"Women and disability don't mix]" Double discrimination and disabled women's rights

Oxfam's experience with groups of disabled people has revealed that gender affects how disabled people are treated in various cultures. This experience runs counter to the often voiced (even by a consultant hired by Oxfam) assumption that gender analysis serves only to confuse any analysis undertaken of disability-based circumstances. This assumption is echoed in the disability movement itself where activists fear fragmentation through the introduction of gender analysis. Thus, gender is not yet understood as a factor which affects every aspect of life including race, class, ethnicity, caste, and disability. Because 75% of the 250 million disabled women in the world live in developing countries, development programs must consider the specific needs and rights of disabled women who suffer from double discrimination and are more likely than disabled men to live impoverished and isolated lives which lead to depression and despair. In many societies, disabled women, but not disabled men, lose their rights to marriage, family life, education, and health care. Mothers of disabled children are stigmatized, and fathers tend to "blame" defective genes on the mothers and to ignore their disabled offspring. These factors combine to make it difficult to improve the status and livelihoods of disabled women through development work. Disabled women activists have also voiced complaints about their lack of access to the preparatory meetings for the Fourth UN Women's Conference, but disabled women intend to use the Conference to lobby for their rights and to call for scrutiny of health policies which discriminate against the disabled.     

Repositioning mothers: mothers,disabled children and disability studies

In this article we set out to review the ways in which mothers of disabled children have been portrayed within disability studies and the more broader academic literature. We argue that within disability studies mothers of disabled children occupy a liminal position because they are often not disabled and yet they can experience forms of disablism. Their experiences can differ markedly from the experiences of mothers of non‐disabled children and yet the consequences and outcomes of these experiences, such as developing a ‘special competence’ is largely overlooked. Mothers can work to effect change on behalf of their children and, in some cases, for disabled people more generally, however, this role of activist mother is largely undervalued. The review of literature presented here leads us to conclude that further research needs to be undertaken exploring and highlighting the ways in which mothers of disabled children negotiate, manage and approach their daily lives, operating within what are described by feminist scholars as oppressive mothering ideologies and disabling environments.     

Telling about something that you do not really know: blind people are talking about vision!

In Turkey, the laws which define disability have become increasingly harsh, and require disabled people to be assessed in order to determine ‘how disabled’ they are. For blind people, as for other disabled people, these assessments have real consequences. This article aims to discuss an appealing piece that arose during a project, which has bearing on how disabled people tend to answer these questions. The participants are legally blind adults. We, as sighted researchers, asked totally blind individuals to describe their vision. Interestingly, they all answered this question without hesitation. The paradoxical nature of this question was only realized during the analysis. We requested the participants to talk about something they do not really know. This might be a reflection of our over-visualized world and might be due to our subtle prejudices. This type of questioning not only has implications for research, but also for assessments of disability in Turkey.     

Combining Dyslexia and Mothering: Perceived Impacts on Work

Previous studies have provided an insight into the lives of disabled mothers, but little attention has been paid to disabled working mothers. This paper draws on interviews with women who had a formal diagnosis of dyslexia, to discuss: particular difficulties when combining work and mothering; the perceived positive impacts on work and education, of becoming a mother; unsupportive managers; what some mothers found helpful in order to maintain work; and the diversity between experiences. We conclude that for those already on a career path before having children, some of their experiences could have been seen as an amplification of what other working mothers face. However, a difference was that the added time taken up with mothering meant they became more vulnerable to ‘exposing’ their impairment at work. In contrast, for dyslexic women who were yet to attain a high status in education and work, motherhood encouraged them to initiate their career.     

Dating Issues

This study assessed the impact of gender and the presence of children full time in the home on single parents' dating behavior. This research focused on three aspects of dating: dating opportunities, impressions and interactions. Surveying a sample of 83 Parents Without Partners members, the research found: (1) women without children in the home full time find it easier to meet new people than do men; (2) single fathers with or without full time children more frequently date people they just met and go on blind dates than do single mothers; (3) men without children in the household full time report that they more frequently spend a quiet evening at home than do women (with or without full time children); (4) single fathers agreed more strongly than single mothers that their dates are o en, want to start an ongoing relationship and are desirable; (5) single mothers with full time children feel it is more appropriate for a date to discipline their children than do single fathers with or without children or single mothers without full time children. Interpretations are given for these findings.     

