ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of United States disability policy on disabled women, and explains that the major programs— disability insurance, supplemental security income, workers' compensation, vocational rehabilitation— because of their relationship to labor market participation, disadvantage women. Women not only receive fewer but also less generous benefits. Programs aimed at assisting the disabled have a long historical tradition. The four most significant programs are the disability insurance program under social security; the supplemental security income program, the state workers' compensation and vocational rehabilitation programs. The social insurance features of United States Social Security policy, embodied in Title II of the Social Security Act, provide for the partial replacement of earnings lost to workers and their dependents because of the worker's retirement in old age, disability severe enough to prevent substantial gainful employment, or death. Disability insurance pays wage-related benefits to the worker, the worker's children, and the caretaker of the children of the disabled worker.
