FEMINISM, GENDER AND SOCIAL WORK: advances, contradictions and refutations in professional qualification

The implementation of neoliberal policies by the Brazilian State since the 1990s has established an agenda for the destruction of working class rights with the "minimal state" logic and a cut in the financing of public policies. Conservative thought, strengthened by neoliberal ideology, has penetrated into all spheres of social life and strengthens social relations, individualism, fragmentation, intolerance, chauvinism, racism, homophobia and hatred among social classes. These changes also impacted, and directly, the professional formation in Social Work, demanding from the profession, a rigorous treatment theoretical-methodological, ethical-political and technical-operative in the face of the ongoing conservative offensive, dismantling of higher education and greater action of professional entities in the defense of public education and quality. Based on the understanding of feminism as a strategic element for the strengthening of training and professional practice, of a category composed mainly of women and that has as expressive demand, working women, this work aimed to analyze the advances, contradictions and rebuttals the discussion of gender and feminism in vocational training in Social Work. The locus of the research were four institutions of higher education of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, namely: Universidade Federal Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN), Universidade Potiguar (UNP) e Centro Universitário do Rio Grande do Norte (UNI-RN). We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight students and eight teachers from higher education institutions, totaling sixteen people interviewed. The research is based on the critical dialectic method based on the mixed approach, as well as bibliographical and documentary analysis based on the pedagogical projects and the curricular grades of the courses. In the analysis of the data, the technique of content analysis was used. As a result of the research, we consider that the discussion of gender and feminism is essential for Social Work and contributes significantly to the quality of professional training. The political articulation with the feminist movement and with the social movements, favor and qualify this discussion. However, the lightening and dismantling of higher education can directly interfere in the formative process, especially in private institutions, impairing the contribution of gender and feminism in the formation process. Finally, it is considered that the struggle for quality education, secular, socially referenced, and feminist is a challenge for Social Work in times of conservative thinking.