Today, the feminist ideologies and practices, the philosophies in action and the academic gender studies are all forms of the emancipation of women. All these are intimately related by the feminization and professionalization of social work. The common view identifies social work with those who deal with adoptions, philantropy and Christian charity, and more recently with the dehumanizing beaurocracy of the local offices for social protection. Yet, a great proportion of those who deal with all these things are women. In (...) the same time, women contribution is not identical with the feminist contribution toward the emancipation of women and the development of social work. Thus, there are still women and men, no matter how they label themselves, who contribute to the emancipation of women and the development of social work, while there are still unanticipated effects of feminism that perpetuate the patriarchal thinking and social inequalities, of which social work is not exempted. (shrink)