Women With Disabilities: Essays in Psychology, Culture, and Politics (Health, Society, and Policy)

Women with disabilities are women first, sharing the dreams and disappointments common to women in a male-dominated society. But because society persists in viewing disability as an emblem of passivity and incompetence, disabled women occupy a devalued status in the social hierarchy. This book represents the intersection of the feminist and disability rights perspectives; it analyzes the forces that push disabled women towards the margins of social life, and it considers the resources that enable these women to resist the stereotype. Drawing on law, social science, folklore, literature, psychoanalytic theory, and political activism, this book describes the experience of women with disabilities. The essays consider the impact of social class, race, the age at which disability occurs, and sexual orientation on the disabled woman's self esteem as well as on her life options. The contributors focus their inquiry on the self perceptions of disabled women and ask: From what sources do these women draw positive self images? How do they resist the culture's power to label them as deviant? The essays describe the ways in which disabled women face discrimination in the workplace and the failure of the mainstream women's movement to address their concerns. In the series Health, Society, and Policy , edited by Sheryl Ruzek and Irving Kenneth Zola. "By closely examining the experiences of six families whose children with disabilities are full participants in family life, Douglas Biklen shows how people who have been labeled disabled might become full participants in other areas of society as well. Biklen focuses on the contradictions between what some families have achieved, what they want for their children, and what society and its social policies allow. He demonstrates how the principles of inclusion that govern the lives of these families can be extended to education, community life, and other social institutions." "The parents who tell their stories here are not typical. All have actively sought their children's inclusion in regular schools and community settings; several have children with severe or multiple disabilities. They are determined, combative, and resilient people, whose narratives show the love, pride, and respect they feel for their children. In discussing issues such as normalization, acceptance, complete schooling, circles of friends, and community integration, these parents describe the challenge and need for their children to "lead regular lives." Biklen observes that being identified as disabled and receiving increased attention has not necessarily resulted in greater options for students or their parents or more control over their destinies." "The author addresses the concept of disability and describes how labels damage people. He asks: How would society have to alter its values, its notion of excellence, its evaluation of individuals, its language, its forms of mutual support, in order to adopt the vision that a person with disabilities is a full participant in everyday life? Schooling without Labels challenges our notions of "normal," and "handicapped" as well as our notion of "education.""--Jacket Women with disabilities are women first, sharing the dreams and disappointments common to women in a male-dominated society. But because society persists in viewing disability as an emblem of passivity and incompetence, disabled women occupy a devalued status in the social hierarchy. This book represents the intersection of the feminist and disability rights perspectives; it analyzes the forces that push disabled women towards the margins of social life, and it considers the resources that enable these women to resist the stereotype. Drawing on law, social science, folklore, literature, psychoanalytic theory, and political activism, this book describes the experience of women with disabilities. The essays consider the impact of social class, race, the age at which disability occurs, and sexual orientation on the disabled woman's self esteem as well as on her life options. The contributors focus their inquiry on the self perceptions of disabled women and ask: From what sources do these women draw positive self images? How do they resist the culture's power to label them as deviant? The essays describe the ways in which disabled women face discrimination in the workplace and the failure of the mainstream women's movement to address their concerns.--Provided by publisher