The Dialectics of Multiple Identities and the Disabled People's Movement

This paper explores the issue of commonality and difference in the disabled people's movement in relation to ethnicity, gender sexuality, age and class. Hitherto, disability academics have either ignored or tagged on the experience of disabled black and minority ethnic people, women, older people, and gay men and lesbians. When they are discussed, they have more often than not been discussed separately - for example, disabled black people's experience has always been discussed separately, disabled women, disabled gay men and lesbians and disabled older women. Hence it is not surprising if 'simultaneous oppression' is perceived to be the unique experience of a minority of disabled people. Here, I suggest that it is, in fact, the experience of a majority of disabled people since the majority is not a homogenous mass of disabled white heterosexual middle-class young men, but individuals from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of identities and experiences, and to accept that their only concern is disability is to fall into the same trap as the general population most of whom only see the impairment and not the person. It is imperative to note, however, that the blame does not lie with the social model of disability, as it is sometimes assumed, for that is merely a conceptual tool. The paper discusses the concept 'simultaneous oppression' as applied to the experience of black women and later disabled black people. It is suggested that this is too simplistic an analysis to capture the day to day experience of those who possess negatively labelled multiple identities. An alternative framework is suggested to link the experience of different groups of disabled people and, hence, offer a common ground for unity in the disabled people's movement.     

Negotiating identities: the lives of Pakistani and Bangladeshi young disabled people

Research has generally amalgamated minority ethnic (all called 'Asian' or 'black') disabled young people's experiences and failed to acknowledge the multiple aspects of Asian and black disabled identities, for example how the combined attributes of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, culture, class and disability shape their perspectives and experiences. In an attempt to address this issue my doctoral research explored the experiences and perspectives of 13 young Pakistani and Bangladeshi disabled people. By drawing on the substantive and theoretical findings which emerged from my analysis in this paper I shall consider how multiple aspects of identity, such as ethnicity, disability and gender, affect this population's identity and self-image and how this makes their experiences different from white disabled young people and other minority groups' experiences.     

Permanence for disabled children and young people through foster care and adoption: A selective review of international literature

Children who have been removed from their parents need stability and permanence; this is as true for disabled children as it is for others. Yet many children are subject to extended periods of uncertainty and instability. Growing attention has been paid to the need to achieve permanence within a timescale which meets children's needs. As disabled children are over-represented in looked after (in care) populations it is especially important that their needs are considered when formulating policy and practice in this area.This review of literature covers international material related to stability and permanence for disabled children, in particular permanence achieved through fostering and adoption. A scoping method was used to identify and analyse a broad range of material. Ninety texts were included in the review, including material from the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, China and the Netherlands. Empirical research included quantitative, mixed methods and qualitative studies. Other sources included literature reviews and a small number of research-based ‘think pieces’ and briefings.Disabled children often have permanence outcomes and experiences which differ from those of other children; most often they are disadvantaged by systematic features of services and by the latent disablism of decision-makers, professionals, carers and potential carers. The findings also show that disabled children are not a homogenous group and that characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity and impairment type show complex relationships with permanence through adoption and foster care.Important gaps in current knowledge are identified, including disabled children's views and experiences in relation to achieving permanence. Several areas of policy and practice are highlighted where effort to improve permanence needs to be made. These range from tackling negative professional attitudes about the prospects of placing disabled children to further development of non-traditional approaches to the recruitment of foster carers and adopters.     

Economic and Psychological Benefits from Employment: the experiences and perspectives of mothers of disabled children

This qualitative research explores the perspectives and experiences of employed mothers of disabled children particularly with respect to the potential benefits of employment. Forty families with at least one disabled child, representing a variety of family structures and work situations, participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study clearly illustrate that the economic, psychological and social benefits for mothers of disabled children from participation in paid work are strikingly similar to those for employed mothers of non-disabled children. This suggests that the low level of labour force participation of mothers of disabled children in comparison with other mothers is most likely a consequence of the inherent ideological and structural barriers these women face, rather than their qualitatively differing needs. Streamlining of the benefits system, integration both within and between health, education and social services, increased flexibility in the workplace, and dialogue and co-ordination between all of these elements, may go some way to providing the support these mothers need.     

