ABSTRACT

Some years ago, we happened to be casually talking about the situation of women with long-term physical impairments. The conversation led us to look for literature on the subject, but to our surprise most of the scholarly and popular literature on disability did not differentiate between men and women. Furthermore, much of this literature was based upon studies of men. Yet it seemed to us, on the basis of our personal observations, that there were differences between males and females who were disabled. As but one example, in public situations we noticed more men with visible disabilities; yet we knew that there were at least as many women who were disabled. We decided to explore this matter further.