ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to offer an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of feminist scholarship and disability studies or, as Rosemarie Garland-Thomson termed it, feminist disability studies. It offers a brief overview of the field for people interested in knowing more about feminist perspectives in disability studies. The chapter demonstrates both the diversity and theoretical importance of the field by pointing the reader towards key concepts, debates and authors. In addition, feminists within disability studies thoroughly challenged and deconstructed ableist ideas within feminism. The use of the old feminist maxim ‘the personal is political’ would profoundly influence the debate in Britain during the 1990s about the role of impairment in the social model of disability – a discussion that would deeply engage disabled feminists. Feminist disability studies has also made important contributions to our cultural and social understanding of bodies. Disability studies is a field which has expanded beyond its inception in Britain and North America.