The Role of Access Groups in Facilitating Accessible Environments for Disabled People

This paper considers the contrasting ways in which disabled people seek to overturn socio-attitudinal, political and physical barriers to their mobility and access requirements in the built environment. In particular, the paper documents how disabled people are attempting to influence the form and content of local authority access practices and policies in the UK, through the context and contours of access groups. I begin by briefly outlining some of the key factors inhibiting and facilitating disabled people organising as effective political groupings, relating the material to access issues in the built environment. Then, using case studies of two contrasting access groups, the paper explores some of the practical barriers, problems and opportunities connected to disabled people's activities in seeking to influence local authority access policies and practices. I conclude by discussing how some of the wider structural and agency-level constraints on disabled people's political and policy interventions in access issues might be removed.     

‘Me too!’: individual empowerment of disabled women in the #MeToo movement in China

This study examines the role of disabled women in the #MeToo movement by analyzing their voices in the movement. Through online participatory observation, we discovered that the movement has individually empowered disabled women on three levels: as women, as disabled people, and as resisters. These disabled women described two ways in which they were empowered at each level, a total of six ways: they realized that they were not guilty, not ashamed, not stereotyped, not going to tolerate abuse, awakened, and united. However, the empowerment of the #MeToo movement only works at an individual level for some disabled women with higher economic and social status through online platforms, with few offline actions being taken and few responses from society to their appeals. There is thus still a long way for disabled women to go in order to be fully included in society.     

The work of disabled identities in intimate relationships

This article details a thematic analysis of disabled men and women’s accounts of past and present intimate relationships. Drawing upon the sexual stories of 25 disabled people, informants’ intimate relationships are explored as a site of emotional work, and as a site of other forms of (gendered) work. This article critically questions the work carried out by informants and considers the ways in which it was shaped by their lived experiences of gender, sexuality, impairment and disability. The article concludes that the requirement to carry out forms of work within intimate and sexual life constituted a form of psycho-emotional disablism.     

Children's experiences of disability: pointers to a social model of childhood disability

The social model of disability has paid little attention to disabled children, with few attempts to explore how far it provides an adequate explanatory framework for their experiences. This paper reports findings from a two-year study exploring the lived experiences of 26 disabled children aged 7-15. They experienced disability in four ways—in terms of impairment, difference, other people's behaviour towards them, and material barriers. Most young people presented themselves as similar to non-disabled children: it is suggested they may have lacked a positive language with which to discuss difference. It is further argued that Thomas's (1999) social relational model of disability can help inform understandings of children's experiences, with 'barriers to being' having particular significance.     

Aging, disability, and disabled older people in India

India is witnessing a demographic revolution, leading to a considerable increase in the proportion of older people in the population. Similarly, life expectancy of both the mentally and physically disabled has improved considerably. About 5% of Indian older people have problems with physical mobility. Aging has become a gender issue in India not only because more women are surviving into old age; they are also vulnerable and disadvantaged in many ways. In most cases they are the only caregivers available for the old and disabled. Older Indians are considered a high-risk group for multiple morbidity. It is estimated that nearly four million Indians suffer from mental problems. India has around 12 million people designated as "handicapped." However, little information is available about disabled people who grow older. The National Policy on Older Persons, which has been recently formulated, aims at providing an improved quality of life for millions of older Indians. However, the concerns of older disabled and of the disabled who grow old are still treated separately in both policy and practice.     

Donning the Mask of Motherhood: A Defensive Strategy,a Developmental Search

Psychoanalysis has begun to place motherhood in a theoretical context, but mainly mothering is seen through the unconscious fantasies of children and adults in analysis who are reflecting on the mothers of their childhood. Little has been written about how mothers unconsciously view themselves and their mothering. Through the analyses of two women and their mothering anxieties, I focus on the intrapsychic conflicts of gender identity that can be masked by a culturally sanctioned obsessive preoccupation with their children. I describe how their developmental search for their female selves leads them to disavow states of being that they concretely deem as masculine.     

