When helping others is an expression of conventional goodness, it stifles women's cognitive and emotional development and disables those they are trying to help. Drawing on Gilligan's theory of moral development, the author analyzes the dysfunctional aspects of helping and the paradox of conventional goodness. She argues that women persist in this behavior because they have developed a conceptual schema that habitually guides them in resolving moral dilemmas. Practitioners and educators need to explore these issues further, since the majority of social workers are women and hence have been socialized to equate "helping" with being "good."
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