Contemporary Human Behavior

Theory: A Critical Perspective

for Social Work Practice
Fourth Edition

Chapter 5
Feminist Theory

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Learning Outcomes (1 of 2)
5.1 List the themes that are central to all feminist thought
5.2 Describe the differences between liberal, radical,
socialist lesbian, cultural, women of color, postmodern,
global, and ecofeminism
5.3 Discuss the meaning of “the personal is political” and its
role in feminist thought

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Learning Outcomes (2 of 2)
5.4 List the propositions and assumptions of Feminist
Standpoint Theory
5.5 Compare and contrast Feminist Standpoint Theory with
Relational-Cultural Theory
5.6 Apply concepts of feminist theory in engagement,
assessment, intervention planning, and evaluation

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Key Concepts (1 of 3)
• Feminist theory - a mode of analysis that involves specific
ways of thinking and of acting, designed to achieve
women’s liberation by eliminating the oppression of women
in society
• Patriarchy - the domination of the major political,
economic, cultural, and legal systems by men
• Centrality of gender - the way in which gender influences
not only how people are treated from birth, but also
determines the distribution of power and resources in
society

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Key Concepts (2 of 3)
• Gender schemas - mental constructs about gender that we
hold about individuals, groups of people, or events. Often
implicit and unconscious
• The personal is political - a feminist position that personal
inadequacies or individual problems often have their roots
in political or societal structures
• Schools of feminist thought
– these differ in their analysis of what causes gender
inequalities and what actions can be taken to end these

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Key Concepts (3 of 3)
• Feminist Standpoint Theory - all knowledge is located and
situated
– The standpoint (position in society) of women provides
a vantage point and
– a more accurate reflection of women’s social reality
• Relational-Cultural Theory - proposes that
– all growth occurs in connection
– all people yearn for connection
– growth fostering relationships are created through
mutual empathy and mutual empowerment

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Historical Context (1 of 2)
• Roots of feminism and feminist theory can be found in the
17th century
• North America’s first feminist is often identified as Sor
Juana Inés de La Cruz
• First women’s rights movement in the United States
– held in Seneca Falls, New York (1848)
• Simone de Beauvoir
– pioneering French existentialist and socialist
– argued that women have been subjugated to a
“second status” (The Second Sex, 1953)
– notes that women were “made, not born”

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Historical Context (2 of 2)
• The Civil Rights movement and New Left movements
– 1950s and 1960s gave rise to the next wave of the American
women’s movement
• Three waves of the women’s movement in the U S
– The first wave (1848-1920)
▪ focus on women’s right to vote, keep property and wages
– The second wave (1960s-1980s)
▪ modern women’s movement
– The third wave (1990s - present)
▪ response to failures of second wave
▪ issues of race, class, nation take precedence
▪ more fluid notions of gender and sexual identities

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Feminist Theories
• Gender differences: focus on psychological/relational
differences
• Gender inequality: reject personality differences between
men and women. Structural change as necessary to
eliminate gender inequality
• Gender oppression: role of power and domination in
creating
– gender differences and gender inequality

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Contemporary Thought in Feminism
• One’s biological sex as largely immutable, but gender as
socially constructed
• The social construction of gender and the sex continuum
• Sexuality and sexual identity: relationships rather than
sexual activity seen as central to female sexual
orientation
• Development of critical gender awareness by applying a
“gender lens” to examine and deconstruct systems of
power

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Feminist Standpoint Theory (1 of 2)
• Life experiences structures one’s understanding of life
– research should be inductive: starting from lived
experiences rather than broad theories
• Members of the most and least powerful groups will
potentially have opposed understandings of the world
• The less powerful group’s standpoint has to be developed
through education
• The perspective of those outside the dominant group
develops from their daily activities

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Feminist Standpoint Theory (2 of 2)
• The appropriate perspective for research activities is
everyday life
• Members of marginalized groups are valuable “strangers”
to the social order
• Standpoint of marginalized and oppressed groups is
privileged
– provides a vantage point that reveals an often
dismissed perspective of social reality
– researchers to use openness and empathy to connect
with research participants

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Relational-Cultural Theory
• Challenges core tenet of most existing psychological
theories - the development of a separated sense of self
• Argues that all people yearn for connection
– Key concepts
▪ relational competence
▪ central relational paradox
• Discrimination and privilege impact peoples’ sense of
connection/disconnection
• People grow (or fail to grow) in relationships that exist in a
cultural context

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Contemporary Issues
• Effects of discrimination and oppression leave women at a
structural disadvantage
• Racial disparities in diagnosis/treatment and medicalization
of women’s health
• Reproductive justice
– the right to have a child
– the right not to have a child
– the right to parent the children
– the right to control birthing options

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Application to Social Work Practice
• Assessment, practice strategies, methods
• Social workers should use multiple methods of
assessment and
– be knowledgeable about validity, reliability,
standardization processes and norming
– “gendergram” as assessment tool
• Strength/diversity of families and diverse arrangements of
kinship and social ties
• Social worker as guide and facilitator, not expert.
Addresses the natural hierarchy of the helping relationship

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Critical Analysis (1 of 2)
• Biological, Psychological, Spiritual factors
– biological
▪ feminist theory historically minimized biological explanations of
gender
▪ focused more on structural conditions and social construction
of gender
– psychological
▪ feminist theory tends to embrace psychological theories of
female differences, sometimes uncritically
– spiritual
▪ feminist theory critiques religious practices that use patriarchal
interpretations of sacred texts to marginalize women

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Critical Analysis (2 of 2)
• Social, Cultural and Economic forces
– Oppression of women is socially constructed
– Change the culture rather than change individual
women
– Economic factors create limited opportunity and roles
for women
• Relevance to individuals, groups, families, organizations,
institutions & communities
– Connects micro/meso/macro social systems
– Work with individual addressed through the lens of a
gendered society

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Consistency with Social Work Values
• Aligned with social work values that focus on the dignity
and worth of every individual
• Social work ethical requirement to become educated
about various identities and to refuse to discriminate on
the basis of sex and gender is aligned with feminist
agenda
• Feminist values call for social change & align with social
work’s social justice agenda

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