ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews relevant literature in order to demonstrate that there has been little opportunity for learning disabled women to give their opinions of services that they receive; they have been expected to tolerate and endure the marginalisation they have experienced. Encouragingly, however, much of the literature which includes voices of learning disabled women shows the resilience and resistance of women albeit on an individual rather than collective level. Women do not passively accept the roles and restrictive identities offered to them, and make attempts to show that they are also in control. The need to explore learning disabled women’s experiences both of power and resistance, in the context of the intersection between gender and disability, is an important theme of this book. It is necessary to represent learning disabled women in a more complex way than traditional normative and institutional representations, in order to more fully understand the adversities they encounter day-to-day. Indeed, this is particularly important for those who have been removed from society and have little or no opportunity to collectivise and orchestrate their own representation.
