Feminist disability theory: domestic violence against women with a disability

Abstract

Women with a disability continue to experience social oppression and domestic violence as a consequence of gender and disability dimensions. Current explanations of domestic violence and disability inadequately explain several features that lead women who have a disability to experience violent situations. This article incorporates both disability and material feminist theory as an alternative explanation to the dominant approaches (psychological and sociological traditions) of conceptualising domestic violence. This paper is informed by a study which was concerned with examining the nature and perceptions of violence against women with a physical impairment. The emerging analytical framework integrating material feminist interpretations and disability theory provided a basis for exploring gender and disability dimensions. Insight was also provided by the women who identified as having a disability in the study and who explained domestic violence in terms of a gendered and disabling experience. The article argues that material feminist interpretations and disability theory, with their emphasis on gender relations, disablism and poverty, should be used as an alternative tool for exploring the nature and consequences of violence against women with a disability.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the many people who provided encouragement and expertise concerning the study and this article. I am indebted to Dr John Tomlinson and Dr Marie Knox and postgraduate colleagues for their helpful suggestions, guidance and encouragement.

Notes

1. The discussion in this paper emerges from a study, which examined domestic violence against women with a physical impairment, perpetrated by spouses in the Australian context (Mays, 2003). For a fuller examination of the theoretical influences of feminist materialist, disability and domestic violence theory, refer to the thesis (Mays, 2003).