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

Michelle Fine (Author, Editor), Adrienne Asch (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1988 | Series: Health, Society and Policy Series

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. Michelle Fine is Associate Professor of Psychology in Education in the Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development Program and Women's Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Adriene Asch, a doctoral candidate in social psychology at Columbia University, is a psychotherapist in private practice and a Senior Human Rights Specialist for the New York State Division of Human Rights.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"More than most collections of essays, this one is integrated by the editors' clearly articulated intention to unite politics and scholarship, disability studies and women's studies, theory, analysis, and action. They have succeeded remarkably well in finding (or perhaps helping to shape) essays that make those necessary connections." --The Women's Review of Books "This timely book offers needed scholarship and astute analysis aimed at promoting positive self-images among disabled women. In the process, the book shows how it is possible to counter conventional stereotypes that demean and degrade." --New Directions for Women "As feminists who are also disabled, the editors are uniquely qualified to present this overview of the connections and divisions between nondisabled and disabled women. Viewing the position of women with disabilities from a socialist feminist perspective, they emphasize that there can be no true equality of rights and opportunity witout honest appreciation by the majority of the physical and emotional differences of those who have grown up on the fringes of society." --Belles Lettres "By introducing gender into the analysis of disability, this collection makes an important contribution to understnading the personal and societal politics of disability rights and their necessary connection to the feminist movement...This collection is for anyone interested in human relations and human rights." --Choice --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

The integration of gender studies with disability scholarship --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 347 pages
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr; First Edition edition (January 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877224749
• ISBN-13: 978-0877224747
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,134,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)