June 1997
To make it easier for the reader to find materials on topics of specific interest this bibliography has been divided into eight sections. In some cases it was difficult to decide which category was most appropriate for a given article or book. In those instances the material was included in the section that best reflected the content.
Each section starts with a brief introduction and then provides an annotated list of resources, arranged in alphabetic order, by author. Whenever possible, the section concludes with information about where to find further resources.
Attempts have been made to reflect the diversity presented in the literature on women with disabilities by including materials from diverse fields of study and the broad range of issues addressed in this literature. It has also been attempted to include the diversity among women and girls with disabilities presented by the type and severity of their disabilities, as well as other factors which create diversity in women's lives, such as race, class, and culture.
The goal of this annotated bibliography is to collect in one place an overview of the written materials that already exist in order to make these resources more accessible for people. Although this is not a comprehensive overview of everything that has been written about women with disabilities this should be a good starting point for people who are looking for materials in this area.
The article in Part I of this information package includes an overview of the literature and a discussion of some of the issues it raises.
TITLE: The multiple minority status of disabled women
AUTHOR: Barnartt, S. N.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
This article examines the situation of women with disabilities as a group with multiple minority status. The author draws upon the work of others who have attempted to draw parallels between the situation of women of color and women with disabilities, arguing that both of these groups can be considered doubly disadvantaged when compared to white, non-disabled women as well as to men of their own group. The author criticizes previous work in this area and clams she will attempt to remedy some of their deficiencies with her own study, which consists of a statistical comparison of three groups: two groups of disabled people and one group of non-disabled people. The author claims that the data presented in the article support the multiple minority status arguments but argues that women with disabilities are not a minority group, because they lack "groupness." Despite the author's fairly arrogant claims at the beginning of the article, her study does not add much to the previous analysis of the multiple minority status of women with disabilities.
TITLE: Disabled women in America: A statistical report drawn from census data
AUTHOR: Bowe, F.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1984
This 26-page report is based on data collected from the 1981 Current Population Survey of the Bureau of the Census and summarizes findings concerning women with disabilities. Although the primary focus is on the employment status of women with disabilities of working age (16-64 years old) who do not live in institutions, it also provides statistical accounts of various other aspects in the lives of this group of women such as education, marital status, and so on. The report compares women with disabilities to two groups of people in the same age range; men with disabilities and women without disabilities.
Some of the report's findings are that only 19.9% of women with disabilities have work. Men with disabilities are almost twice as likely to have work: 36% of them are employed. At the same time 59.1% of non-disabled women in the same age range are working. Women with disabilities who work full time only earn 56% of what men with disabilities who have full time jobs earn. The average woman with a disability is 51 years old, has a high school level of education, is unemployed, and her income from all sources was less than $3,500 in 1980. This statistical summary is not very thorough but shows clearly the grim economic realities of women with disabilities.
TITLE: Women and disability
AUTHOR: Boylan, E.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
Originally published as a kit for the International Year of Disabled Persons for The United Nations, the main purpose of this edited book is to provide information about the problems that women with disabilities face for not only survival, but for finding a place within their families and communities. The book covers such topics as prevention, education, rehabilitation, caregivers, aging women and disability, and some ways that women are "breaking out of the cocoon of disability."
TITLE: Women and disabilities: A national forum
AUTHOR: Boyle, G., Rioux, M., Ticoll, M., & Felske, A. W.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This article grew out of a three-day conference about women and disability, held in June 1988 in Ottawa, Canada, and describes the major issues covered during the conference. The conference discussed issues of oppression of women with mental retardation in areas such as education, employment, reproductive rights, violence against women, motherhood, participation in the women's movement, and inclusion in research and policy development. The authors criticize the exclusion of women with mental retardation from the women's movement and state that the struggle for rights in these areas is a struggle which should be shared by all women.
TITLE: Women and disability: The double handicap
AUTHORS: Deegan, M. J., & Brooks, N. A. (Eds.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
This book is the first major collection of scholarly writing about women who have disabilities and contains 11 chapters dealing with various aspects of their lives. The major factors that unify this collection are a central focus on the double minority status of women with disabilities, the lack of information available about their lives and experiences, and the need to change the conditions that perpetuate the structural inequality women with disabilities experience.
Two of the chapters, Chapter 2, by Fine and Asch, "Disabled Women: Sexism without the Pedestal," and Chapter 4, by Deegan, "Multiple Minority Groups: A Case Study of Physically Disabled Women," provide a conceptualization of women with disabilities that have had a significant impact on other people's thinking and writing about women with disabilities. In her chapter, Deegan points out the multiple discrimination against women with disabilities; as a woman and as a person with a disability. Deegan's discussion of the effects of the multiple minority status of women with disabilities is useful in examining structural discrimination in employment, education and other areas. Fine and Asch's conceptualization of disabled women as "roleless" has already gained much note in subsequent literature. The remaining sections focus on specific types of disabilities and their consequences for women or specific problem areas, such as mothering and self-help. Other issues covered are the economic effects of a multiple minority status and the negative consequences of present policies on the lives of women with disabilities.
The book is a beginning step in unraveling the interaction between more than one minority status being held concomitantly by an individual and a group. While the quality of the articles is not uniform, they all provide insights into the problems and experiences of these women and add immeasurably to the conceptual and theoretical understanding of the lives of women with physical disabilities. One shortcoming of the book is that it only deals with women who have physical disabilities. Another is that rather than examining class and race issues, it is dominated by white middle class views and values.
TITLE: Imprinting our image: An international anthology by women with disabilities
AUTHORS: Driedger, D., & Gray, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
The editors compiled articles from 17 countries by women with disabilities. They stress the importance of understanding disability not as an inherent tragedy but as a social problem created by a lack of sensitivity and awareness to the experiences of women with disabilities and to the physical, social, and psychological barriers that occur as a result of this insensitivity. The book is organized around its central principle that women with disabilities are citizens with the means to contribute to their societies. The book is divided into five sections. They include: Our Image in the Family, Our Image in the Community, Imprinting Our Image on the World, In Spite of the World, and Dealing with the World.
TITLE: Women with disabilities: Essays in psychology, culture and politics
AUTHORS: Fine, M., & Asch, A. (Eds.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
So far, this is the most comprehensive edited collection of scholarly writing about women with disabilities. Fine and Asch, the editors of this volume, have, for a number of years, been involved in examining what it means to be a women with a disability in today's society. Their early conceptualization of the problems facing women with disabilities has influenced and informed other people's thinking. Now these two women have collected the work of 22 writers and thinkers to explore the psychological, cultural and political dilemmas currently faced by approximately 18 or 19 million women with disabilities in America. The volume covers a wide range of issues, reviews the most recent thinking on this subject and raises provocative new areas for future exploration.
The 13 essays in the volume are loosely organized in three categories; "Bodies and Images," "Disabled Women in Relationships," and "Policy and Politics." In addition there is a lengthy introduction by Asch and Fine where they review past work (and neglect) on this subject and point toward future exploration. The editors also close the book with an "Epilogue: Research and Politics to Come." Like in all collections of essays, the quality is uneven. At the same time this is an important document about the lives of girls and women with disabilities in American society today. It is also notable that the editors have made attempts to cover broader issues than previous collections on women with disabilities. First, this volume covers a broader range of disabilities than many previous writings. An example of this the inclusion of women with developmental disabilities, a group that has traditionally been neglected in volumes on women with disabilities. Second, the volume deals with issues that often have been neglected such as disability and ethnicity; the moral dilemma between a reproductive rights and disability rights; and an analysis of the exclusion of women with disabilities from the women's movement. The volume also includes a discussion about girls with disabilities. This is a book that everyone interested in the lives and experiences of women with disabilities should read.
TITLE: Women and disability don't mix: Double discrimination and disabled women's rights
AUTHOR: Habib, L. A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1995
In this brief article with an international perspective, the author asserts the importance of understanding and addressing gender issues and how they impact on the experiences of women. She argues that this is important in order to develop strategies for establishing and enforcing the basic human rights of people with disabilities in order to fight double discrimination in such areas as family life, marriage, education, health care, and care for a disabled child.
TITLE: Women with disabilities: Two handicaps plus
AUTHOR: Hanna, W. J., & Rogovsky, E..
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
Through surveys, the authors sought to understand the experiences of women with disabilities. Comparing these women to disabled men, non disabled men, and non disabled women, they found that women with disabilities participate less in social relations, educational institutions, and the labor force than expected when compared to their non disabled/disabled/male/female counterparts. They cite this isolation as being attributed to the nurturance and the attractiveness norms of the American socio-cultural system. The authors address the issue of self-concept, stating that women with disabilities often have poor self concepts, and they link this poor self concept in a circular causation to participation and socio-cultural influences.
TITLE: On the situation of African American women with physical disabilities
AUTHORS: Hanna, W. J., & Rogovsky, E.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
This article examines the experiences of African American women who have physical disabilities. They claim that African American women have a higher instance of physical disability and that their socioeconomic situation is lower than their non-disabled counterparts. The authors use quantitative surveys as well as qualitative interviews to explore factors which seem likely to contribute to the experiences of African American women with disabilities. They conclude that these women experience multiple oppressions, specifically racism, sexism, and ableism. The authors offer as solutions to these inequalities cultural variations in services and taking into account the client's unique needs by offering culturally sensitive supports.
TITLE: Women, disability and society
AUTHOR: Hannaford, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1989
In this thoughtful article, Susan Hannaford examines the role of women with disabilities as being doubly disadvantaged; as women and as disabled. She also examines the traditional roles of women as mothers, wives, helpers and carers, and what implications it has for women with disabilities that they are seen as unable to fill these most traditional female roles. Susan Hannaford states that feminist theory, which has become accepted as a frame to understand women's lives and position in society, has not benefited women with disabilities; they have been left out of feminist analysis. As a result women with disabilities are "...relegated to no-woman's land where they are left merely to inhabit the empty space that the progress of women has left behind" (p. 12). She concludes by calling for a better understanding of the situation of women with disabilities.
TITLE: Feminism and disability
AUTHOR: Hillyer, B.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
Written out of a need in the feminist movement to include women with disabilities and a need in the disability rights movement to address the unique experiences of women, Feminism and Disability combines the personal, political, and intellectual aspects of feminist theory and disability theory. Hillyer discusses such issues as body awareness, community, nature and technology, and the ways in which cultural standards of language, independence, and even mother-blaming are constructed. She also challenges political movements which stress productivity and normalization in order to include more types of people and more aspects of the human condition.
TITLE: Does she boil eggs? Towards a feminist model of disability
AUTHOR: Lloyd, M.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
The author examines disability from the perspective of disabled women. She focuses on the social model of disability rather than a medical model and asserts that disability is another form of oppression experienced by women. She argues that disabled women have been excluded from both the women's movement, which is oriented toward non-disabled women, and from the disability rights movement, which is oriented toward disabled men. Using the history of black feminism, the author argues for a reframing of the analysis in which to explore the simultaneous experiences of gender and disability.
TITLE: Women and disability
AUTHOR: Lonsdale, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1990
Lonsdale explores how women with physical disabilities experience the double discrimination of being both a woman and a disabled person in society. Placing physical disability in a social and political context rather than an individual one, she uncovers how women with disabilities have been rendered invisible, how they see their self image and body image, how physical disability often leads to dependence, and how women experience a loss of civil liberties and how they face discrimination. Lonsdale also considers the ways in which these situations can change for women, specifically, how policy practices can change so that women can achieve greater independence. Chapters include subjects such as the social context of disability, invisible women, self image and sexuality, employment, financial consequences of disability, discrimination, and independence.
TITLE: Voices from the shadow: Women with disabilities speak out
AUTHOR: Matthews, G. F.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This book explores the lives of women with disabilities in Canada and is based on interviews with 45 women with disabilities. The author herself has a physical disability and the book is a mixture of her own autobiography and the interviews. The result is a very readable and interesting account of the lives of women with disabilities, some of whom live in institutions and others who live in the community.
The book is candid in its critique of the medical and rehabilitation professionals, institutions and the attitudinal and physical barriers in society. It explores the feelings of women with disabilities about themselves and their relationships with others. It points out that many doctors and social workers as well as society in general think that women with disabilities are asexual and therefore not in need of information on birth control or what is possible in terms of having children or a sex life. Other issues addressed are employment, education, housing, parenting, accessibility and social and governmental assistance.
The introduction to the book is written by Pat Israel and Cathy McPherson, "two feminists with disabilities" (as they call themselves). They discuss, amongst other things, the relations between the disability rights movement and the women's movement and criticize how un-accessible the women's movement has been for women with disabilities.
TITLE: The neurotic woman: The role of gender in psychiatric illness
AUTHOR: Miles, A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This is a British study on the influence of gender on mental illness. It is based on interviews with 65 women and 20 men who were referred to outpatient psychiatric treatment for a variety of neurotic-level disorders. The book provides an overview of the major theoretical approaches to mental illness and feminist application of these approaches. The author uses these theoretical approaches to interpret the interview material and focuses on issues such as social support, stigma, work within the home and outside the home, and how people responded to the treatment they are given. The study focuses on how these people experience and interpret their lives, their mental problems, and the treatment. Many of the chapters explore the differences or similarities between the experiences of men and women. The author describes many of the women as distressed and overburdened caretakers of family members who are ill or have disabilities, and sometimes links improvement in their psychological status to changes in their caretaking role.
TITLE: Feminism and disability
AUTHOR: Morris, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
The author discusses the absence of women with disabilities from feminist scholarship and feminist theory. Morris claims that a significant failure of feminism is that it fails to incorporate disabled women into its politics, theory, research, and methodology. She argues that feminist theory would benefit from the inclusion of the concerns and experiences of disabled women, and that feminist theory and feminist methodology have major contributions to make to the disability research. The author discusses her anger and frustration with feminism in two ways: first, that disability is generally invisible from feminism's mainstream agenda, and second, that when disability is a subject of research by feminists, the researchers objectify disabled people so that the research is alienated from their experiences rather than attempting to understand the experiences of disabled women.
TITLE: Personal and political: A feminist perspective on researching physical disability
AUTHOR: Morris, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
Morris asserts that feminist theory and methodology have largely ignored and alienated women with disabilities and the research conducted by disabled people. She argues the feminist theory needs to take up the challenge of applying their principles to the study of disability and to examine the lives of disabled women. In turn, Morris feels that disabled women and disability research in general has much to learn from feminist methodology; mainly the principle of making the personal political. In addition, Morris outlines the role she sees for nondisabled researchers interested in researching disability related issues. She views the role of the nondisabled researcher as an ally, and calls on nondisabled as well as disabled researchers to continue to study the ways in which the nondisabled society oppresses its members with disabilities. Lastly, she argues that disability research is of great importance in the general understanding of the perpetuation of inequalities in society.
TITLE: Pride against prejudice
AUTHOR: Morris, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
Morris, a disabled feminist and activist, provides a feminist analysis to the study of the experiences of women with disabilities. Basing her arguments on the feminist principle that the personal is political, Morris eloquently challenges such issues as prejudice, abortion, and the notion that people with disabilities lead lives that are not worth living. She further discusses the history of people with disabilities in institutions and under the Nazi regime. Morris also examines the meaning of disability in Western culture and the meanings of history of segregation, dependence, and an emerging independence of people with disabilities. Pride Against Prejudice is a commentary on political activism and rights, and stresses the need to fight back against the prejudice, stereotypes, and oppression of an abelist culture.
TITLE: Women and mental health: New directions for change
AUTHOR: Mowbray, C. T., Lanir, S., & Hulce, M. (Eds.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
This book is written by the Women's Task Force of the Department of Mental Health in the State of Michigan. The book examines sex differences in mental health problems and sexist treatment by mental health agencies. The focus of the book is twofold. First, "To present the most relevant, up-to-date data and factual evidence on women's mental health problems, causes, and treatment" (p. 2). Second, "To present recommended changes and alternatives for improving prevention and treatment of women's mental health problems" (p. 3).
The book outlines a feminist perspective which takes into account the specific and different needs of women and men and challenges the traditional view that typically defines the woman as "the patient" and "the problem." Instead, it is argued that what is commonly labelled "pathology" in women patients by state agencies is often women's desperate response to highly stressful situations like loss of financial support, physical abuse, and martial problems.
The materials in this book were originally published as a special double issue of the feminist quarterly, Women & Therapy (Volume 3, Numbers 3/4, Fall/Winter 1984). The book contains a wealth of information about women and mental health and should be of interest to anyone looking for materials about sexism in mental health practices.
TITLE: A feminist sociology of knowledge
AUTHOR: Smith, D. E.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: in press
In this book Dorothy Smith, one of the leading feminist theorists today, argues that conventional sociology perpetuates traditional patriarchal relations of power through ideological practices. She is especially concerned with the application of sociological ideology to the human service bureaucracy and the way institutions of mental health reconstruct women's lives.
TITLE: The myth of bodily perfection
AUTHOR: Stone, S. D.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1995
Grounding her arguments in social constructionism, the author examines the myth of bodily perfection in relation to those with disabilities. She argues that this myth plays an integral role in creating a category of people labeled disabled and of relegating them to the status of "other." Stone draws on the experiences of women to discuss the idea of appearance norms and claims that feminist critiques of these norms have virtually ignored the pressures on women who do not have full use of their bodies. Therefore, many women often try to hide their disability or pass for normal. She concludes by arguing that the myth of bodily perfection and appearance norms which deny the experiences of disabled women contribute to the denial of disability and therefore are oppressive. Stone calls for acknowledging disability as a means of honoring humanness.
TITLE: Women and mental health policy
AUTHOR: Walker, L. E. (Ed.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1984
This volume reviews the major issues for women in mental health and links them to policy decisions and directions. The editor points out that although women use mental health services disproportionately, mental health research focusing on issues related to women is often hard to get funded and disseminated. The reason for this lack of support for women's studies within mental health is, according to the editor, that this research often challenges current male-dominated practices. This volume is no exception and many of the chapters deal with topics which are not popular with the larger male-dominated culture nor the mental health subculture.
The first chapter describes the emergence of a feminist perspective in mental health research and public policy. The following chapters cover a wide variety of topics such as the influence of female psychologists on policy making; women and psychotherapy research; the inaccessibility of the mental health system for low-income minority women; lesbian women and mental health policy; violence against women; the problem of sexual intimacy between female-clients and male-therapists; feminist therapy; and many more. This volume contains a wealth of information about women and mental health and is a good starting point for anyone interested in this topic.
TITLE: Madwives: Schizophrenic women in the 1950s
AUTHOR: Warren, C. A. B.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
This is a study of the relationship between mental illness and the gender roles of married women in the fifties, and how gender roles influenced the responses to, and experience of mental illness. The data Carol Warren uses was collected in the 1950s in a study of married women who were admitted to a mental hospital. The focus of the original study was on how women's crises were modified during hospitalization, but Warren uses the same data to examine how the gender roles of the fifties shaped the experiences of these same women. Warren's analysis shows how the problems these women experienced were shaped by their gender roles and that gender roles were an important factor in the hospitalization of these housewives. A very interesting study.
TITLE: The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability
AUTHOR: Wendell, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1996
In The rejected body, Susan Wendell, a woman with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, draws parallels between her own experiences with illness to feminist theory and disability studies. She argues (as many others have), that feminist theory has neglected to incorporate the perspectives and experiences of women with disabilities, and that these perspectives must be included in future discussions of feminist ethics, the body, and the social critique of the medical model. Wendell also examines how cultural attitudes about the body contribute to disability oppression and society's unwillingness to accept different types of bodies.
Off Our Backs
Off Our Backs, Inc.
The May 1981 issue of the women's news journal Off Our Backs was a special issue on women with disabilities. This was, to the best of my knowledge, the first time a journal devoted an issue to this theme. Most of the articles are first-person accounts about having a disability written by lesbian women with disabilities and their friends and lovers. The issue also contains interviews with women who have disabilities and issue oriented articles. One of the articles deals with health issues for women with mental retardation and is reviewed in the health section of this bibliography.
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare
This issue was devoted to the theme "Women with disabilities: The double handicap." Among the articles published in this issue was "Disabled women: Sexism without the pedestal," written by Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch. This article is still regarded as one of the best introduction to the issues faced by women with disabilities.
Journal of Visual Impairments and Blindness
American Foundation for the Blind
This 100 page special issue is devoted to the theme "Being blind, being a woman." It contains a number of articles addressing diverse issues in the lives of visually impaired and blind women such as early socialization, self-esteem, role models, setting life goals, sexuality, and an article that examines the influence of gender in the autobiographies of blind women and men. The issue also contains a special 20-page insert on education and career opportunities for blind and visually impaired women. Additionally there are short reports, resource reviews, and reviews of over 30 autobiographies and biographies of blind and visually impaired women. With just 4 exceptions all of the contributors to this issue are themselves blind or visually impaired women.
Resources for Feminist Research
The Ontario Institute
This is a 110 page collection of articles, essays, poetry, book reviews and lists of resources and references around the theme "Women and Disability." Most of the articles are first-person accounts from women who have disabilities and deal with these women's experiences of poverty, discrimination, cultural isolation, self-image, parenting, relationships, powerlessness, and so on. There is no serious attempt in any of these articles to theorize around women with disabilities but the issue contains a wealth of information about where to find resources about women with disabilities. The issue focuses almost solely on women who have physical disabilities.
Disability Studies Quarterly
Suffolk University
This 38 page issue is devoted to "Women, Disability, and Gender-Related Issues," and focuses mostly on women with physical disabilities. Except for a 1 1/2 page article by Adrienne Asch and Michelle Fine "Women and Disability: Setting the Agenda," this issue does not contain articles. Instead it lists various resources and references like book reviews; short reports from recent conferences on women and disability; describes briefly current research projects; and reviews films about women with disabilities and other women. This issue is an excellent source of information and should be of interest to anyone looking for resources about women with disabilities.
Sinister Wisdom
Sinister Wisdom
This is a 140 page collection of poetry, essays, drawings, pictures, and articles which all focus on disability. Most of the pieces are first-person accounts by lesbians who have disabilities. The women in this issue represent a variety of viewpoints and address a wide range of disability issues from a personal and a political point of view. The women who contributed to this volume have a range of disabilities such as dyslexia, severe allergies, physical disabilities, and blindness, as well as representing a range of racial, cultural, and economic diversity.
Resources of interest to lesbians with disabilities are listed in the back of the collections, these include books, periodicals, organizations, both art organizations and disability organizations.
Journal of Practical Approaches to Developmental Handicap
Rehabilitation Studies, 4th floor
This journal is preparing a special issue on "Women and Disability." This issue was published in 1990 as Volume 14, No. 2.
TITLE: Through a woman's I: An annotated bibliography of American women's autobiographical writings, 1946-1976
AUTHOR: Addis, P. K.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This annotated bibliography of autobiographical writings by American women contains a number of autobiographies by women with disabilities or chronic illness.
TITLE: Lives without, lives within: Autobiographies of blind women and men
AUTHOR: Asch, A., & Sacks, L. H.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This article examines the autobiographies of 25 people; 15 women and 10 men, who all are blind or visually impaired. The article is written from a gender perspective and explores whether blindness or visual impairment influences the lives of women and men differently. The article describes the ideal roles women and men are expected to play and discusses how the authors of the autobiographies fill these roles. They examine the impact of gender, as well as the impact of blindness in the lives of these people and compare their accounts of their lives to autobiographies of non-disabled women and men.
TITLE: Know me as I am
AUTHOR: Atkinson, D., & Williams, F.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1990
This book is an anthology of poetry, art, and prose by people with learning difficulties. The editors have collected "life stories" from numerous people in such topics as memories, relationships, daily life, a sense of self, struggle and self-determination, oppression, creativity, imagination and fantasy, and transitions. The book concludes with three life stories and an exploration of the key themes of identity, personal struggle, and relationships. The editors also include implications for research and a discussion of their roles as editors.
TITLE: The social meaning of mental retardation: Two life stories
AUTHOR: Bogdan, R., & Taylor, S. J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
This book presents the life histories of two people, a woman and a man, who both have been labelled mentally retarded," and who are both former inmates of institutions for people with mental retardation. This is one of the few books that presents the life and experiences of a woman with mental retardation in her own words. Originally published in 1982, this updated edition includes a postscript discussing changes in the field of mental retardation and in our society since the original printing.
This is an unusual book in the field of mental retardation for at least two reasons. First, it presents the lives and experiences of people labelled mentally retarded as they themselves view and understand them. People labeled mentally retarded have traditionally not been treated as legitimate informants or seen as having important insights to offer about their own situation. Second, instead of talking about the reality of the concept of mental retardation the authors ask: Is mental retardation real? What is mental retardation? What does mental retardation mean in our society? Although the authors do not use a gender perspective in their analysis of the lives of people with disabilities this book gives an important insight into the life of a woman with mental retardation.
TITLE: Winnie: "My life in the institution"
AUTHOR: Bolnick, J. P.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
This is the life story of Winnie Sprockett, who was admitted to a state institution for people with mental retardation at the age of six. Winnie's story is written by her friend, journalist Jamie Pastor Bolnick. The story is based on Winnie's autobiography which she wrote to prove to her brother-in-law and the world that she was not retarded and she desperately wanted her autobiography to be published. Jamie decided to help Winnie tell her story and Winnie's short written account of her life is supplemented by hundreds of hours of interviews the author conducted with Winnie. Winnie's story is told with her own words and gives us a rare insight into the life inside institutions as it is experienced by the people who live there.
TITLE: With the power of each breath: A disabled women's anthology
AUTHORS: Browne, S. E., Connors, D., & Stern, N. (Eds.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
The quality of writing of this collection of essays, poetry, interviews, and first-person accounts is uneven and the editors' articulate and informative introductions sometimes outshine the collected pieces. All the women who contribute to the book have a disability. Most of the book consists of first person accounts of being a female and having a disability, but a few conceptual pieces are also included. The stated purpose of the book is to "...bridge the gap that separates women with disabilities from one another and from the non-disabled world" (p. 10) and the book reflects these women's resistance against the silencing of women with disabilities. The editors set out with a strong political commitment to produce an anthology representative of all women with disabilities. Although that proved to be impossible the book addresses a broad spectrum of disability issues and the contributors cross the lines of race, age, class, sexual orientation, geographical location, and type of disabilities. The book also includes interviews with women who are labeled mentally retarded, a group which often has been excluded in the literature on women with disabilities. This book is born out of a group of women with disabilities who also are feminists and reflects their experiences of discrimination because of their disabilities in addition to the traditional sexism. The majority of the pieces in this book are angry and speak out with bitterness of the isolation, despair, and powerlessness women with disabilities face in their lives. Some of the pieces are both inspiring and very moving.
TITLE: Images of ourselves: Women with disabilities talking
AUTHOR: Campling, J. (Ed.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1981
This is an anthology of 23 women writing short personal pieces about their lives. All the contributors have disabilities and span the years from adolescence to old age. The editor claims they come from a wide variety of backgrounds and from all over the country (Britain). But in fact most of the women seem to be from white middle class background and have higher than average education. The editor does not account for the women's racial background. All the women have physical disabilities. It is notable that many of the women were not born with a disability but acquired the disability later in life.
The editor introduces each contributor with a brief summary of the writer's background, age, and disability. The women write about their personal feelings and how they cope with their disabilities, emotionally and economically. They also reflect on how their roles in society and relationships with other people are affected by the disability.
TITLE: A shared presentation: Two disabled women on video
AUTHORS: Corbett, J., Jones, E., & Ralph, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
In this article, the authors share their experiences about making a video in which disabled women present their lives and experiences as they wish to have them portrayed. They hope that this video will be seen as "emancipatory research" in which disabled and non disabled women work together. Included in this article is a discussion of the representation of disability on British television, specifically focusing on negative and positive images and charities.
TITLE: Voices from the asylum
AUTHOR: Glenn, M. (Ed.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1974
This is a book about what goes on in mental hospitals and is written by people who have first hand knowledge of these institutions. It is primarily written by "patients" (as the editor calls them), but also by attendants, doctors, and others. The editor states that most people who live in mental institutions come from society's oppressed groups; working people, poor people, cultural minorities, and women. He argues that the ruling class first creates conditions which drive people "crazy" and then creates institutions where they are locked up and provided with "treatment" which is often worse than their original problem. Part II, which is the largest part of the book, consists of first-person accounts where people tell of their experiences in mental hospitals. Almost all of the contributors to this section are women. The editor says that women were the ones who responded the most to his call for personal accounts and manuscripts, and argues that, "This is no accident. Women have been especially oppressed by psychotherapy" (p. 51). Many of the women who contribute to this book describe the relationship between their gender-role and their mental problems.
TITLE: Frida: A biography of Frida Kahlo
AUTHOR: Herrera, H.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
Women with disabilities are rarely celebrated for their lives and contributions in the general literature. The biography of the legendary Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, is a rare exemption. This extensive account of Frida's life and art describes her childhood in Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution; her stormy marriage to muralist Diego Rivera; her political activities; and her absorption in Mexican culture and folklore.
The book also describes Frida's disability which she acquired at the age of eighteen, when a bus she was riding on was rammed by a streetcar in Mexico City. In this accident Frida's spine was fractured, her pelvis crushed, and one foot broken. From that day, till her death twenty-nine years later, Frida lived with physical impairments which caused her considerable pain, constant threat of illness, and inability to have children.
The majority of Frida's paintings are self-portraits, many of which center around her pain and struggle with her disability. Painting herself bleeding, weeping, and cracked open, she transforms her pain into art with remarkable frankness tempered by humor and strength. Despite Frida's focus on her disability in her self-portraits, her autobiography in paint does not reflect self-pity, but a peculiar intensity and strength.
Frida died at the age of forty seven in 1954 and it was not till two decades after her death, that she became internationally known as a painter. Since the 1970s, her paintings have received increasing amount of attention and admiration. Today, Frida is celebrated as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The book is generously illustrated with 127 pictures of Frida's life and her powerful paintings, 35 of these illustrations are in color. A very powerful book.
TITLE: That time of year: A chronicle of life in a nursing home
AUTHOR: Horner, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1982
This book is a chronicle of Jocey Horner's life in a nursing home. Jocey Horner, a writer and a retired English professor, entered a nursing home in 1974 after becoming disabled by arthritis and a fall where she broke a number of bones. She lived in the nursing home for three years and kept a journal of her experiences. The book provides a very powerful description of these last three years of this one woman's life as well as giving insights into the lives of people who live in nursing homes in general.
TITLE: What happened to you? Writings by disabled women
AUTHOR: Keith, L. (Ed.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1996
Lois Keith compiled collections of fiction, essays, and poetry by disabled women in her new book, What happened to you? Her goal is to give women with disabilities a space to express their views on such topics as abuse, equality, sexuality, prejudice, and legislation dealing with disability issues. These narratives construct disability as a cultural and political issue, not only as a personal one.
TITLE: Mustn't grumble: Writings by disabled women
AUTHOR: Keith, L.. (Ed.).
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
This edited book, compiled by a disabled woman, presents writings by other women who have a range of physical disabilities. The short stories and poems included in this book range in topic from issues of accessibility to abuse to equality. Disability is framed by these narratives as a social, cultural, and political issue, not only as a personal one. This is an excellent account of disability issues from a woman's perspective. It is powerful, moving, and educating for all readers.
TITLE: Able lives: Women's experiences of paralysis
AUTHOR: Morris, J. (Ed.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1989
This is a collection of stories and essays about being female and having a disability. The book grew out of a survey conducted by the Spinal Injuries Association in Great Britain and presents stories by women of all ages describing their lives after becoming disabled. The stories are very frank and straightforward and deal with diverse issues such as self-esteem, sex, incontinence, motherhood, and many more.
TITLE: The lives of women with mental retardation: A multiple minority perspective
AUTHOR: Olson, D. L.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
This dissertation by Deborah Olson explores the lives of women labeled mentally retarded. She argues that this label, along with their gender has placed these women in the disadvantageous position of being in a multiple minority group. Through in depth interviews with five women labeled mentally retarded, Olson seeks to understand how they see themselves as women with mental retardation and how they interact with people who have impact on their lives. The major finding from his work is that women with a label of mental retardation are more prepared to handle disability discrimination than gender discrimination and that the women's movement has not provided them with the awareness of choices it has provided for other women who do not have cognitive disabilities.
TITLE: The me in the mirror
AUTHOR: Panzarino, C.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
Written by writer, disability activist, and artist Connie Panzarino, The Me in the Mirror is an autobiography of the life of this amazing woman. Born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III, a rare disease, Panzarino tells the story of her life as a disabled woman. She describes her life as one of struggles and triumphs, and tells the stories of her relationships with her family, friends, lovers, her turn to lesbianism, and of her years of pioneering work in the disability rights movement. This book is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the experiences of women with physical disabilities.
TITLE: Mad women
AUTHOR: Porter, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
This chapter on "mad women" is in a book that explores the lives of "mad people" as they themselves recorded them. Much of the history of madness has focused on medicine or psychiatry. This book is different in that it attempts to explore the thoughts and feelings of mad people from earlier centuries and is based on their autobiographical writings. In the chapter on mad women the author reflects upon autobiographical writings by women and much of the chapter centers around madness and women's gender roles. The author is critical of traditional psychiatry and points out, among other things, that liberationalist psychiatry does not seem to have had a desire to free women from traditional gender roles.
TITLE: Disabled, female and proud! Ten stories of women with disabilities
AUTHOR: Rousso, H.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This book is written by Harilyn Rousso, a woman with a disability, and illustrated with photographs by Flo Fox, a visually-impaired photographer. The book describes the lives of ten contemporary women with disabilities who offer their experiences and ideas about work, relationships, pregnancy, motherhood, life-styles, and how they got to where they are now. Each woman discusses the prejudice, barriers and difficulties she faced and offers advice to the reader about how to overcome these. The jobs these women hold span a variety of fields, some of them work in the creative arts; others in mathematics and science; some work in business; and others in human services. The ten women have various disabilities, and are of diverse age, race, class, and language backgrounds.
The book grew out of the work of Harilyn Rousso, a social worker and therapist, who created a big-sister project for women and girls with disabilities in New York City to address the lack of role models in the media and the community, for young women with disabilities. The book is intended to serve as a much needed resource to counteract the isolation so many women with disabilities experience in their struggles with work and life. It is also intended to provide positive role models for women and girls with disabilities.
TITLE: The handicapped speak out
AUTHOR: Roth, W.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1981
This book is based on interviews with thirteen people who all have disabilities, three children and ten adults. Seven of the people in the book are girls or women. In the introduction to the book the author says that the "...intent of the book is a learning, an active listening, a recognition of handicapped people themselves" (p. x). Each of the book's thirteen chapters presents the story of one individual. The chapters start with the authors introduction to the person but the main text of the chapter consists of the person's own account of his or her life presented as answers to the author's questions. The stories describe the everyday struggles, joys, hopes, dreams, anger, and frustrations around living in a society that acts with discomfort in the presence of people it defines as different. Some of the women describe candidly their experiences of being a female and having a disability. The women in this book all have a physical disability, which they acquired at different points in their lives, some were born with their disabilities while others acquired it as children or as adults. The women present a variation in terms of their economic background and the book includes women of cultural and racial minorities. Most of the chapters have pictures of the person.
TITLE: Lisa H.: The true story of an extraordinary and courageous woman
AUTHOR: Severo, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
This is a true story of a young woman, Lisa H., who has neurofibromatosis, better known as "Elephant Man's disease." Lisa's disorder attacked her face with unusual fury, literally burying her face with tumors. The book describes Lisa's life till the age of twenty-one, when she underwent a radical plastic surgery to correct her facial deformities. While this is one of a very few descriptions of the lives of people with neurofibromatosis, this book is not the most positive portrayal of people dealing with this disorder. The book is very focused on Lisa's deformities and especially the medical and surgical procedures she went through in the course of her life. The author seems almost obsessed with the last radical surgery Lisa underwent and devotes long sections of the book to a gruesome and detailed description of the bloody eight hour surgery.
The author, Richard Severo, is a reporter who first intended to write only one article about Lisa's surgery, but ended up writing a book about her. Severo undoubtedly intends to be helpful to Lisa and other people with disabilities who confront social discrimination. But he does not manage to go beyond the very stereotyping he is hoping to expose and the book is more like a magazine article which calls for pity rather than respect for Lisa and outrage because of the discrimination she experiences.
TITLE: Roxene
AUTHOR: Stephenson, W.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This is a story about Roxene, a Canadian girl with mental retardation of native Indian origin. It is a true story of Roxene's life which describes her childhood and her teenage years. Most of the book focuses on Roxene's relationship with Margaret vanBiert, who "adopts" Roxene and becomes her friend, advocate, and legal guardian. Roxene is not very good with spoken words and her story is mostly told in vanBiert's words with additions based on the author's observations. We learn about Roxene's childhood with her family and how she, at the age of eight, ended up as a ward of the courts and was moved to a group home far away from her family who lived on an Indian reserve. The description of the friendship between Roxene and Margaret is the best part of this story.
TITLE: Why can't Sharon Kowalski come home?
AUTHOR: Thompson, K. & Andrezejewski, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This is a book about a lesbian couple, Karen Thompson and Sharon Kowalski, who had lived together for a few years when Sharon was seriously injured in a car crash when her car was struck by a drunk driver. Sharon, then 27, suffered severe brain injury leaving her unable to move and communicate in traditional ways. The book describes the long period of rehabilitation where Karen played an important part in Sharon's recovery. It also tells us how Karen's hope of bringing Sharon back to their home ended in a bitter struggle with Sharon's parents. Much of the book centers around the legal battle between Sharon's parents and Karen, which resulted in a court ruling where Sharon's father was made her legal guardian and forbade Karen visitation rights. The book also describes Karen's continuing struggle to bring Sharon home and how this struggle transformed Karen into an activist and made her aware of how sexism, handicapism, homophobia, and other issues of oppression are related. This very powerful and chilling book is written by Karen Thompson, Sharon's lover, and Judy Andrzejewski, a feminist educator and activist, who supported Karen through this ordeal and served as her advisor in the struggle. An appendix to the book addresses the legal measures that can be taken by gay, lesbian or unmarried adults who wish to authorize lovers or friends to make medical decisions on their behalf if they become incapacitated. The appendix also includes forms offering guidelines as to what steps can be taken to ensure, ahead of time, that people's wishes will be respected.
TITLE: Somebody, somewhere: Breaking free from the world of autism
AUTHOR: Williams, D.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
This autobiography by Donna Williams poignantly and defiantly illustrates her life and struggle with autism. She powerfully articulates her "awakening to the world" and how she fought for others to do the same. She presents her perspective of autism and reminds the readers that it is crucial that they seek to understand her perspective and the perspectives of others with autism rather that imposing their own notions onto someone else. She asserts that she has taken control of her autism, that it does not control her.
TITLE: No apologies
AUTHOR: Wry Crips
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
This 28-minute video is by Wry Crips Disabled Women's Theater, which is a comedy troupe of women who are at the forefront of the disability culture movement in the San Francisco Bay area. It is comprised of disabled and able bodied women of diverse racial, social, and class background. Wry Crips uses humor as a form of resistance. Their performances, comprised of poetry, readings, signing, performing skits, and reading narratives, all resist either medical paradigms, social stereotypes, economic oppression, or individualist assumptions regarding disability issues. The women of Wry Crips embrace disability, seeing beauty and acceptance where able bodied people only see difference and abnormality.
Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness
American Foundation for the Blind
This special issue is devoted to the theme "Being blind, being a woman," and contains, among other things, a review of over thirty autobiographies and biographies of blind and visually impaired women.
TITLE: Smashing icons: Disabled women and the disability and women's movement
AUTHOR: Blackwell-Stratton, M, Breslin, M., Mayerson, A.B., & Bailey, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This chapter does not solely focus on education but it includes a fairly long section describing the historical struggle for the right for education for women in general and relates it to the lack of educational opportunities for women with disabilities today.
TITLE: Female and disabled: Challenged women in education
AUTHOR: Davis, M., & Marshall, C.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
This article describes the challenges women with disabilities face in higher education and grew out of a workshop designed to enable participants to discuss the needs women with disabilities have in higher education. The article addresses the issues and weaves in the experiences of a panel of women with disabilities who were present at the workshop. The authors describe their difficulties in finding women with disabilities representing a diversity in careers, the reason being that the vast majority of women with disabilities are clustered into two fields: rehabilitation counseling and special education. Only few seem to manage to break free from the expectation that women with disabilities should "choose" a career where they work with people with disabilities. The article reports that research indicates that one out of every six women with disabilities has less than eight years of formal education, compared to one out of every twenty-eight non-disabled women. Furthermore, women with disabilities are only half as likely as non-disabled women to have any college education. The authors conclude by stating that while there has been significant progress in enabling children with disabilities to receive public education they question whether the progress has been made in enabling women with disabilities to receive an appropriate higher education.
TITLE: Lessons from life: Personal and parental perspectives on school, childhood, and disability
AUTHOR: Ferguson, P. M., & Asch, A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1989
This chapter draws upon personal narratives of people with disabilities and their parents as well as the authors' personal experiences. One of the authors, Adrienne Asch, is blind; the other, Philip M. Ferguson, is a father of a young man with a disability. Weaving together people's personal accounts of having a disability and their own experiences the authors discuss various issues that have to do with schooling and disability. Those who are interested in learning about how girls with disabilities experience schools should find Adrienne Asch's descriptions of her school years an interesting reading.
TITLE: The disabled women's education project: Report of survey results
AUTHOR: Disability Rights, Education, and Defense Fund
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This reports the results of a survey of 8,000 people with disabilities around educational issues. The survey found, among other things, that girls with physical disabilities were more likely than boys with physical disabilities to be placed in segregated special schools. The authors suggest that these differences stem from the assumption that males must support themselves and therefore need a better education. The survey also suggests that women with disabilities tend to receive counseling that channels them into lower paying jobs rather than highly paid, high status professions.
TITLE: The influence of sexism on education of handicapped children
AUTHORS: Gillespie, P., & Fink, A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1974
The authors of this article suggest that sex-role stereotyping is especially pervasive for children who have mental disabilities and behavioral problems. These children tend to be taught traditional sex-role modes of behavior because that will supposedly enable them to better adjust to society. The authors also claim that schoolbooks for children with disabilities tend to include stories and illustrations that are deliberately sex-role stereotypical in order to foster this adjustment.
TITLE: Breaking tradition: Planning and organizing a conference on education and employment opportunities
AUTHOR: Jones, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This article describes how diverse groups worked together to stage an unprecedented conference focusing on education, employment, and career-planning needs of blind and visually impaired women. This was an all-day conference held in New York, November 6, 1982. The title of the conference was "Breaking tradition: Education and career opportunities for blind and visually impaired women."
TITLE: What happens after school? A study of disabled women and education
AUTHORS: O'Toole, C., & Weeks, C.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1978
Through interviews with six women the authors explore the experiences women with disabilities have had of education and employment. This includes early experiences of school and family, high school years, college, and work after school. Included are suggestions for educators and parents, and a detailed resource list on legal rights of people with disabilities.
TITLE: The expansion of educational opportunities
AUTHOR: Roberts, F. K.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1983
This article reviews some of the attitudes and realities that create barriers and affect decisions about the education of visually impaired women. The author claims that stereotyped attitudes toward women and toward disabled people place women with visual impairments in double jeopardy with regard to education and career choices. The article also reviews counseling resources and discussed sexist attitudes by school and career counselors. Finally the article reviews educational opportunities for visually impaired women who want to pursue higher education.
TITLE: Disabled women in the social structure
AUTHOR: Altman, B.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
This article by Barbara Altman is also published in Browne, Connors, & Stern (1985). With the power of each breath: A disabled women's anthology, in a slightly different version.
TITLE: Labor marked discrimination against women with disabilities
AUTHOR: Baldwin, M., & Johnson, W. G.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1995
The authors examine through quantitative research the extend of wage discrimination and the employment effects of wage discrimination against women with disabilities. None of these women had severe disabilities which are usually subject to high levels of prejudice. The authors found that the wage differentials attributed to disability discrimination were relatively small, perhaps because the women in the study had disabilities which were subject to little prejudice. However, they point out that the total burden of discrimination is large because these employees also experience gender discrimination. Despite this, the authors do not show that gender related discrimination is worse for women who have a disability.
TITLE: Across borders: Women with disabilities working together
AUTHOR: Driedger, D., Feika, I., & Batres, E. G. (Eds).
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1996
This edited book with an international perspective highlights the experiences of women with disabilities working together. Each chapter is written by disabled women leaders and explore how women with primarily physical disabilities join together to demand participation in society, and document their experiences of working together and of forming disabled women's self help groups. Across Borders begins with a description of the growth of the disability movement worldwide and discusses the issues facing women with disabilities in the areas of employment, education, attitudes, and violence. The essays are grouped by region, and also include poetry and photographs.
TITLE: Demographic analysis related to successful job retention for competitively employed persons who are mentally retarded
AUTHORS: Hill, J. W., Hill, M., Wehman, P., Banks, P. D., Pendleton, P., & Britt, C.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
This is a long term study of 155 people with mental retardation age 16-66, who were placed in various competitive jobs by one supported employment program. The study focuses on the demographic characteristics of these people and their families and relates those to a successful vocational outcome defined as "...retention in employment six months after the date of first placement" (p. 69). Among the findings were that the majority of people being placed through the program were males, or 66%, while females represented only 34% of those who received jobs through the program. The study also reports that males were more likely to reach the successful retention rate of 6 months, or 70%, compared to 55% of the females. The authors discuss possible reasons for this gender inequality. Although this study does not focus solely on the disadvantaged employment status of women with mental retardation it is a significant contribution because it is perhaps the only study that has examined gender differences in employment of people with mental retardation.
TITLE: Toward a model of factors influencing the hiring of women with a history of breast cancer
AUTHORS: Kutner, N. G., & Gray, H. L.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
TITLE: Benefits for the disabled: How beneficial for women?
AUTHOR: Kutza, E. A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
This chapter examines the impact of current U.S. disability policy on women with disabilities. The author examines some of the major programs designed to assist people with disabilities, such as disability insurance, supplemental security income, workers' compensation and vocational rehabilitation. She argues that because of the relationship of these programs to labor market participation, these programs disadvantage women. Not only do women receive fewer benefits than men, they also receive lower benefits. The author concludes that there is an urgent need for reassessment of the impact of current disability policy on women with disabilities because current disability programs do not protect women with disabilities from economic threats associated with disability.
TITLE: Disabled women and public policies for income support
AUTHOR: Mudrick, N. A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
In this chapter Nancy Mudrick examines the influence of income support programs on the lives of women with disabilities. She argues that women with disabilities are frequently poor as a result of their double disadvantage. First, women with disabilities are, similar to all other women, disadvantaged with respect to wages and employment. Second, they face additional difficulties as persons with disabilities. Mudrick demonstrates that income support is a crucial component of the very meager incomes women with disabilities depend upon. Despite the crucial importance of public income support for the livelihood of women with disabilities, benefits are usually both less accessible and smaller for women with disabilities than for men with disabilities.
Mudrick discusses the reasons for this unequal distribution of benefits between men and women with disabilities. She suggests that part of this difference may be a result of the poor fit between women's work patterns and the design of the programs, and part of the problem is rooted in societal attitudes toward women's economic roles and women's family roles, as well as societal attitudes toward women and men with disabilities.
TITLE: America's disability policy: Another double standard?
AUTHOR: Quinn, P.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
Written from a social work perspective, the author states that disability policy does not take gender into account, nor does it acknowledge society's view as gender and disability doubling a woman's dependence. Quinn argues that social workers need to be prepared to support women with disabilities to obtain their services and benefits. Furthermore, she reviews some economic and social effects of disability policy and concludes with a set of questions which can be used by social workers in order to more successfully provide services to their female clients who have disabilities.
TITLE: Region V study of access, services and benefits from vocational rehabilitation 1972 to 1984: A gender perspective
AUTHORS: Region V Research Study Group
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
This is a report from a three year research project. The focus of the study was equity in the delivery of rehabilitation services to men and women. The purpose was to determine whether there were systematic gender differences along input, program, and output dimensions in the state vocational rehabilitation programs in Region V over a 13 year period; 1972-1984. Data for the study were drawn from data files that are submitted annually by each state agency to the Rehabilitation Services Administration. The results indicate a serious problem of inequity in the impacts of the vocational rehabilitation program on men and women with disabilities. The research clearly demonstrated that women did not acquire financial resources and occupational success at the conclusion of rehabilitation comparable to those achieved by men.
The report raises very direct issues regarding the current situation and makes some suggestions about change in policy, procedure, and practices in rehabilitation programs that can address the inequalities in access, services and outcomes for men and women with disabilities. This report should be of interest to people working within rehabilitation services as well as the people who use these services. Those interested in combining gender and disability issues would also find this an interesting study. The main problem with the report is that it uses technical language and is not very readable.
The January/February/March 1989 issue of the Journal of Rehabilitation has an article which also reports on findings of this study. The article covers similar issues as the report. The authors are Menz, Hansen, Smith, Brown, Ford, & McCrowey and the title is "Gender equity in access, services and benefits from vocational rehabilitation."
TITLE: Women, work, and disability: Opportunities and challenges
AUTHOR: Russo, N. F., & Jansen, M. A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This chapter examines the employment of women with disabilities in the context of the changes in women's labor force participation in general. The past few decades have seen a revolutionary increase in women's participation in the paid labor force, especially noticeable has been the increased number of working mothers, and this has significantly influenced the national employment policy. The authors argue that women with disabilities have not been a part of the women's employment revolution and that employment policies still assume that working women are able-bodied. Very little attention has been devoted to the disadvantaged employment status of women with disabilities. While men with disabilities have serious employment problems, women with disabilities are significantly worse off. For example, compared to men, women with disabilities are less likely to receive quality training for competitive employment. The authors also demonstrate how the economy in general, and the specialized disability services in particular, restrict the employment opportunities and lives of women with disabilities. The chapter also addresses opportunities and challenges for research, education, and rehabilitation strategies designed to change the situation.
TITLE: Women and work: Implications for mental health
AUTHOR: Sales, E., & Frieze, I. H.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1984
One of the most noted social trends in recent decades is the dramatic increase in women's labor force participation. This chapter examines what implications this may have for women's mental health. Because women have been heavy users of mental health services some authors have suggested that women's increased labor force participation, especially mothers with young children, might increase stress and result in more mental health problems. Others have suggested that because work is central to adult adjustment and a major source of satisfaction, women's increased labor force participation should have the opposite effect; it should improve their mental health. After a thorough review of the literature on the topic the authors conclude that the evidence regarding the mental health consequences of work for women shows many positive relationships while few negative effects have been found. They state that work is clearly a source of self-esteem and satisfaction for most women. They also point out that the group of women who are most at risk of having mental health problems are non-white, nonmarried, nonemployed women, and women who lived in social isolation with limited roles. This suggests that the women who may most need mental health services may be those not in the work arena, especially women who are isolated or homebound because of young children or limited social roles.
TITLE: Research by/for/with women with disabilities
AUTHOR: Wight-Felske, A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1990
The Roeher Institute is a Canadian based advocacy institution for people with cognitive disabilities. Their aims include community based living, jobs, and support, and providing information about issues concerning disability rights. This specific publication has been written to raise the awareness of researchers to the issue of disability and to give a voice to women with disabilities. Specifically, it outlines the ways in which women with disabilities have been excluded from research, provides a framework for research for and with women with disabilities, presents a guideline for non-stereotyping language, and also addresses the ways in which people can be informed about women and disabilities.
The President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped is a good source of data on employment issues of people with disabilities, including women with disabilities. Among them is a much cited report, Disabled women in America: A statistical report drawn from census data (Bowe, 1984). This report (reviewed in the section on general issues) devotes a lot of attention to the employment status of women with disabilities. Free copies can be obtained from the Committee. For more information about this report and other resources on employment contact the address above.
Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness
American Foundation for the Blind
This issue of the journal is devoted to the theme "Being blind, being a woman," and contains, among other things, a number of articles on rehabilitation, vocational counseling, and employment for visually impaired women. The journal also contains a special 20-page insert on education, employment, and career opportunities for blind and visually impaired women.
TITLE: The new our bodies, ourselves: A book by and for women
AUTHOR: The Boston's Women's Health Book Collective
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
When Our bodies, ourselves was first published in 1969 there was practically no information easily available about women's health issues. The first publication of this book encouraged many women to explore the health issues most important to them. This new edition of Our bodies, ourselves has been considerably expanded from previous editions of the book. One of the additions is the inclusion of women who have disabilities and a disability perspective is presented in most chapters. Our bodies, ourselves has finally become a book on women's health issues for all women. Hopefully this book will serve as a model as to how other generic books on women's health, education, sexual abuse, and so on, can include disability issues as an integral part of the topic. Although the authors should be praised for including women with disabilities it should also be mentioned that some issues of importance to women with disabilities get much less attention than needed. Examples of this are the problems some disabilities can cause during pregnancy and childbirth.
TITLE: A guide to feminist family therapy
AUTHOR: Braverman, L. (Ed.)
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1988
This collection includes chapters written by scholars from a variety of mental health disciplines. All the authors are practicing psychotherapists who have struggled with the problems of integrating a feminist perspective with the practice of family therapy. The book provides an overview of theoretical developments in feminist family therapy, describes how to apply a feminist-sensitive perspective in the treatment of women, and discusses the implications of a feminist-sensitive perspective to therapy training and supervision in family therapy.
The collection is divided into three sections dealing with theoretical issues, clinical applications, and supervision and training issues respectively. The collection starts out by providing a historical review of the literature which has attempted to integrate feminist issues and family therapy. The following chapters address diverse issues such as criticism of family systems theory as a model for treatment for women; abuse and violence against women; lesbian mothers and lesbian daughters; women in alcoholic families; and women and eating disorders. The collection concludes with an essay on teaching an integrated model of family therapy. Also included is an annotated bibliography which lists readings on feminist critique of family therapy, feminist theory and frameworks, feminist critique of the family, research on women and mental health, and contemporary theory and research on women's development. In short, this book contains a wealth of information for those interested in a feminist approach to women's mental health problems and family therapy.
TITLE: Ourselves growing older
AUTHOR: Doress, P. B., & Siegal, D. L.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1987
Like its predecessor, Our bodies, ourselves, this book builds upon the tradition of self-help and focuses on prevention and changes to create healthier life-styles. It is aimed at promoting self-acceptance of older and middle aged women by themselves and stresses the empowerment of midlife and older women in confronting the challenges of growing older. This is an informative book which covers a wide range of topics, including a variety of physical and mental ailments common to middle age and older women. Included throughout the text are practical tips for dealing with specific physical and mental problems. A resource guide in the back of the book lists articles of interest, a guide to community services and support groups. A good resource book.
TITLE: Special sisters: Health issues for mentally retarded women
AUTHOR: Sank, C., & Lafleche, E.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1981
This article identifies and examines some of the health issues for women with mental retardation as well as describing the medical abuses this group of women has suffered from. Women with mental retardation have been especially vulnerable to forced sterilization, institutional abuse, medical experimentation and sexual abuse. They have been denied basic reproduction rights and some of the myths about women with mental retardation, such as the myth that they have uncontrollable sexuality, are still very much alive today. The authors criticize the women's health movement for ignoring women with mental retardation; they have not been included in self-help groups, their issues have not been raised in women's health books, and feminist resource books have not listed services that meet their needs. This is a very good article that raises many important issues that are rarely discussed elsewhere.
