Relational Injustices Among Women in Marginalized Positions in Denmark: A Feminist-Informed Contribution Towards a More Justice-Oriented Welfare System

In this article I focus on women in Denmark living in socially marginalized positions and their roles as caregivers, specifically as mothers of children placed in the care of child protection services (CPS). I unfold how the women may have lost or given up the right to care for their children but not the ability and need to care about them. In their experiences, however, these abilities and needs are largely ignored in their interactions with the social welfare system. I present the finding that this disregard of the women's motherhood intersects with economic, cultural and political injustices that essentially hinder the women in achieving the stability they ask for and the ability to care about and eventually also for their children. In the article, I draw on recent feminist-informed theories of care and relational injustices set forth by Nancy Fraser and Kathleen Lynch, among others. Overall, I argue that a feminist-informed approach to social work may contribute to a recognition of the women's positions as mothers and of the social injustices that may entail without that recognition. The findings presented are based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2024–25.