The personal being vs the professional being from a gender perspective: A silent ethical dilemma in social work with foreign women?

Abstract

Few works have focused on the ethical dilemmas that Social Workers have to face when intervening in the immigrant population. Adopting a qualitative, situated and gender approach, we studied the professional context of social workers in the city of Jaén (Spain) to understand what ethical dilemmas they had to confront. One specific dilemma emerged, expressed as a dialogue between the “personal being” and the “professional being”. The issue raises questions of gender linked to the professional and ethical identity of Social Work, as well as that of the persons they work with.