‘Because they have all the power and I have none’: state restructuring of income and employment supports and disabled women's lives in Ontario, Canada

Abstract

We examine the connections between neo‐liberal forms of state restructuring and intervention in disabled people's lives, looking in particular at how these have affected disabled women's experiences of an income support program, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), in Ontario, Canada. We first outline why and how state programs have been re‐designed and implemented in increasingly harsh ways as a result of such neo‐liberal forms of state restructuring. Even groups formerly considered among the ‘deserving poor’ have found their access to social assistance diminished. We then argue that this is an outcome of state programs, policies and practices which are re‐asserting and more deeply entrenching ‘ableness’ as a necessary condition of citizenship, inclusion and access to justice. Finally, we illustrate how disabled women's lives and well‐being have been altered as a result of changes in the provision of these forms of state assistance using in‐depth semi‐structured interviews conducted with 10 women in Ontario.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the women who participated in interviews for their openness and willingness to share their personal stories. Funding for this project was made possible by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Standard Research Grant on which Dr. Vera Chouinard is the Principal Investigator.

Notes

* Corresponding author. School of Geography and Geology, BSB 311, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1. Email: [email protected]

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 Society for Disability Studies Conference held in Bethesda, Maryland.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valorie A. Crooks *

* Corresponding author. School of Geography and Geology, BSB 311, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1. Email: [email protected]