Women and Disability

Nancy Hale

Spring, 2010

Introduction

It is estimated that 54 million Americans (1 out of 5) have a disability, and more than half (28.6 million) are women. On the whole, women with disabilities are “the world’s most disadvantaged group” because of the double prejudice of being a woman and of having a disability.[1] Overall, women with disabilities experience more discrimination and harmful attitudes than men who are disabled.

Let’s look at some hard facts:

• Disabled women are less likely to be in the paid workforce than either men with disabilities or non disabled women, and in general have lower incomes from employment.
• Women are less likely to have access to rehabilitation services.
• Disabled women are more likely to be divorced and less likely to marry than men with disabilities.
• Disabled women are more vulnerable to domestic violence.
• Disabled girls are likely to find their access to education even more limited than girls in general.[2]

Body Image and Disability

Exercise:

Close your eyes and imagine you have entered a restaurant. You see a beautiful young woman seated at a table. She has long flowing hair and skin like porcelain. She is dressed in a beige silk blouse and an ivory linen suit. She leans forward to say something to the man seated across from her. When he laughs heartily, her eyes sparkle.

Write down whatever words come to your mind that would describe that woman.

Now imagine you walk past this young woman on the way to your table. And you notice she is in a wheelchair.

Write what words/images come to mind now.

Are the lists different? Why or why not?

All women in western society are confronted with the media-generated image of the perfect female body, but disabled women know that no amount of dieting, plastic surgery, or beauty aids will ever allow them to attain this sort of acceptability. Four things in particular contribute to the pervasive negative self image experienced by women with disability:

1. Negative reactions from others (including statements such as, “She was so pretty before the accident,” or expressions of surprise or pity on seeing an attractive woman with a disability);
2. Lack of control over bodily function;
3. Having to incorporate cold, hard, metallic appliances into the concept of warm, soft, lovable femininity;
4. Fears of sexual and social rejection.[3]

Family Life and Disability

Disabled women are often denied the most basic of human rights: marriage, motherhood, and relationships. Many have been counseled not to have children, and some run the risk of involuntary sterilization “for their own good” and for the sake of any children they might have.[4]  Disabled women who do have children find that there are few support services available to them. Most rehabilitation services are geared to help people enter (or re-enter) the workforce through vocational training, job placement, and negotiating accommodation needs with an employer. But there are few support services for women who have chosen to remain at home to care for children or to be a homemaker.

Abuse and Disability

In America, disabled women are susceptible to all kinds of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, which often occurs in settings such as hospitals and institutions at the hands of those entrusted with their care. Because disabled women are often trained to be compliant and submissive, their caretakers can easily take advantage of them. The belief that Deaf women and those with developmental disabilities are “dumb,” and difficulties in communication caused by Deafness or mental disability, can lead to abuse when a disabled woman does not understand what her caregiver/abuser wants, and may submit out of confusion or out of an ingrained habit of dependence on her caregiver/abuser.

Disabled women who are abused rarely report the abuse, but even when they do, many people do not believe them because of the common assumption that disabled women are asexual and not likely to be abused. Accessibility to support services is a problem, too. Very few domestic violence centers are handicapped accessible or allow personal assistants to remain with a disabled woman. In addition, few counselors and other professionals are trained in how to effectively communicate with a woman who is Deaf or mentally challenged (and frightened and confused, at that).

Inter-personal Relationships and Disability

Most people with disabilities experience “pervasive paternalism” and “social aversion,” both of which are more dangerous for women than for men.[5] Paternalism results in stereotypes of disability as helplessness, weakness, and biological inferiority. For women, these labels already exist; for women with disabilities, they are compounded. In recent years, disability advocates have argued that “the locus of the problem of disability is neither the psyches nor the bodies of individuals with disabilities, but rather it is the system of social relations and institutions that has accomplished the marginalization of people with disabilities as a group.”[6]

It is not so much the disability that is the problem, but the attitudes of society. Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, can legislate that public spaces be made accessible, but they cannot legislate people’s attitudes.

The social aspects of disability (such as poverty and isolation) can be more debilitating than the biological and physical aspects. For women in general, isolation is a threat because they are more relational than men and rely more on the networks of relationships they develop. Because of their physical limitations and social isolation, women with disabilities find it difficult to maintain a supportive network of friends. In addition, it is risky for a disabled woman to have non-disabled women friends because women, who traditionally fill the role of nurturer, can feel a responsibility to become a caretaker rather than a friend.[7] Reciprocity in friendships, which is important to most women, is harder for disabled women who may feel they cannot reciprocate for the patience, hospitality, and assistance that their friends give them.

Feminism and Disability

The fight for disability rights and the fight for women’s rights have much in common, but feminists and disability activists do not always agree on certain issues, including reproductive rights. What does it mean, for instance, when non-disabled women choose to abort their disabled fetuses? Feminists struggle to maintain reproductive choice, while disabled women struggle to assert their rights to existence, support, or opportunity.[8] Ellen Wilke writes, “As long as abortion continues to be permitted on grounds of disability, the future looks bleak as regards improving the lives of [disabled people] in all areas, e.g. access to building, employment, education and suitable housing.”[9]

Sometimes, disabled women are simply not affected by the issues that feminists address, such as sexual harassment. Consider the following dialogue between a disability rights activist and a feminist:

Feminist Speaker: “The concerns about sexual harassment affect all women.”

