Contemporary representations of disability and interpersonal relationships of disabled women in south-western Nigeria

Abstract

abstractAmid the sociocultural fluidity of modernisation, disability has risen to prominence in development debates. Disability has increasingly been viewed as neglect and sociocultural obstruction. The existence of these social realities has created a segregated society with respect to disability that both stems from and perpetuates cultural stereotypes of disability. In addition, the foregoing debate seemingly excludes analysis of oppression of women with disability from Nigeria's social-cultural discourse. This article examines the nature of the contemporary social construction of disability, and looks at the ways in which these constructions affect the interpersonal relationships of disabled women. For this article 40 young disabled adult women in south-western Nigeria provided information about their views of disabilities, and how these views continue to influence their interpersonal relationships. Findings from this study show that continued negative representations of women with disabilities as helpless, incompetent, asexual and intellectually challenged continue to affect the lives of disabled women in contemporary societies. In addition, the reproduction of disability stereotypes and gender serves to reinforce male and able-bodied hegemony in intimate relationships. In the face of contemporary socio-economic contraditions the article suggests that disability and social policy require a parallel renegotiation, because the experience of women with disabilities is an integral part of a society characterised by fundamental ideologies and social inequalities which misrepresent and destroy disabled peoples’ lives, and divide people against each other.