Social work, women, animal protection and intersectional feminism: Making the connections
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol37iss1id1093Keywords:
Animals, intersectional feminism, privilege, social workAbstract
INTRODUCTION: This article is an injunction for social workers, especially social workers who identify as intersectional feminists, to include animals in their analyses of power and to consider speciesism as a form of oppression. We note that women are numerically dominant in animal protection and social work has a history as a ‘women’s profession’ and being influenced by feminism.
APPROACH: Our central argument is that oppression and privilege that occur across the lines of species cannot legitimately be excised from intersectional feminist discussions of power, control and domination; that doing so is to ignore the most intense and uninspected form of privilege—the privilege humans have over other animals. We follow this idea in this article as we consider why it might be that (some) feminists overlook, if not deliberately ignore, the idea of animal liberation being so much in step with other feminist analyses of power.
IMPLICATIONS: Through an extended version of intersectional feminism inclusive of species, we discuss the need to pay attention to the lives of other animals. We conclude with some notes about ‘radical [emotional] intimacy’ between humans and animals, and their relevance to social work.
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