Women and Disability

The following suggestions for recent work on women and disability appeared 
on WMST-L in May 2004.  For additional WMST-L files now available on the Web,
see the WMST-L File Collection.

Dear all,

I am researching disabled women and politics.  I am looking for books on
women and disability and Feminism and disability.  Looking on my shelves and on
amazon I can find very little written recently.  Most of it seems to be in
1980's/1990's.  Is anyone writing/ researching the lives of disabled women or
disabled women and feminism now.


Best wishes

Victoria Richards (Vic. R)

Victoria:
Take a look at Susan Wendell, _The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical
Reflections on Disability_ (Routledge 1996).

Also see the collection _Disability/Postmodernity_, edited by Corker and
Shakespeare (Continuum, 2002), which includes various critical feminist
essays.

best,
Marjorie

***********************************
Marjorie Jolles, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Women's Studies
The University of Iowa
701 Jefferson Building
Iowa City, IA 52242
marjorie-jolles  AT  uiowa.edu

 There's a special issue of the NWSA (National Women's Studies Association)
journal from Fall 2002 on Feminist Disability Studies - lots of great
articles here, with references pages to tie you to additional work.  The
info on articles is available at:
http://www.iupressjournals.indiana.edu/nwsa/nw143.acgi

Betsy Eudey
BEudey  AT  csustan.edu

Hi there

I am an MSW student at the University of Washington
and have a disability and have been doing a lot of
research on the topic of women and disabilities
recently:

1. Journal - Violence Against Women
   Volume 7, #4, April 2001
   Spec.issue-Violence Against Women with Disabilities

2. Women & Therapy = Journal
   Vol 26, Numbers 1/2, 2003
   Special issue - Women with Visible and Invisible
   Disabilities: Multiple Interesections, Multiple
   Issues, Multiple Therapies - Part I

3. Women & Therapy = Journal
   Vol 26, Numbers 3/4, 2003
   Special Issue Women with Visible and Invisible
   Disabilities: Multiple Intersections, Multiple
   Issues, Multiple Therapies - Part II

4. Violence and Victims = Jounral
   Vol. 18, Number 5, October 2003
   Article - Violence Against Women with Physical
   Disabilities

I hope that this helps - good luck!

Sharon Hennessy
MSW student - University of Washington,
Seattle, Washington
skh6  AT  u.washington.edu

Also, see Susan Cahn's "Come Out, Come Out Whatever
You've Got! or, Still Crazy after All These Years"
"Come Out, Come Out..." in Feminist Studies
Volume 29, Number 1: Spring 2003.

Abstract:  a personal essay about the experience of
chronic illness, in this case Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome/Fibromyalgia. The author recounts some of her
frustrations dealing with the "medical model" of
illness, medical practitioners, and presumptuous
academics. In the process she explores issues of
invisibility, "closeting," identity and mental
health/illness, subjects she first encountered as a
lesbian and, more recently, as the biological host of
an enigmatic "syndrome." In the end, each experience
informs her knowledge of the other, opening the way to
a more critical analysis of how we, as a society, live
our lives, our loves, and our illnesses.

Jessica Nathanson, Ph.D. American Studies
Concentration, Women's Studies
Adjunct Instructor, Liberal Arts, Kilian Community College
janathanson  AT  yahoo.com

See too:

Sharon A. Groch, "Oppositional Consciousness: Its Manifestation and
Development. The Case of People with Disabilities," Sociological
Inquiry 64:4 (1994):369-395.


Naomi Graetz
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
graetz  AT  bgumail.bgu.ac.il
-----------------------------------
Author of
Silence is Deadly:Judaism Confronts Wifebeating (Jason Aronson, 1998);
S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Tales (Gorgias Press, 2003)
Online orders: www.gorgiaspress.com

Last year I put together a fairly extensive bibliography on women and girls
with disabilities. It was developed with the hope that it could enable
women's studies courses to become more inclusive of the needs, issues and
contributions of disabled women. Drop me a note if you'd like a copy. Best,
Harilyn Rousso

Harilyn Rousso, CSW
Executive Director
Disabilities Unlimited
3 East 10th Street--4B
New York, NY 10003-5916
hrousso  AT  nyc.rr.com

An excellent new collection that I'm trying next Fall for my graduate
"Feminist Epistomology and Pedagogy":

 Bonnie Smith and Beth Hutchinson, eds.  Gendering Disability. Rutgers
University Press, 2004, 0813533732  paperback

Eileen Boris
Hull Professor of Women's Studies
Affiliate Professor, Department of History
Women's Studies Program--South Hall
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California 93106
boris  AT  womst.ucsb.edu