Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:08:26.969Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Unhealthy Disabled: Treating Chronic Illnesses as Disabilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

Chronic illness is a major cause of disability, especially in women. Therefore, any adequate feminist understanding of disability must encompass chronic illnesses. I argue that there are important differences between healthy disabled and unhealthy disabled people that are likely to affect such issues as treatment of impairment in disability and feminist politics, accommodation of disability in activism and employment, identification of persons as disabled, disability pride, and prevention and “cure” of disabilities.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agich, George J. 1997. Toward a pragmatic theory of disease. In What is disease? ed. Humber, James M. and Almeder, Robert F.Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press.Google Scholar
Amundson, Ron. 1992. Disability, handicap, and the environment, Journal of Social Philosophy 23(1): 105–18.10.1111/j.1467-9833.1992.tb00489.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carroll, Douglas, and Niven, Catherine A. 1993. Gender, health and stress. In The health psychology of women, ed. Niven, Catherine A. and Carroll, Douglas. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Charmaz, Kathy. 1991. Good days, bad days: The self in chronic illness. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Clare, Eli. 1999. Exile and pride: Disability, queerness and liberation. Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press.Google Scholar
Crow, Liz. 1996. Including all of our lives: Renewing the social model of disability. In Encounters with strangers: Feminism and disability, ed. Morris, Jenny. London: The Women's Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Humber, James M., and Almeder, Robert F., eds. 1997. What is disease? Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphrey, Jill C. 2000. Researching disability politics, or, some problems with the social model in practice. Disability and Society 15(1): 6385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Jenny. 1991. Pride against prejudice: Transforming attitudes to disability. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Morris, Jenny. 1994. Gender and disability. In On equal terms: Working with disabled people, ed. French, Sally. Oxford: Butterworth‐Heinemann Ltd.Google Scholar
Morris, Jenny ed., 1996. Encounters with strangers: Feminism and disability. London: The Women's Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Oliver, Michael. 1990. The politics of disablement. London: Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-349-20895-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overall, Christine. 1998. A feminist I: Reflections from academia. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Register, Cheri. 1987. Living with chronic illness: Days of patience and passion. New York: Bantam.Google Scholar
Report on the health of Canadians. 1996. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada.Google Scholar
Snow, Judith A. 1992. Living at home. In Imprinting our image: An international anthology by women with disabilities, ed. Driedger, Diane and Gray, Susan. Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Gynergy Books.Google Scholar
Trypuc, Joann M. 1994. Gender based mortality and morbidity patterns and health risks. In Women, medicine and health, ed. Singh Bolaria, B. and Bolaria, Rosemary. Halifax, N. S.: Fernwood.Google Scholar
U.N. Decade of Disabled Persons 1983–1992. 1983. World programme of action concerning disabled persons. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Wade, Cheryl Marie. 1994. Identity. The Disability Rag and ReSource (September/October): 3236.Google Scholar
Wendell, Susan. 1996. The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wendell, Susan. 1999. Old women out of control: Some thoughts on aging, ethics and psychosomatic medicine. In Mother time: Women, aging and ethics, ed. Walker, Margaret. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2000. Disability and the definition of work. In Americans with disabilities: Exploring implications of the law for individuals and institutions, ed. Francis, Leslie and Silvers, Anita. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar