FILIA WORKSHOP - Feminism and Social Work - Are They Compatible?

Feedback from an EBSWA member who attended this workshop

Over 40 people attended a workshop on Feminism and Social Work at the FiLia conference in Brighton in October 2025. Workshop participants included social workers, students, social work educators and those in related professions such as probation, psychology and occupational therapy. The workshop examined research exploring the mental fragility and lack of resilience of young female students and social work students’ self-censorship and belief that words are harmful. The workshop aimed to consider what implications these issues might have for social work and applying a feminist approach to practice.

Jane Fenton Professor of Social Work at the University of Dundee presented on two key areas of her research. Firstly, with 400 Gen Z female students at the University of Dundee. This research uncovered shockingly low levels of well-being and a very negative and oppressed mindset within this sample of young women:

• Women have to be beautiful

• It is very hard to be an adult woman

• males have easier lives

• Negative view of males in general

• Women are exposed to significant oppression, harm, expectations and standards

• Life is so dangerous for women, they need protection

The research found that young women felt that the patriarchy was overwhelming and rather than wanting to tackle the roots of the problems, they just wanted more mental health services. There was a real sense of ‘victimhood’, no notion of not conforming and no mention of fighting back against expectations. This negative mindset was very much related to Jane’s second area of research with social work students from across Scotland.

The research asked about self-censorship and included the following findings:

• 67% of students were reluctant to talk about at least 1 controversial issue

• Students were most likely to be reluctant to discuss transgender issues followed by Black Lives Matter

• The assumed ‘oppressor’ group were most likely to be reluctant to express their views

• Young women are more likely to be censorious and to see harm in words

• Main reasons for reluctance to speak out were concerns about what other students would think of them and that they might cause emotional or psychological harm, so very much acceding to the notion that words are harmful.

Jane posed some thought-provoking questions about the implications of this research for social work practice:

• If views that one disagrees with are framed in terms of being hateful and causing harm, how might this impact on the kind of discussions needed in the social work classroom or in practice?

• If social work students aren’t learning, or being taught, to engage in respectful dialogue with people with whom they may disagree or to discuss ‘difficult’ subjects, how will they manage to engage in challenging conversations in practice and/or with colleagues?

• If social work students are being encouraged or enabled to be self-censoring and see words as harmful, are they emerging into social work as professionals who are unwilling, unable or afraid to speak the truth as they see it?

• If social work involves being ‘on the side of’ oppressed people, how does denying free speech enable discriminatory views to be challenged using logic, reasoned and evidence-based arguments?

• Should we be worried about a new generation of social workers, particularly women, who have poor mental well-being, are self-censorious and believe that others should be silenced?

• How important is it that courage, honesty and speaking up are centred in social work education and practice?

• In this context, what might a feminist approach to social work look like?

Jane’s presentation sparked an excellent discussion with participants making thoughtful and considered contributions on a wide range of issues, including:

· Concerns about SW academics not speaking out about gender ideology. SW academics present noted that colleagues often agreed privately with gender critical perspectives but were too afraid to speak out.

· Social workers and SW academics outlined personal experiences of being vilified, disciplined and investigated by their employer and regulatory body. Such instances resulted in them being vindicated, including in employment tribunals, but the personal impact of these processes has been extremely damaging emotionally, financially and professionally. One social worker described feeling unable to return to social work practice, a job she loved, because of the traumatic impact of the investigative process.

· Students reported feeling too afraid to voice their views and it was noted that this raises serious questions about their capacity to engage in challenging conversations in practice.

· Concerns about mature students not being attracted into social work and the impact on mature students, who may be willing to be more vocal, of being in a class with students unwilling to voice their opinions. Students, and those considering social work, highlighted anxieties about being marginalized by fellow students who oppose gender critical views or remain silent.

Concerns about resilience and emotional fragility raised in Jane's research have serious implications for capacity to manage the challenges and complexities of practice.

· The importance of critical thinking and analysis in social work was highlighted with concerns about the implications for professional practice if students are ill-equipped or unwilling to explore their own and others’ views.

· Importance of returning to a focus on community-based practice and moving away from the emphasis on individualism that has increasingly dominated social work practice.

· Need to re-engage with a political and class analysis within social work education and practice. The focus on gender ideology and the need to fight for basic sex-based rights has been overwhelming and means that the impact of such issues as poverty has been lost. The focus on identity politics has been an unhelpful and damaging distraction from community and class-based perspectives.

· Discussion about the role of BASW in promoting gender ideology and their failure to support gender critical workers. Mixed views about the value of staying in BASW and campaigning for gender critical perspectives to be respected, in accordance with the law.

· Discussion about social work regulators, with Social Work England’s role in relation to Rachel Meade highlighted and their continued failure to adequately address the outcome of the employment tribunal. Serious concerns were raised about regulators investigating workers on the basis of complaints from a single individual.

· Challenges of working with confused and distressed young people, particularly in voluntary, participation worker roles, and feeling pressure to use preferred names and pronouns to gain trust with the young people. This was a really important issue raised towards the end of the workshop and so limited time for more in-depth discussion about where that pressure might be coming from or the implications of reinforcing untruthful beliefs when working with young people.

· Advice was given about the value of joining the Free Speech Union for support in relation to any concerns about silencing of views within the workplace or university.

· The role of EBSWA was highlighted in providing information, advice and support for students and workers whose gender critical views are being silenced or who are facing challenges in relation to promoting evidence-based approaches such as addressing the Cass Review, lessons from employment tribunals or the Supreme Court judgement.

There was extremely positive feedback from the workshop, with colleagues from other related professions highlighting the commonality of issues and concerns. Jane’s presentation was noted to be informative, engaging and provoked some excellent discussion. One participant indicated that she now felt braver to hold some critical thinking discussions in supervision!

Throughout the conference, EBSWA was represented on the SEEN (Sex Equality and Equity Network) stand with leaflets explaining our aims and objectives. EBSWA was clearly of interest to a range of social work (and related) professionals and there were some excellent discussions with clinicians, carers and probation officers from across the country. A number of EBSWA cards were taken both at the stand and at the workshop. Miriam should be congratulated for the sterling job she did on the stand right across the weekend, displaying her fabulous EBSWA sweatshirt!