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Feminist Approaches To Social Work Essay

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This work is going to set out to investigate the relevance of feminist approaches to social work in today’s society. It will first look at the different types of feminism that are present in society. It will then trace and highlight the emergence of feminism in society. This essay will then delve deeper into the different types of approaches that were taken on by feminists within the field of social work. It will discuss what effect these approaches had on society especially women.

According to Hooks (2000) as cited in Considine and Dukelow (2009:141) “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. It is necessary to explain the different types of feminism that are present in society first. Freedman (2001:5) states that there are many …show more content…

According to Collins English Dictionary, “social work” means “social services that give help and advice to the poor, the elderly, and families with problems.” (www.collinslanguage.com). It is very hard to define social work as its work is so varied and sparse within society today. Feminist social workers tend to work more with women and help them to understand and alleviate their problems. Dominelli (1997: 246) postulates “ I define feminist social work as a form of social work practice which takes gendered inequality and it’s elimination as the starting point for working with women whether as individuals, in groups or within organizations and seeks to promote women’s well-being as women define it”. This quote illustrates the difference between mainstream social work which deals with both genders and feminist social work which concentrates on women within society. Feminist social workers work with women in many different areas of their lives. Orme (2002) as cited in Payne (2005: 256) highlights four distinctive areas in which feminist social workers can help to create change, these are as

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