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At the intersection of feminist and disability rights movements. From equality in difference to human diversity claims

Míriam Arenas Conejo

ISBN: 978-1-78350-156-4, eISBN: 978-1-78350-157-1

Publication date: 27 December 2013

Abstract

Purpose

The text explores the feminist concept of intersectionality and its adoption within disability studies. The aim is to analyze how feminist and disability movements and theories have managed the issue of struggling against oppression and for equality while acknowledging internal diversity.

Methodology/approach

Literature review based on the concepts of intersectionality, disabled women, and disability and diversity seeking for explicit and implicit confluences and emerging implications at different levels: social movements, theoretical developments, and policymaking.

Findings

Intersectionality is a minor field within disability studies. However, diversity and multiple oppression issues have been addressed by the disability rights movement, after disabled women introduced feminist principles. This intersection of disability and feminist studies has transformed both fields, and at the same time fostered a new paradigm. It situates the claims on the similarities between disabled and nondisabled people, instead of focusing on identity politics.

Social implications

The chapter acknowledges social movements as key actors in generating and developing significant debates, both in feminist and disability studies. Moreover, it seeks for conceptual tools that promote alliance-building strategies between oppressed groups in the struggle for social justice.

Originality/value

The chapter presents overall perspective of what intersectionality is and how the disability rights movement has addressed it, while seeking broader implications of the analysis of multiple inequalities.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Pre-doctoral Fellowship and Grand Scheme of Commission for Universities and Research of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise of the Generalitat of Catalunya and the European Social Fund, and with the help of the Centre of Research in Theories and Practices that Overcome Inequalities of the University of Barcelona (CREA – UB).

Citation

Conejo, M.A. (2013), "At the intersection of feminist and disability rights movements. From equality in difference to human diversity claims", Disability and Intersecting Statuses (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 23-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3547(2013)0000007004

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited