ABSTRACT
This study brings together a unique selection of results that reveal how disabilities shaped the marriage/cohabitation chances in Swedish populations from the 1800s until recent decades. Using longitudinal population registers and a life course approach, multivariate statistical analysis helps to estimate the impact of disability on partnership relative to other individual-level attributes in different temporal contexts of Swedish society. While there were some differences by type of disability and gender, the overall finding is that disabilities kept weakening people’s partnership chances to a similarly high extent (with about 60% or even more), as Sweden moved from being a poor country in the 1800s to a modern welfare state. We discuss the findings from social inequalities perspectives arguing that disabled people’s partnership chances not only represent how potential partners perceive disability; these chances also reflect general attitudes in society towards disability that work to compromise disabled people’s participation in social life and society. Our long-term results uncover a remarkable persistence in the relationship between disability and partnership in turn suggesting that social inequalities persist being associated with disability in spite of profound structural changes and extensive welfare measures in Sweden to create a more equal society for all.
