Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Who Has a Stake in the Feminist Disability Rights Movement?

As I move through this project, a particular concern of mine is fleshing out the identities of the people who have a stake in feminist disability rights. Offhand, one can always say the feminist disability rights impacts and includes everyone, but I think there are particular groups of people to whom we must pay particular attention. How can we build sisterhood without knowing who our sisters are?

Have you thought about how these folks fit in the feminist disability rights vision?
...indigenous women
...immigrant women
...women who are institutionalized in nursing homes and institutions
...women who are incarcerated in the penal system
...women of color
...women who do not speak English
...Deaf women
...trans people and people who are intersex
...moms and caregivers
...siblings
...non-disabled women
...lesbians and people who are genderqueer
...women of different economic/social classes
...single women
...women who are/were alcoholics or substance abusers
...women who are homeless
...women who have non-standard body shapes
...victims of domestic or sexual violence
...girls
...seniors

I'm sure I'm missing some groups, but the point is, whatever we do to create a true united feminist disability front, we must focus on the human and civil rights of all these groups. Truly, if one of us is not free, none of us are.

As I engage in e-mail fielding to get ready for this trip, I am trying to keep an eye towards educating myself (and the folks who read this blog! smile) about all of these stakes. Recommendations gladly taken...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Women with psychiatric disabilities who are not in institutions.

Unknown said...

Excellent point. I wanted to add that I was trying to expand the picture of stakeholders in the feminist disability rights movement beyond the base identity of "woman with a disability." So who else has a stake, that we would not usually think would be interested in feminist disability rights, and why? In some ways I just want to say EVERYBODY, but I think it's worthwhile to brainstorm the many identities out there in the world. Just two cents...women with psychiatric disabilities who are not in institutions are definitely stakeholders, no doubt.