ABSTRACT
Feminist leadership within social work tends to be located within the contemporary environment of managerialist models of service delivery and management. However, pursuing this perspective alone denies an important historical discourse on feminist leadership, which has arisen outside social work, predominantly amid black feminists, among others, in the USA and the developing world. Historically, feminist leadership, particularly in the USA, flourished in key programmes within the civil and human rights movements, urban settlement houses, refugee settlements, suffrage movements, historical and cultural landmark preservation and environmental ecosystems protection. Batliwala highlights the transformational nature of feminist leadership in undermining power inequalities. Social justice feminists are mindful of historical hierarchies and inequities, the need for empowerment beyond the removal of oppression, and the co-existence and intersection of multiple oppressions that require a coalition of agendas. Social work places its values and ethics at its centre and accepts and adopts related theories and practices that support its values and ethical stance.
