Is Child & Youth Care Feminist?

"Wouldn't feminist child & youth care just be child & youth care?"

This was the response from a fellow practitioner and mentor when I broached the topic of applying a feminist lens to CYC. It's interesting, because while he seemed confused as to how feminist CYC would be any different from regular CYC, I had spent years attempting to synthesize child and youth care practice with feminist ways of knowing in a manner that felt fruitful for the young people and families I worked alongside.

Is Child & Youth Care inherently feminist?  

While to my friend the connection between CYC and feminism seemed to be an obvious one, I found it slightly more nuanced.

Can we call a profession that is female-dominated and disparagingly low paying feminist?

A profession that centres reflection and self-awareness as a means to increase productivity and outcomes, exploiting feminine ways of being to bolster the masculine values so ubiquitous in our society?

A profession that continues to participate in the mother-blaming that is so core to much of the social service industry?

Yes, child and youth care speaks about being feminist, about understanding core concepts such as attachment theory absent of their sexist origins (as if that's even possible), and about facilitating opportunities for young people to build skillsets that are not solely individual (and thus masculine) focused.  

But...

Are we genuine?

As a practitioner who is active in building feminism and feminist concepts into her every day practice I believe the answer is (for now) no.

An opportunity

As CYC moves forward (especially in Ontario) there is great opportunity to cultivate our practice to include feminism as more than just lip-service. The push to define what makes a CYCP and how we are different from the other helping professions is prime for thinking critically about our practice and how we can ensure our ethics are baked into every interaction we have with young people.

Teasing out the subtleties of integrating CYC and feminism is and always will be an ongoing process. As contexts shift and knowledges change so too will the definition of feminist CYC. Nothing I discuss here is solid truth, it is all a negotiated reality that is constantly evolving.

Interested to learn more? Follow my journey here and on instagram @thefeministcyc.

Have an idea? Comment below!

• Feminist CYC ✌