The father absence-mother blame paradigm in child protection social work: an Italian feminist single case study

International research shows how gendered and androcentric practices in child protection social services increase the risk of harmful consequences for mothers and children. This paper discusses the results of a feminist single case study carried out in Italy, extracted from a wider research project on the experiences of single mothers in the field of child protection. Adopting the voice-centred relational method, an analysis was carried out of an in-depth interview with Flora, a single mother who has survived gender-based violence and has been an addressee of child protection social services. The results show the potential consequences of the father absence-mother blame paradigm coined by Strega et al. (2007) when applied to social work practice. The method of critically discussing a paradigm used by Krumer-Nevo (2016) in developing the poverty-aware paradigm provides insight into various ontological, epistemological and axiological facets. Flora’s account highlight how harmful the father absence-mother blame paradigm can be for those experiencing it, via several means: an unquestioned ideal of the patriarchal nuclear family, actions by social workers based on positivist, risk-focused approaches, and an exclusive focus on children. The conclusion emphasises the importance of including the expert knowledge of addressees to develop more supportive social work practices.