From the Guest Editors: Gender, Disability, and Intersectionality

Abstract

W e are extremely honored to present this special issue on "Gender, Disability, and Intersectionality." Working on this project has been a privilege as we have been able to see the theoretical sophistication, range of topics and methodological innovation evident in contemporary sociologists' contributions to research in feminist disability studies. As we embarked on this project, we recognized how important it is for Gender & society, as a leading gender studies journal, to feature the intersectional scholarship of feminist disability studies scholars. Informed by black feminist analysis of black women's lives, the conceptualization of intersectionality enables a complex understanding of the ways in which race, gender, class, sexuality, and ability among other dimensions of social, cultural, political, and economic processes intersect to shape everyday experiences and social institutions. AuThORS' NOTE: Our thanks to Jo reger and the editorial team at Oakland University for their guidance and support through the process of producing this special issue.

Missing Pieces: Engaging Sociology of Disability in Medical Sociology

“…Missing Pieces: Engaging Sociology of Disability in Medical Sociology (Forthcoming in Journal of Health and Social Behavior) By Laura Mauldin and Robyn Lewis Brown In contrast to medical sociology, the sociology of disability has a conceptualization of disability informed by distinct theoretical foundations and research aims. While disability is still understood as a "health status," it is emphasized primarily as a unique social category (commensurate with race, class, or gender) made up of a heterogenous and expansive population with varying impairments or diagnoses (Frederick and Shifrer 2018;Naples, Mauldin, and Dillaway 2019). This does not mean that specific diagnoses or impairments are irrelevant, but that these usually serve as an organizational feature of research.…”

“…In their volume of Research in Social Science and Disability, Green and Barnartt (2017) curate a rich set of articles detailing the often-overlooked histories of disability in sociology and trace a path back from the more recent sociology of disability research to seminal scholarship analyses. Overall, in the sociology of disability subfield, even when particular impairments are studied, there is an appreciation for how disability as a broad social category is structurally produced, characterized by profound inequality, and intersecting with other axes of inequality (Frederick and Shifrer 2018;Naples et al 2019). In much the same way that medical sociologists acknowledge that health disparities involve a substantial array of often overlapping physical, psychological, intellectual, and behavioral health conditions, scholars working in the subfield also tend to adapt a similarly inclusive frame of what constitutes a disability.…”

Appréhender la pluralité des personnes handicapées et la complexité de leurs expériences : que faire des différences ?

“…Pendant longtemps, cependant, les seules différences prises en compte dans l'analyse sont le genre, l'appartenance ethnique et la classe sociale. La prise en compte du handicap (comme d'autres caractéristiques) se fait plus tardivement, sous l'impulsion de chercheuses féministes handicapées (Baril, 2013 ;Naples, Mauldin et Dillaway, 2019). Cela peut d'ailleurs paraître paradoxal car l'histoire de ces femmes handicapées dans les mouvements féministes est très proche de celle des femmes noires.…”

They Told Me My Name: Developing a Deaf Identity

“…However, we are centering our article in sociological literature. As Naples, Mauldin, and Dillaway (2018:9) write, “While specific impairments and populations may be investigated in disparate ways across the sociological literature, scholars in feminist disability studies and the sociology of disability generally conceptualize disability as a social category in its own right; that is, individuals may have diverse impairments, but are all subject to ableist processes that result in their exclusion and marginalization.” In other words, in this article we approach deaf experiences from a sociology of disability perspective that is about identifying processes of marginalization as they emerge from ableism more broadly.…”