Opvoeden tot sociale verantwoordelijkheid : de verzoening van wetenschap, ethiek en sekse in het sociaal werk in Nederland rond de eeuwwisseling

Sociologists use to describe social work as a typical example of a immature or semi-profession. The emergence of social work in social history is part and parcel of 'forces of organized virtue', whilst in womenstudies early social work is usually considered as a consequence of the doctrine of separate spheres and the nineteenth century cult of domesticity.In this research into the articulation of social work as a feminine professional domain, critical observations are made about this three different ways of looking at the history of social work- It is argued that both functionalist and marxists concepts of professionalism do not offer very fruitful starting points for research, because of their presuming an opposition between altruism and selfinterest. Instead the present study of the history of social work explores the complex of social and scientific forces in the context of which social work developed around the turn of the century and examines the purport that altruism and selfinterest got in this context.The origin of social work is related to the growing scientific critique of precepts and habits of care in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, which cleared the road for a new public body for care and prevention. Following doctors and engineers who succeeded in mobilizing public support for the eradication of infectious diseases and the clearing of slums, social scientists attracted attention to the relationship between social well-being and the environment. With the help of certain sociological and philosophical notions concerning the origins of social inequality and the need for social regulation of society, social work pioneers defined a professional domain in which science, ethics and gender went well together. In their sociological vision, men and women, rich and poor, were the product of social conditions, whilst social conditions in their turn were the consequence of human intervention. The interplay between man and society and the changeableness of so