Feminisms in Social Work Research

Social work as a profession and academic discipline has long centered women and issues of concern to women, such as reproductive rights, labor rights, equal rights, violence and poverty. In fact, the social work profession was started by and maintained in large part by women and has been home to several generations of feminists starting with recognized first wave feminists. This wide-ranging volume both maps the contemporary landscape of feminist social work research, and offers a deep engagement with critical and third wave feminisms in social work research.
Showcasing the breadth and depth of exemplary social work feminist research, the editors argue that social work's unique focus on praxis, daily proximities to privilege and oppression, concern with social change and engagement with participatory forms of inquiry place social workers in a unique position to both learn from and contribute to broader social science and humanities discourse associated with feminist research. The authors attend here to their specific claims of feminisms, articulate deep engagement with theory, address the problematic use of binaries, and engage with issues associated with methods that are consistently of interest to feminist researchers, such as power and authority, ethics, reflexivity, praxis and difference.
Comprehensive and containing an international selection of contributions, Feminisms in Social Work Research is an important reference for all social work researchers with an interest in critical perspectives.

Stéphanie Wahab is an Associate Professor at Portland State University's School of Social Work, USA, and Honorary Research Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Gender and Social Work, University of Otago, New Zealand. Ben Anderson-Nathe is Associate Professor and Program Director of the Child and Family Studies program at Portland State University, USA.Christina Gringeri is Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Utah, USA.

1. Introduction Stéphanie Wahab, Ben Anderson-Nathe, and Christina Gringeri Section 1: Feminist Claims in Social Work Research 2. Doing Critical Feminist Research: A Collaboration Andrea Daley, Lucy Costa, and Lori Ross 3. A Letter to Activists Entering Academia (Notes on Making the Transition from Activist to Activist-Scholar) Joseph Nicholas DeFilippis 4. Doing Profeminist Research with Men in Social Work: Reflections on Epistemology, Methodolology, and Politics Bob Pease Section 2: Theory in Research 5. Operationalizing Intersectionality in Feminist Social Work Research: Reflections and Techniques from Research with Equity-Seeking Groups Wendy Hulko 6. Intersectional Feminism and Social Work Responses to Homelessness Carole Zufferey 7. Borderlands as a Critical Feminist Perspective in Social Work Research Kimberly Dree Hudson 8. Myths and Monsters: Challenging Assumptions of Poor Working Class Motherhood through Feminist Research Victoria Foster Section 3: Treatment of Binaries in Research 9. Feminist Research in the Absence of Gender: Exploring Intersubjectivity in Practice, Purpose, and Representation Ann Curry-Stevens 10. Precarious Positioning: Tensions in Doing Siiqqee Feminist Social Work Research Martha Kuwee Kumsa 11. Troubling the Binary: A Critical Look at the Dualistic Construction of Quantitative/Qualitative Methods in Feminist Social Work Research Sandra Leotti and Jennifer Muthanna Section 4: Engagement with Methodology 12. Collage as Reflexivity: Illustrations and Reflections of a Photovoice Study with Sex Workers Moshoula Capous-Desyllas 13. Building Solidarity through Collective Consciousness in Feminist Participatory Action Research Rupaleem Bhuyan, Flavia Genovese, Rachel Mehl, Bethany Osborne, Margarita Pintin-Perez, and Fernanda Villanueva 14. Positionality and Privilege in Qualitative Research: Feminist Critical Praxis Karen Morgaine 15. Critical Feminist Social Work and the Queer Query Jen Self 16. Considering Emotion and Emotional Labor in Feminist Social Work Research Gita Mehrotra 17. Conclusion Stéphanie Wahab, Ben Anderson-Nathe, and Christina Gringeri