3. Interpersonal
Relations. 4. Womens Rights. HV 41]
HD6955
306.36dc232015031117
ISBN: 978-1-138-02570-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77494-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
NICOLE MOULDING AND SARAH WENDT
SARAH WENDT
MELANIE SHEPARD AND LAKE DZIENGEL
ANNIE PULLEN SANSFAON
LESLEY LAING
SUE KING AND DEIRDRE TEDMANSON
LIA BRYANT
MARGARET ALSTON
MEL GRAY AND LEANNE SCHUBERT
LENA DOMINELLI
DEIRDRE TEDMANSON AND CHRISTINE FEJO-KING
LAURIE COOK HEFFRON, SUSANNA SNYDER, KARIN WACHTER, MAURA NSONWU AND NOL BUSCH-ARMENDARIZ
NICOLE MOULDING
FIONA BUCHANAN
SARAH WENDT
FIONA BUCHANAN AND LYNN JAMIESON
CAROLE ZUFFEREY
MARGARET ROWNTREE
JILL CHONODY AND BARBRA TEATER
BARBARA FAWCETT
BOB PEASE
SARAH WENDT AND NICOLE MOULDING
Margaret Alston is Head of Department of Social Work at Monash University where she has also established the Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability (GLASS) research unit. Prior to commencing at Monash she was Professor of Social Work and Human Services and Director of the Centre for Rural Social Research at Charles Sturt University. She is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian College of Social Workers and is past-Chair of the Australian Council of Heads of Schools of Social Work. She has published widely in the field of rural gender and rural social issues. She has acted as a gender expert for UNHabitat in Kenya, the Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome, UNESCO in the Pacific and UNEP in Geneva. She received her Medal of the Order of Australia in 2010 for services to social work and the advancement of women, particularly in rural areas.
Lia Bryant is Associate Professor of Social Work and Sociology and Director, Centre for Social Change in the School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Australia. She has published widely on research methodologies, gender and rural communities covering emotions, sexuality, suicide, embodiment, work and intersectionality. Her most recent books are L. Bryant and K. Jaworski, Women Supervising and Writing Doctoral Theses, Walking on the Grass (Lexington Books, 2015); and L. Bryant (ed.) Critical and Creative Research Methodologies in Social Work (Ashgate, 2015).
Fiona Buchanan is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy at the University of South Australia. After working for many years as a social worker in community health and feminist non-government agencies in the UK and in Australia she completed her PhD at Flinders University: The effects of domestic violence on the relationships between women and their babies: beyond attachment theory. Her research has focused on violence against women, mothering, child wellbeing and growing up with domestic violence. She applies a critical lens to the application of dominant discourses which operate across disciplines in health, welfare and child/family centred services.
