How Class and Gender Structure Child-and-Family Social Work: Intersections and Discrepancies

In the course of their child protection mission, social workers refer certain families to the courts when they consider the children to be in danger. This article shows how these middle class professionals perceive the behaviour and attitudes of children and parents on the basis of gender and class norms. The autonomy they promote for mothers is, for example, rooted in a specific gender and class position and has ambivalent effects on the relationship with these women, ranging from gender solidarity to class domination. By articulating gender and class relations this analysis exposes the effects of divergent power relations on working practices.