In general, women with disabilities are more discriminated against and disadvantaged than men with disabilities. In the industrialised countries there are consistent, although not necessarily large, gender differences in income, employment and education for people with disabilities. Poverty and deprivation magnify these inequalities, and can determine access to food, care and social inclusion, and even threaten survival. Women with disabilities are also at greater risk of physical, mental and sexual abuse, and because of stigmatisation have lower marriage prospects. There are more barriers to access and participation for women than for men, and mothers and caregivers in particular face enormous challenges when raising children with disabilities or chronic illnesses, especially within the context of women-headed households and early pregnancy. This article emphasises the need to approach disability as an integral part of development rather than as a separate need competing with other causes and manifestations of poverty.
Although community participation still enjoys a high level of support across various sectors in South Africa, its practice is fraught with conceptual and practical difficulties. This paper starts out by examining some of the problems and limitations associated with community participation, including the heterogeneity and fragmentation of many poor communities, the lack of social and material resources and community members' expectations of receiving a return from their involvement in development projects. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) or participatory learning and action (PLA) is used as an example to illustrate some of the conceptual and theoretical limitations that characterise most approaches to participatory development. In particular it is argued that approaches such as PRA/PLA lack the theoretical basis for effectively getting to grips with the problems of participatory development. What is needed is a conceptual framework not only to understand the responses of communities, but also to locate such communities within their socio-economic contexts. The second part of the paper therefore examines three developments in social science theory that may be able to contribute to the development of a richer conceptual framework for popular participation. These are the concept of social capital, the asset-based approach to development, and the debate around the role of the state in development.
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