ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the position of the disabled woman is inextricably linked with the socio-economic processes that define the positions of disabled men and nondisabled women. The devalued roles of nondisabled women and disabled men differ from the rolelessness experienced by disabled women in the United States. Disabled women confront the sexism experienced by most women, but are deprived of even the fragile pedestal on which nondisabled women are often placed. Research, political action, and altered social consciousness will provide the springboards for change. Self-concept research finds that negative self-concept is less related to one's level of ability/disability than to one's gender. Self-perceptions of these women conform to the perceptions expressed by others, and may unfortunately be an accurate internalization of opportunity structures. Stereotypes are those behaviors expected from an individual by virtue of a stable characteristic. A composite of characteristics associated with that one characteristic are stereotypically attributed to the individual.
