Multiple Minority Groups: A Case Study of Physically Disabled Women

Abstract

In general, disfranchised Americans are becoming increasingly aware of their social restrictions and limitations on opportunities. As a result there are now minority groups who have identified their shared problems only within the last twenty years,and these groups are rapidly changing the nature of minority relations. In particular, people with newly defined multiple minority statuses are beginning to articulate their specialized interests and establish new relations with both the dominant majority and the minority groups to which they belong. Physically disabled women are one such group. As women and as disabled people, they are members of two separate minority groups. Their relations to disabled males and able-bodied females shed light on the theoretical complexities of this recent social phenomenon. They also reveal how understanding their specific problems can lead to a redefinition of how to generate a more liberated and liberating society.