Disability Rights Activist: “You know, I use a wheelchair, and when I go down the street I don’t get to be sexually harassed. I hear non-disabled women complaining about it, but I don’t ever get treated as a sexual object.”

Feminist Speaker: “You would hate it.”

Disability Rights Activist: “Try two weeks or thirty years without that sexual attention. Then tell me if you would hate getting some, even in the form of harassment!” [10]

Feminists need to understand that their agenda sometimes ignores issues that women with disabilities consider important.

The feminist push to for women to be independent may cause some disabled women to push themselves into an independence that is unsafe and unhealthy, instead of accepting their limitations and recognizing their need for dependency. Women with disabilities must cope with being dependent, and may feel left out of the fight for women’s rights. Barbara Hillyer writes,

To the extent that feminist theory relies on women’s ability to understand their situation, it fails to touch the situation of the women with disabilities. When we argue against female dependency in marriage or elsewhere, we should not ignore the existence of individual women who may be unable to avoid dependency.[11]

There is much more involved in the fight for disability rights than the fight for women’s rights alone can accomplish.

Theology and Disability

Throughout its history, Christianity has interpreted disability in various ways, many of which are unhelpful. Many people believe that disability signifies some kind of unique relationship with God: either the disabled person is blessed (as in “the spiritual superhero”) or damned. Disability has also been linked with sin, as in the Hebrew scripture that forbids anyone with a physical disability to make offerings to God (Lev. 21:18-20). The New Testament uses certain metaphors that also link disability with sin: people are said to be blind or deaf to God’s word (see Mark 8:17-19 and Matthew 23:15-26). These and similar passages equate “the disability of a few [. . .] with the sins of many,” and represent disability as the result of a poor choice, or a sinful act.[12]

Sometimes, disability is seen as the direct result of a lack of faith. Esther Boylan recalls one disabled woman’s experience:

Someone who knows nothing about me except that I use a white cane as a mobility aid will startle me by approaching unexpectedly and saying, “If you truly believe in the Lord, He could make you see before you get to the end of the block.”[13]

“Virtuous suffering” is another theological theme regarding disability. Stories about Job and Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” support the idea that disability is a “trial” that one must endure in order to gain heavenly rewards. This kind of thinking allows the unjust attitudes of society to persist, while the disabled woman is encouraged to be obedient to God and to simply persevere through her trials.

Pastoral Concerns Regarding Disability

The pastor who would minister to women with disabilities must take the time to learn about disability. There are many different kinds of disability, each with its own special set of concerns and needs. Part of pastoral care is providing a safe space in which ministry can happen, which is especially important for disabled women, who may feel very vulnerable. The pastor must find ways of providing accessibility and good communication.

Women are already at a disadvantage when it comes to relating to paternalistic images of God. But the disabled woman faces an extra barrier: her imperfect body causes her to fall even farther from the “perfect” image of God in which she was supposedly created. Pastors need to explore new metaphors and symbols for God, and find new definitions of wholeness with disabled women. And in light of the scriptural and historical depictions of disability (as noted above), pastors must examine their own beliefs to uncover any harmful stereotypes or theological understandings about disability.

Finally, because isolation, loneliness, and lack of purpose are major causes of depression among disabled women, pastors should do all they can to ensure that the disabled woman is fully included into the life of the faith community, and is given an opportunity to do whatever kind of ministry she may be able to do. As Sally McFague writes, “we are made whole only as we participate in the process of making whole.”[14] Pastors can help a disabled women on the path to wholeness by helping her participate to her fullest in the body of Christ. Finally, pastors must learn to love a disabled woman for who she is – a person, first and foremost, who just happens to have a disability.

[1] Esther Boylan, ed., Women and Disability, (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books, 1991), 1.

[2] Helen Meekosha, “Gender and Disability,” Sage Encyclopaedia of Disability, Gary L. Albrecht, ed., (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006).

[3] Susan Lonsdale, Women and Disability, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990), 66.

[4] Boylan, 56.

[5] Nancy Eiesland, The Disabled God, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 64.

[6] Ibid., 62.

[7] Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch, eds., Women with Disabilities: Essays in Psychology, Culture, and Politics, (Phila: Temple University Press, 1988), 176.

[8] Ibid., 30.

[9] Quoted in Jenny Morris, ed., Encounters with Strangers, (London: The Women’s Press, 1996),145.

[10] Fine and Asch, 30.

[11] Barbara Hillyer, Feminism and Disability, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), 8.

[12] Kathy Black, “A Perspective of the Disabled,” Preaching Justice: Ethnic and Cultural Perspectives, Christine Marie Smith, ed., (Cleveland: United Church Press, 1998), 24.

[13] Boylan, 15.

[14] Sallie McFague, Models of God, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), 145.