ABSTRACT
This chapter explores various ethical theories used in social work and their criticisms from a feminist perspective. It explores standpoint feminism as starting epistemological position. It then describes two broad ethical perspectives, namely principle-based approaches, which include utilitarian and Kantian ethics, and relationship and character-based approaches, which comprise ethics of care as well as virtue ethics. The chapter discusses the character- and relationship-based perspectives and their potential fit within a feminist social work perspective. It deals with the possibilities offered by a feminist perspective as applied to virtue ethics in social work, and highlights its strengths and weaknesses for practice. It then explores how virtue theory can build from a feminist standpoint and further the debates around feminist ethics in social work. Undertaking practical reasoning within a community of practice that works towards a specific telos of gender liberation through the development of personal dispositions can facilitate ethical practice according to a feminist standpoint social work perspective.
