India. The Influence of Disability on Gender Roles and Identity

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Asian studies, grade: 1,0, University of Göttingen (Centre for Modern Indian Studies), course: Disability and Society - Global Historical Perspectives, language: English, abstract: The Indian feminist movement has until recently neglected the plight of those women that are not healthy and functional in the normative sense, but rather impaired and thus, almost consequently, disabled. By taking disability into account, the general burden of being born female might become evident in even sharper contrast. In order to achieve a more complete picture and understand the mechanisms behind gender ideologies in the context of disability, the situation of the disabled men needs to be considered as well. This way, a comparative analysis of the impact gender ideologies exert on persons with disabilities (PWD) of different sexes is possible. How does incapacity, physical or intellectual, affect the standing of a PWD in the eyes of their community and subsequently their general outlook in life? In what ways does the experience of disability influence the perception and performance of culturally determined gender roles and gender identities? Due to India being so culturally diverse, no single formulation can be given that encompasses all the different ways in which disability is viewed and experienced. The study of the disabled experience of men and women in relation to gender is impossible without taking into account the ideological background upon which gendered ideals, norms and expectations are socially constructed. Thus, before delving deeper into the literature review, an outline of the construction of personhood as well as the perspectives on disability in the Indian context shall be given. Afterwards, an analysis of the different gender-specific challenges, but also opportunities for identity negotiation of men and women with disabilities is attempted consecutively. In this section it will be shown that men generally suffer from the same normative ideals as women, albeit to a lesser extent depending on their impairment, its degree and also their social setting.