ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the place of feminism within critical social work in contemporary times. It deals with current times, as feminism has become part of mainstream culture in the global North, while a new feminist theory and practice struggles for prominence in the global South. Feminist social work practitioners and academics in the 1970s and 80s set out to bring to life the feminist mantra, ‘the personal is political’, and for many, this meant working in projects with and for women: in girls’ groups, women’s groups, domestic violence projects, sexual abuse services. Two challenges presented to feminism and feminist social work in the 1990s, the first from the outside and the second from within feminism. North/South feminist debates are particularly highlighted in current discussions about Islam and feminism. Critical feminist social work must not only pursue socially just practice but engage in wider political debates.