Aging,Disability, and Disabled Older People in India

Summary

India is witnessing a demographic revolution, leading to a considerable increase in the proportion of older people in the population. Similarly, life expectancy of both the mentally and physically disabled has improved considerably. About 5% of Indian older people have problems with physical mobility. Aging has become a gender issue in India not only because more women are surviving into old age; they are also vulnerable and disadvantaged in many ways. In most cases they are the only caregivers available for the old and disabled. Older Indians are considered a high-risk group for multiple morbidity. It is estimated that nearly four million Indians suffer from mental problems. India has around 12 million people designated as “handicapped.” However, little information is available about disabled people who grow older. The National Policy on Older Persons, which has been recently formulated, aims at providing an improved quality of life for millions of older Indians. However, the concerns of older disabled and of the disabled who grow old are still treated separately in both policy and practice.     

Mass-market magazine portrayals of working mothers and related issues, 1987 and 1997

In this research project a historian seeks to test whether a dichotomy in the historical analysis of working mothers also exists in recent mass-media portrayals of contemporary wage-earning mothers. The hypothesis is that only white, middle- and upper-class women who work outside the home are considered working mothers, with the emphasis placed on their role as mothers. When poor, minority, working women with children are discussed, they are considered primarily in their capacity as workers. Following from this dichotomy is a split in the assessment of day care for the children of working mothers. For the children of high socioeconomic status women, no day care facility can satisfactorily replace maternal care; for the children of low socioeconomic status women, any type of non-maternal care that enables a mother to keep functioning as a worker is considered superior to maternal care. This study is important because it clarifies some critical scholarly and popular assumptions about the importance of work, the nature of motherhood, and the needs of different classes of children. These assumptions in turn structure scholarly analysis, permeate public discourse, and ultimately shape work and child care policies that profoundly affect all of America's families. This work is intended as a brief analysis that can serve to highlight unconscious attitudes and to suggest how future studies and discussions might be restructured to avoid perpetuating a false separation of different classes of working mothers and their children.     

Interviewing Non-disabled People About Their Disability-related Attitudes: seeking methodologies

Within the field of disability studies there has been a concentration upon the representation of disabled people's experiences within a social context. However, research into non-disabled people's perspectives on disability and impairment has traditionally been based upon a psychologically-driven individualist model of disability which sees disabled people uncritically as 'the problem'. In this apparent epistemological divide, little work has been done on the exploration of non-disabled people's perspectives from a social model angle. This paper outlines a current study of the formation of such perspectives, and specifically explores the methodological conditioners of such an enquiry.     

Child Sexual Abuse and the Black Disabled Child

This paper seeks to document a previously neglected area of study, namely the effects of sexual abuse on black disabled children. With a particular focus on black children with learning disabilities, it examines how the interlocking dimensions of race, gender and disability compound the problems that they are faced with in the aftermath of sexual abuse. This paper presents case studies drawn from data generated from a broader research project of sexual abuse and black families to illustrate the specific ways the negatively valued position of black disabled children shape responses to them. It is argued that the way in which black disabled children and their families interpret their experiences is likely to differ from other groups of disabled children, as multiple marginalised identities shape their lived realities. The paper concludes with some reflections on the implications for making risk assessment for black disabled children.     

Public health policy and social support for immigrant mothers raising disabled children in Canada

A literature review regarding the social support of immigrant mothers of disabled children in Canada was undertaken with a focus on settings where supports need to be shored up. An integrative review of published papers and policy reports concerning key aspects of social supports for immigrant mothers and disabled children was undertaken. Immigrant mothers experience numerous barriers to social supports for themselves and their disabled children. Maternal immigrant populations experience unique challenges in the setting of childhood disability as well as the challenges of mothers in the dominant culture. There are negative impacts on maternal health as a result of inadequate policy offerings. Public health policy needs to be refashioned in light of weak systems and supports for both immigrant mothers and disabled children and to acknowledge that the current system poses concerning implications for the long-term health of both groups.