Social Work, Young Women, and Femininity

Abstract

As social work engages with feminism and postmodernism, the stringent dictates of femininity that underpin traditional social work with young women have been challenged. Social workers are asked to listen to young women's experiences of creating female subjectivities and to respect young women as the authors of their own gender identities. This article presents the findings of feminist interpretive research with six 14 to 15-year-old young women. Emphasizing the discourse of difference and its intersection with family, the mass media, peers, and fashion, the young women's stories alert social workers to the many ways in which young women negotiate, construct, and resist “the feminine.”