Brid Featherstone & Carol-Ann Hooper 
Gender and Child Welfare in Society [PDF ebook] 

GENDER and CHILD WELFARE in Society

‘This excellent and internationally relevant book provides a range of pertinent material that explores the complexities surrounding gender and child welfare in contemporary society. It addresses a clear gap in current literature and will prove invaluable to those from a range of backgrounds who are involved in a variety of capacities in this highly charged arena.’

Professor Barbara Fawcett, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney

‘The arguments and original research in this book offer more than a feast for thought. The contributors challenge the sidelining of gender in contemporary policy and practice in working with children. This is a valuable collection for practitioners in health and social care, providing practice-focused analyses to demonstrate the crucial role gender sensitivity has for improving interventions, and ultimately outcomes, for children and their families.’

Dr Lorraine Radford, Head of Research, NSPCC

Gender and Child Welfare in Society offers an overview of sociological, psychological and developmental perspectives on family relationships, child welfare and the practice realities of professional interventions with families. It interrogates the current child welfare agenda from a gendered perspective, drawing on developments in thinking about gender relations. Chapters describe a range of service settings, including family support, child health, education, child protection, domestic violence, children who are ‘looked after’, and youth justice.

The book also explores the new challenges facing women and men as parents in the context of family and societal change and diversity. It raises the issue of how gender intersects with ethnicity, religion, class, disability, age and sexuality in families, and what theoretical and practice developments are most promising in promoting both child well-being and gender equity.

With contributions from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand, Gender and Child Welfare in Society takes an international, multidisciplinary, and multi-professional approach to the subject, offering a broad range of views on topics highly relevant to both practitioners and policy makers. Although social work is the dominant discipline, the book also contains contributions from academics in nursing, education, social policy, and family therapy.

Table of Content

Notes on Contributors.

1 Gender and Child Welfare in Society: Introduction to Some Key
Concepts (Jonathan Scourfield).

2 Exploring the Relationship between Gender and Child Health: A
Comparative Analysis of High and Low Economic Resource Countries
(Lorraine Green and Julie Taylor).

3 Gender, Child Maltreatment and Young People’s Offending
(Carol-Ann Hooper).

4 Gender and Schooling (Shereen Benjamin).

5 Are Abused Women ‘Neglectful’ Mothers? A Critical Reflection
Based on Women’s Experiences (Simon Lapierre).

6 The Clock Starts Now: Feminism, Mothering and Attachment
Theory in Child Protection Practice (Julia Krane, Linda Davies,
Rosemary Carlton and Meghan Mulcahy).

7 Engaging Fathers – Promoting Gender Equality? (Brid
Featherstone).

8 Working with Violent Male Carers (Fathers and Stepfathers)
(Mark Rivett).

9 The Family Group Conference in Child Welfare: A View from New
Zealand (Margaret Mc Kenzie).

10 Gender in Residential Childcare (Mark Smith).

11 Therapeutic Options in Child Protection and Gendered
Practices (Trish Walsh).

Index.

About the author

Brid Featherstone is Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Bradford.

Carol-Ann Hooper is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of York.

Jonathan Scourfield is Reader in Social Work at Cardiff School of Social Sciences.

Julie Taylor is Professor of Family Health and Research Dean in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Dundee.