Social Work, familism and gender: a reflection on the role of women in the politics of care

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the role of caregiving in family-oriented policies within the current social context. It discusses the sexual division of labor and the centrality of caregiving, often assigned to women as primary caregivers of the home, children, and the elderly. Furthermore, it seeks to recognize gender inequalities rooted in patriarchal society, which produces profound inequalities in the social roles of men and women. Through the lens of national social assistance policy, it aims to delineate the phenomenon of familism, as termed by Esping-Andersen (1999), in which public policies are centered on the family, simultaneously abdicating state responsibility and excessively burdening women in capitalist society. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how the rise of conservatism and the far right seeks to construct an image of family based on bourgeois ideology, detached from the reality arising from the contradictions in the relations between capital and labor, which largely determine social relations and reproduction in capitalism. The research is qualitative, based on an exploratory literature review, using the critical dialectical method, which stems from critical social theory. Furthermore, it seeks to critically understand the work of the social worker in the face of the demands placed on families within the context of capitalist exploitation and inequality, deepening the studies on the main authors of critical social work.