Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp
Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp
Teaching Gender in Social Work - MailChimp
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• The changes that have happened over forty years, which gives<br />
Radical Fem<strong>in</strong>ism less currency and relevance <strong>in</strong> the present day<br />
• The recognition of the benefit <strong>in</strong> some circumstances, such as<br />
work<strong>in</strong>g with women who have experienced violence by men,<br />
of women-only organisations, vis-à-vis the need for an <strong>in</strong>clusive<br />
approach <strong>in</strong> social work across most doma<strong>in</strong>s<br />
• The risk of exclusion of men and the implications of this for<br />
practical social work<br />
• The basic assumptions about biological difference<br />
• The treatment of gender issues as universal for all women,<br />
irrespective of class, culture, ability and so on<br />
• The recognition of the need to understand both patriarchal<br />
structures and <strong>in</strong>dividual attitudes and behaviours (sexism) and<br />
dist<strong>in</strong>guish between these <strong>in</strong> understand<strong>in</strong>g gender difference<br />
and oppression.<br />
Liberal Fem<strong>in</strong>ism is <strong>in</strong>troduced as a less radical and more consensusoriented<br />
approach, which was, arguably, most successfully <strong>in</strong> achiev<strong>in</strong>g changes<br />
<strong>in</strong> legislation and policy <strong>in</strong> relation to gender. 12 In review<strong>in</strong>g the achievements<br />
of liberal fem<strong>in</strong>ism, students are rem<strong>in</strong>ded of the range of equal opportunities<br />
legislation currently <strong>in</strong> place, which they now taken for granted, which emerged<br />
as a response to the fem<strong>in</strong>ist critiques of lack of opportunity and access.<br />
Questions for students to research and consider <strong>in</strong>clude:<br />
1. What were the ma<strong>in</strong> differences between liberal and radical<br />
fem<strong>in</strong>ism?<br />
2. What were the ma<strong>in</strong> causes of gender <strong>in</strong>equality from the liberal<br />
perspective?<br />
3. What k<strong>in</strong>ds of opportunities did women not have <strong>in</strong> the 1960s<br />
and 1970s?<br />
4. What were the implications of focus<strong>in</strong>g on opportunity and access<br />
over structural and patriarchal divisions?<br />
5. What have been the ma<strong>in</strong> achievements of liberal fem<strong>in</strong>ism?<br />
What are its limitations?<br />
12<br />
Although as argued by Dom<strong>in</strong>elli, while not as political as radical fem<strong>in</strong>ism, liberal fem<strong>in</strong>ism has its roots <strong>in</strong> the<br />
work of the Suffragettes, which did have a strong militant dimension; “Women can be liberal fem<strong>in</strong>ists and still be<br />
militant!” (Dom<strong>in</strong>elli, 2002: 2).<br />
21