TITLE: Women with disabilities: A survey of health-related experiences
AUTHOR: Savage, A., & Georgeson, S.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1989
This book from New Zealand documents health experiences of women with disabilities. It is based on interviews with 60 women from three disability categories: 34 of the women had physical disabilities, 12 had intellectual disabilities, and 12 had psychiatric disabilities. The authors conclude by summarizing some of the findings of the study, and state that the experiences of these women show some fundamental issues about health and the health services they receive. Among the things they list are (1) lack of information regarding women with disabilities about the nature of their disability, as well as the implications of these disabilities; (2) lack of information about services available for women with disabilities; (3) the unequal relationship between health professionals and women with disabilities; (4) women with disabilities are not listened to and are excluded from decision making about their own health; (5) lack of information about side effects of medications; (6) disability is negatively viewed by health professionals and the general public alike; (7) women with disabilities fear being integrated into a community that does not have the resources to support them; and (8) women with disabilities view the availability of both personal and community support as vital.
The last section of the book provides recommendations for change based on the findings of the study.
Psychology of Women Quarterly
Cambridge University Press
This journal is a special issue on "Women's health: Our minds, our bodies," and contains eight articles by academic or clinical psychologists. All the authors are women who use a feminist framework to analyze a variety of issues in women's health issues such as AIDS, disability, midlife childbearing, abortion, breast self-examination, and menopausal sexuality.
Women and Health
Haworth Press
Many of the articles published in this journal deal with chronic disease and disabling health conditions. The publishers have a toll free number: 1-800-342-9678.
Broomstick
Broomstick
This periodical is published bimonthly and frequently includes articles about disabilities. It is free to women over 40 in prison. Tel. (415) 522-7460
Also included in this section are discussions by women with disabilities who argue that the person being care for is often left out of the discussions of caring and caring relationships, and that this subject needs immediate attention. These writers assert that the conversation in this area should be located around equitable relationships between the women who care and the women who are being cared for.
TITLE: Caring work and gender equity in an aging society
AUTHOR: Allen, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
TITLE: Caregiving too much? American women and the nation's caregiving crisis
AUTHORS: Foster, S. E., & Brizius, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
TITLE: Feminist perspectives of family care: Policies for gender justice
AUTHOR: Hooyman, N. R., & Gonyea, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1995
Hooyman and Gonyea critically examine the act of caregiving through a feminist perspective. Given that over 75% of care provided to family members is provided by women, the authors analyze the impact of this caring on women's economical, social, and personal experiences. Furthermore, they examine how changing economic structures, changing families, and the changing workforce have affected the lives of women who provide care. The authors argue for structural changes in the economy, social institutions, and attitudes in order to improve the lives of women. Hooyman and Gonyea also explore the implications for social policy if caregiving is defined as a women's role and how current social policies are oppressive to women. Their recommendations for change includes workplace supports, health care and long term care policies, and economic and social supports for caregivers.
TITLE: Caregivers and difference
AUTHOR: Hillyer, B.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
This chapter of Feminism and disability focuses on three main issues around caregiving. Hillyer explores the relationship of caregiving to women's role conditioning, to class barriers between caregivers, and to using caregiving networks to further explore feminist discussion of difference. She discusses how women have been conditioned to be caregivers and encouraged to be self sacrificing, and that feminist discourse needs to challenge these assumptions.
She further asserts that class and status play a role in women's caregiving. She argues that numerous caregivers are in financially difficult situations (either because they have given up their jobs to become caregivers or because they are paid caregivers in the low income range) and that these paid caregivers are often from ethnic minorities. These factors are usually different from the women they care for, and therefore ethnic minorities or women from lower incomes are not seen as valued in a caregiving situation. They are not in the discussions around caring and what is best for the person being cared for. In addition, these women are silenced in the sense that their stories and experiences do not easily cross class and status boundaries, thereby making it difficult for the carer and the person being cared for to understand each other.
To help deal with this dilemma, Hillyer argues that caregiving networks can be used to explore the feminist discussion difference. She feels that it is crucial to be able to listen to other women caregivers' stories and to value these experiences. This in turn could lead to consciousness raising groups and political action.
TITLE: Who cares wins? Women, caring, and disability
AUTHOR: Keith, L.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
Keith's article provides an argument for research which does not alienate disabled people while researching who cares for them. Too often, she asserts, feminist research on carers excludes the rights, power, and independence of disabled people and only depicts them as passive, helpless, and demanding. The author calls for the reconceptualization of research around the issue of care to make sure that all voices are represented, not only the voice of the person giving care. She offers as part of the solution the concept of citizenship and its affiliation with basic universal human rights as a way to fill this gap in research and in understanding the caring relationship.
TITLE: Feminist research and "community care"
AUTHOR: Morris, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
In this chapter, Morris argues that while feminists have paid much attention to `community care' policies, they have virtually ignored the experiences of disabled women. She asserts that feminist concerns about women's roles as caregivers must be re-examined from a disability perspective. Traditionally, feminists have rejected community care policies which depend on women's unpaid labor in the home, thereby excluding women from the labor market and reinforcing their economic dependence on men. While these feminists would call for community care in residential settings, Morris argues that disabled people want services within the community, and therefore reject the traditional feminist view of community care.
The author claims that the differences between these two views is because the feminists who are writing and researching in the area of women and care do not actually need physical care themselves. In ignoring the experiences of those women who need care, they silence disabled women and force them into the role of the other. These feminists only see women as carers, not as those being cared for, thereby legitimizing one side and marginalizing the other.
In response to these feminists, Morris offers a critique from a disabled feminist perspective. She argues that research needs to examine the meaning of `caring for' and `caring about' and especially the meaning of home (separated from the political feminist critique of the family). She asserts the feminist scholarship needs to understand this issue from a disability perspective and to see as the goal disabled women living in the community and receiving supports from caregivers whose work is valued, appreciated, and adequately compensated.
TITLE: Independent lives: Community care and disabled people
AUTHOR: Morris, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
This book is a qualitative study which explores the experiences of disabled people who receive help with daily living activities. Based on in-depth interviews with 50 people and using a feminist perspective and a disability rights perspective, Morris challenges the discourse around community care policies. She illustrates how residential care is often replaced by institutionalization in community settings, and further challenges policy makers and those who provide care to recognize the basic civil rights of people with disabilities, and that part of their civil rights is to receive physical help.
TITLE: The politics of caregiving
AUTHOR: Munford, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
This chapter explores the meaning of care to those who give and receive it in order to challenge the current way it is organized. It examines the ways in which the caregiving relationship can be changed and how alliances with people with intellectual disabilities can be formed. The author bases her argument on the premise that non-disabled researchers and writers need to situate themselves in the research project and in the particular situation they are writing about.
Munford's chapter is divided into three sections. The first section provides a context by discussing important influences on the researcher and writing process. She argues that researchers must understand how their research can reinforce the powerlessness of those they are researching. She feels that researchers need to form equitable relationships with the people with disabilities whom they are researching. The second section focuses on important concepts in the caring relationship which are necessary to understand what happens in a caregiving relationship. The third section explores the role of social policy in constructing the lives of people with disabilities. The author argues for the importance of examining social policy in terms of disability of a social and political category. Hopefully then social policies will have possibilities for choice and empowerment for people with disabilities.
TITLE: A mother's work is never done: Constructing a "normal" family life
AUTHOR: Traustadottir, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1995
The author examines the everyday lives of families of children with disabilities. She explores the ways in which the family attempts to construct an "ordinary" or "normal" family life. Traustadottir analyzes the gendered organization involved in constructing and maintaining a normal family life. Through qualitative research based on interviews and participant observation, Traustadottir found that families of children with disabilities devote much time trying to lead a "normal" family life. For the most part this meant following the traditional family pattern of full time wife and mother and working father. She suggests that presence of disability in the family causes parents to compensate by conforming as closely as possible to traditional gender roles.
The author also discusses implications for professionals, stating that they need to be aware of individual perspectives of families. She also addresses how broader socio-cultural issues such as class, race, ethnicity, and gender influence the lives of families of children with disabilities.
TITLE: Disability reform and the role of women: Community inclusion and caring work
AUTHOR: Traustadottir, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
This dissertation is a feminist qualitative study of the role of women in the community inclusion of people with developmental disabilities. The author demonstrates that despite the face that women constitute the vast majority of those who do the day to day work of inclusion, their contributions go unnoticed and are invisible. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, the author examines women's caregiving and relationship building in the areas of family as mothers of children with disabilities, in the human service system as paid workers, and in the context of friendships. Crucial to this study is the idea that caring is not a personality trait inherent in being a woman, rather it is created through social interactions. Women are recruited for caregiving through powerful social arrangements and this social construction of women as caregivers continues throughout their lives.
The analysis outlines the multiple ways women's work is made invisible, and that the field of disability studies does nothing to make this work visible. In fact, often exploits women by not recognizing and understanding the work that they do. The author concludes by articulating areas for change in the fields of feminist scholarship and disability policy.
TITLE: The meaning of care in the lives of mothers of children with disabilities
AUTHOR: Traustadottir, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
In this qualitative chapter, Traustadottir explores the gender differences in caring for a child with a disability within the family. She discovered that the responsibility for caring is based on gender. The study revealed the term "caring" as a complex phenomenon that has at least three meanings. Caring for: the work, means acquiring specialized knowledge and techniques which are associated with professional work (not traditional mothering work). The second definition is caring about: the love. This refers to relationships and emotions. The third definition is the extended caring role. The meaning of care extends from a woman's own child to broader community or societal concerns surrounding people with disabilities and the way they are treated in society.
