What is feminism?
- “social movement and doctrine advocating legal and socioeconomic equality for women”
- theories and practices that challenge male dominance and privilege and critique patriarchal power relations
Feminist social work definition
- integration of feminist orientation based values, skills, and knowledge in social work to help individuals and society overcome the emotional and social problems that result from gender discrimination
Feminist Mantra
“The personal is political, and the political is personal”
- indicates that feminism analyzes individual problems in a complex way, moving beyond perceived inadequacies of the individual to understand issues rooted in political or societal structures.
Liberal Feminism
- based in a neo-liberal ideology
- looked at women’s problems as stemming from a lack of access to participation in community and workforce
- did not acknowledge patriarchal nature of society
Radical Feminism [to the root]
- born out of fundamental ideas that gender/patriarchy is the problem
- idea that men and women have different experiences and different opportunities based on their genitalia
Socialist Feminism
- critique’s capitalism
- view that women’s oppression comes from the inequality inherent in social structures of a class-based social system
- focus on Marxist theory: women’s role in society is to reproduce workers for capitalism’s benefit (through domestic tasks and child care)
Black feminism
- focus on race, and in terms of women’s treatment in society
- focus on equality for women experiencing the most oppression (highest rates of mental health problems, incarceration rates, lack of access to resources)
Post modern feminism:
- multiple group membership/intersectionality
- examines the discourse in society that creates assumptions of how women are/should be treated
global feminism
women’s relationship to the world
eco feminism
womens relationship to the environement
standpoint theory
maintains that our perspective is determined by our position in society
fundamental assumptions of standpoint theory
- all knowledge is situated
- life experience structures one’s understanding in life
- members of the most and least powerful groups will potentially have opposite understanding of the world
- Perspectives of those outside the dominant group develops from their daily activities/experiences
- Members of marginalizes groups are “valuable strangers” to the social order
- multiple social group memberships affects how you see the world (trans professor, treated poorly in the street, treated with high regard in academia)
- multiple perspectives [of those who are oppressed] should be validated
- all experiences should be validated
- members of all groups should be taught others standpoint
Relational-Cultural theory [RCT] Cornstock et al., 1998
Central premise: growth-fostering relationships are a central human necessity, chronic disconnections are the source of psychological problems
goal of RCT
create and maintain mutually empathic growth-fostering relationships
- relationships are highly defined by cultural context
5 outcomes of growth-fostering relationship
1) Energy
2) Action
3) Clarity
4) Sense of Worth
5) Desire for more connection
Outcomes of disconnection:
1) diminished energy
2) diminished action
3) confusion
4) diminished sense of worth
5) avoiding relationships/isolation
Key concepts of RCT (6)
1) Mutual empathy
2) Mutual empowerment
3) Authenticity
4) Movement toward mutuality
5) Culture and connection: each person embodies culture
6) Difference and power
Mutual empathy
o 2-way (or more) dynamic process that functions as a central component of psychological growth
o Connection based on authentic thoughts/feelings of all participants involved
Mutual empowerment
o The five good outcomes (lead to mutual empowerment)
Authenticity
ever-evolving, not achieved at any one moment
- person’s ongoing ability to more fully represent themselves in relationships, with awareness of the possible impact on the other person.”
o “a profess in movement – we move in and out of more or less authenticity as a consequence of the relational dynamics”
Movement towards mutuality
o Dynamic process where individuals in relationship are able to be authentic, and respond authentically to each others thoughts/feelings
o Movement toward emotional/cognitive action that benefits both people in a relationship, which involves mutual empathy, authenticity, mutual empowerment, and mutual responsiveness
Culture and connection: each person embodies culture
o Each person has multiple social identities (race, gender, class, sexual orient. Etc.)
o Social identities are stratified (dominant-subordinate, better-lesser than)
Difference and power
o Differences are profoundly stratified, the stratification (not the difference) constrains our capacity for authenticity and undermines our desire for connection
o Power-over practices
Suppress difference, interpret difference as opposition, diminish authentic engagement in relationships, impedes movement toward mutuality in relationships, limits one’s ability to find and engage in growth fostering relationships.
So… EMBRACE DIVERSITY!
**Central relational paradox
after repeated experiences of disconnection, people yearn very strongly for connection/relationships but are afraid to engage with others. They develop techniques for staying out of connection.
