ABSTRACT
This chapter describes mothers’ perceptions, beliefs and ideas about issues of gender and independence in their child with a disability. While studies focusing on disability issues have compared and contrasted male and female children, few studies have examined mothers’ perceptions and expectations for male and female children with a disability. This chapter describes how mothers articulated their expectations for gender development and considers the hopes and expectations they have for their children in the future. Issues of independence are linked to employment, self-care issues and personal autonomy for both male and female children. Most significantly, mothers link independence with their hopes and expectations for happiness and personal autonomy of their children. While mothers don’t appear to differentiate between boys and girls in their hopes for their children, the mothers who have a child with intellectual disability, either female or male, appear most concerned about this issue.