The author also discusses gender roles and the responsibility or caring. The women are usually responsible. This begins when she decides to keep her child at home rather than a residential setting. This is almost always the mother's decision because it is understood that she will be the primary care giver. In addition to this work, she is responsible for the housework and other family work. Furthermore, the baby is not seen as a restriction on family life if it only restricts the mother. However, if the family feels restricted then the situation is considered problematic. Some women see the job of caring as their "natural" responsibility, while others resist this traditional gender role.
The author concludes by stating that disability studies needs to look at gender as a critical issue and needs to examine issues of gender and the roles of mothers and fathers in families.
TITLE: Mothers who care: Gender, disability, and family life
AUTHOR: Traustadottir, R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1991
The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the role of gender in families which have children with disabilities. The author seeks to fill a gap in the literature on family supports and disability, which frequently ignores the gendered nature of caring and women's unpaid work within the family. Based on interviews, the author attempts to understand caring from the carer's perspectives, and examines the meanings and activities entailed in caring and how caring for a child with a disability influences the life of their primary caregiver. She also explores how gender influences the caring for a child with a disability, the extent to which mothers of children with disabilities see their caring role and experiences as oppressing and/or empowering, and how they negotiate their caring role within the family with outside careers. She finds that families of children with disabilities tend to follow the most traditional family patterns, with the husband as breadwinner and the wife as caretaker.
The author attributes this tendency to larger economic structures which pay women less for their work. Given this, when traditional caring becomes necessary such as when a child with a disability is born into the family, families are given little choice as to who has to quit their jobs because wage discrimination still renders women's pay less than men's pay.
TITLE: Contradictions in caring
AUTHOR: Walmsley, J.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1993
Walmsley uses research about the experiences of women with learning difficulties and shows how they, like non disabled women, often find themselves in caring roles, and they too find this role both sustaining and frustrating. She argues that to attempt to divide the experiences of the "carer" and the "dependent" is virtually impossible because the relationships are both reciprocal and interdependent. The author argues for a new understanding of the caring relationship in that the carer and the cared for be considered together, not in opposition to one another.
TITLE: The caring wife: The experience of caring for a severely disabled husband in the community
AUTHOR: Whalley Hammell, K. R.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
This article explores the experiences of wives who assume a caring role following the onset of a husband's severe disability. Given the fact that modern medicine has increased the chances of survival of a major injury, these disabled people are returning to their communities and needing care. The author examines the social expectations of women's role in the provision of care for people with severe disabilities. The author argues that community care actually means care by women, and she looks at who care for people with disabilities in the community, why these women care, the impact of caring on these women, how to support carers (what their needs are) and some implications of community care policies.
TITLE: Mothers of children with disabilities and the construction of experience
AUTHOR: Wickham-Searl, P.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1994
In this qualitative study, the author seeks to understand and describe the meaning of expertise in the lives of mothers of children with disabilities who extend their caring role from inside the family to social activism in disability related work outside of the family. The author bases her research in feminist theories concerned with the nature of women's work, the value of personal experience, and the importance of conversations between women. The author found that these women developed confidence in their caring work within their own families and gradually began to work on behalf of others with disabilities. These women regarded themselves as experts both at home and in the community, and attributed this to their home work, their interactions with professionals, and their work in the field of disability in general.
TITLE: Careers in caring: Mothers of children with disabilities
AUTHOR: Wickham-Searl, P.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1992
The author studied the experiences of 14 women who were mothers of children with disabilities. These women had extended their family caregiving roles to public work in the disability field in order to help other families. Their work often stemmed from a lack of available services and programs for their own children and their insights here led them to help other parents. Several themes developed during these interviews. Among them are the reliance on personal experience for guidance in the caregiving and public work process, the importance of their mothering role and their children, the realization that people with disabilities and their caregivers are not valued in society, and the search for legitimation for their work.
TITLE: The Lois Anderson Story
AUTHOR: Anderson, L.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1985
All three chapters are written by women with disabilities where they describe their experiences of motherhood.
TITLE: Real moral dilemmas
AUTHOR: Asch, A.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 1986
This issue of Christianity and Crisis is a speciINTRODUCTION
GENERAL ISSUES
In S. C. Hey, G. Kiger, & J. Seidel (Eds.), Impaired and disabled people in society: Structure, processes and the individual (pp. 290-304). Salem, OR: The Society for Disability Studies and Willamette University.
FURTHER RESOURCES:
Theme Issues in Journals and Periodicals
May 1981, 11(5)
1724 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20009
July 1981, 8(2)
June 1983, 77(6)
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
March 1985, 14(1)
for Studies in Education
252 Bloor Street, West
Toronto, Ontario M65 4T3
CANADA
Spring 1986, 6(2)
Sawyer School of Management
Department of Public Management
Eight Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108-2770
Winter 1989-1990, 39
P.O. Box 3252
Berkeley CA 94703
Volume 14, No. 2
Education Tower
The University of Calgary
2500 University Drive, N.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
CANADA
LIFE HISTORIES AND PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
In R. Porter (Ed.), A social history of madness: The world through the eyes of the insane (pp. 103-124).
Life Histories and Personal Accounts
June 1983, 77(6)
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
EDUCATION
In M. Fine & A. Asch (Eds.), Women with disabilities: Essays in psychology, culture, and politics.
In D. Biklen, D. Ferguson, & A. Ford (Eds.), Schooling and disability, (pp. 108-140).
EMPLOYMENT AND REHABILITATION
In S. C. Hey, G. Kiger, & J. Seidel (Eds.), Impaired and disabled people in society: Structure, processes and the individual (pp. 332-348). Salem, OR: The Society for Disability Studies and Willamette University.
This chapter examines the access of women with disabilities to rehabilitation and their receipt of financial assistance, in an attempt to identify the structural patterns of discrimination against women. The author states that although rehabilitation and financial assistance are society's major answers to the problems of disabled people, only a small proportion of this population actually receive any kind of rehabilitation. The author also states that women with disabilities seem to be less likely to receive both rehabilitation and disability benefits than men are. Using data from the Bureau of Census she also shows that age is a significant variable when it comes to rehabilitation; younger people are more likely to be rehabilitated while older people are more likely to receive financial assistance. Finally the author states that the disadvantage women with disability experience are increased by the dependent identity already associated with being female.In P. Wehman & J. W. Hill (Eds.), Competitive employment for persons with mental retardation: from research to practice (Vol. I).
In M. J. Deegan & N. A. Brooks (Eds.), Women and disability: The double handicap (pp. 117-132).
In M. J. Deegan, & N. A. Brooks (Eds.), Women and disability: The double handicap (pp. 68-86).
In M. Fine & A. Asch (Eds.), Women with disabilities: Essays in psychology, culture, and politics (pp. 245-268).
In M. Fine & A. Asch (Eds.), Women with disabilities: Essays in psychology, culture, and politics (pp. 229-244).
FURTHER RESOURCES:
Employment and Rehabilitation
Washington, DC 20210
(202) 653-5044
June 1983, 77(6)
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
HEALTH ISSUES
(In conjunction with the Midlife and Older Women's Book Project and The Boston's Women's Health Book Collective.)
FURTHER RESOURCES:
Health Issues
December 1988, 12(4)
32 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022
A quarterly scholarly journal on women's health issues
10 Alice Street
Binghamton, NY 13904
A periodical by, for, and about women over forty
3543 18th Street, #3
San Francisco, CA 94110
WOMEN AND CARE
In J. Allen, & A. Pifer (Eds.), Women on the front lines: Meeting the challenges of an aging America. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
The author discusses how different aspects of the demand for care for elderly people might promote or hinder the integration of family care with paid employment and of caring work between men and women. Allen argues that without significant policy changes, the growing number of elderly people who need care will place an additional burden on women, who do the majority of the caring work. These women may have to sacrifice job earnings and health insurance, among other things, in order to care for elderly family members. The author outlines two proposed reforms in terms of gender equity issues, expanding paid home care, and creating government mandates for job leaves for family care.
In J. Allen, & A Pifer (Eds.), Women on the front lines: Meeting the challenges of an aging America. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
The authors of this chapter respond to what they consider a "crisis of caregiving." This crisis stems from the fact that women spend more time than men caring for an elderly parent or an elderly spouse (about 80% of women do the caregiving). The majority of these women are also in the workforce, which means that essentially have two jobs, one caregiving and one at work. These changes in women's lives have resulted in financial, emotional, and physical stress for women. The authors suggest ways in which public policy can help alleviate this crisis. They suggest numerous financial changes and preventative measures. They also argue that services for caregivers need to be expanded and they encourage men to take more responsibility for caregiving.In B. Hillyer, Feminism and disability (pp. 176-192). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
In J. Morris, Pride against prejudice: Transforming attitudes to disability (pp. 146-168). Pittsburgh: New Society Publishers.
In M. H. Rioux & M. Back (Eds.), Disability is not measles: New research paradigms in disability (pp. 265-284). North York, ON: Roeher Institute.
In S. J. Taylor, R. Bogdan, & Z. M. Lutfiyya (Eds.), The variety of community experience: Qualitative studies of family and community life (pp. 47-65). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
In S. J. Taylor, R. Bogdan, and J. A. Racino (Eds.), Life in the community: Case studies of organizations supporting people with disabilities (pp. 185-194). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
MOTHERHOOD AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
In S. E. Browne, D. Connors, & N. Stern (Eds.), With the power of each breath: A disabled women's anthology.