SPIRITUALITY
This brief section contains articles related to disability and spirituality, especially from a feminist viewpoint, as well as three articles about Muslim women concerning the interrelationships between disability, culture, race and gender, and one article on relationships between women with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers at L’Arche homes.
Cushing, P., & Lewis, T. (2002). Negotiating mutuality and agency in care-giving relationships with women with intellectual disabilities. In E. Kittay, S. Silvers, & S. Wendell (Eds.), Special issue: Feminism and disability II. Hypatia, 17(3), 173-193.
This article is an ethnographic analysis of the mutuality that is possible in relationships between caregivers and women with intellectual disabilities who live together in L'Arche homes. Creating mutuality through which both parties grow and exercise agency requires that caregivers learn to negotiate delicate power relations connected to the physics of care and to reframe dominant stereotypes of disability. This helps them to support the women with intellectual disabilities to name and achieve their desires.
Dossa, P. (2005, June). Racialized bodies, disabling worlds: “They [service providers] always saw me as a client, not as a worker.” Social Science & Medicine, 60(11), 2527-2536.
This paper makes a case for a contextualized reading of intersecting constructs of disability, gender and race as they unfold in the everyday lives of immigrant women with disabilities. Taking the vantage point of Mehrun, a Canadian Muslim woman with polio, we show that the disability, gender and race constructs converge in some contexts and remain separate in others. This is an important consideration as it forestalls a situation where immigrant women’s activist work is seen to be confined to the discrete sphere of their own communities. Mehrun’s story of migration and settlement as well as her ‘‘work’’ on community integration of persons with disabilities (regardless of race or gender) is a plea for the civil rights of disabled people. At the same time, Mehrun’s embodied reality as a racialized woman with disabilities suggests the possibility of making her marginality the epicenter of change.
Dossa, P. (2006, June). Disability, marginality and the nation-state-negotiating social markers of difference: Fahimeh’s story. Disability & Society, 21(4), 345-358.
Testimonial narratives of racialized women with disabilities bring into relief subjugated knowledge that reveal how the state constitutes and is reconstituted at the margins. Fahimeh’s case example, drawn from a larger study on immigrant Muslim women in metropolis Vancouver, shows how women resist and rework the stigmatized labels of disability and race from their social locations at the margins. Our analysis of particular events and critical episodes show how Fahimeh, speaking in a collective voice, implicates the state to bring home the message that racialized persons with disabilities are human. Their humanness (desire for a just world) is affirmed through blurring of boundaries of the private and the public, and everyday life and state institutions. Fahimeh’s testimonial shows that margins are not merely territorial; they are sites of practice that point to the makings of a just world.
Elshout, E. (1994, Fall). Women with disabilities: A challenge to feminist theology. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 10(2), 99-134.
A discussion of the challenges posed to feminist theology by women with disabilities. The feminist movement is not sufficiently conscious of its own "ableism." Feminists who criticize the traditional sex roles of wife and mother are insensitive to the fact that women with disabilities are taught that they are asexual, as oppressive a message as that conveyed by heterosexism. What is more, feminism's strategy of complete separation from patriarchal society ignores the fact that women with disabilities experience constant and tangible barriers such as physical inaccessibility. The writer suggests that women with and without disabilities need to communicate, so that a new critical feminist anthropology can be engendered; an anthropology that will take not only gender into account, but also sickness, disability, and age as powerful shapers of self and society.
This same issue contains responses to Elshout’s article by Dorothee Wilhelm, Carole R. Fontaine, Nancy L. Eiesland, Valerie C. Stiteler, Adele B. McCollum, and Margaret Moers Wenig.
Harp, C. R. (2005, Spring). Autism moms. Lilith, 30(1).
In a city in the Midwest, a growing cadre of Jewish moms bond. They have special-needs kids and a special Jewish community. Illustrations by Israeli artists--children and adults--with autism.
Heath, C. D. (2006, April). A womanist approach to understanding and assessing the relationship between spirituality and mental health. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 9(2), 155-170.
Mental health is a growing concern for Black women. Issues of gender, race, and class contribute to Black women's mental health status. Over-burdened and over-extended, Black women are continuously plagued by stress. Thus, mental health for Black women is an art of self-healing, and spirituality plays a major role in the recovery of their mental health and well-being. The connection between spirituality and mental health enables Black women to remain on life's course in spite of obstacles. However, sociopolitical assessments of how spirituality functions in culturally diverse populations are seldom present in mental health research and provide little if any value to mental health issues specific to Black women. In response, a womanist research agenda is proposed to address Black women's mental health needs. A womanist research agenda is needed to contribute to the process of understanding the liberating function of spirituality in Black women's lives.
Hussain, Y. (2005, August). South Asian disabled women: Negotiating identities. The Sociological Review, 53(3), 522-538.
This paper is concerned with the identities of disabled South Asian women within Britain. It presents empirical evidence concerning how disability, gender and ethnicity are negotiated simultaneously for young disabled Muslim and Sikh women. How these identities are negotiated is analysed in the realms of family, religion and marriage drawing on qualitative interviews with the young women, their parents and siblings. The paper argues against ideas of singular identity or the hierarchisation of identities or oppressions. The paper contributes to contemporary debates about how young South Asian women are constructing new forms of identity in Britain.
Kamm-Steigelman, L., Kimble, L. P., Dunbar, S., Sowell, R. L., & Bairan, A. (2006, February/March). Religion, relationships and mental health in midlife women following acute myocardial infarction. In C. L. Coleman (Ed.), Spiritual and religious activities: Implications for improving mental health [Special issue]. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27(2), 141-159.
Little is known about coping in women following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In midlife, women have worse outcomes than men following AMI. Innovative interventions need to be developed that respond to these women's unique recovery needs. In this correlational, descriptive study, 59 women aged 35–64 who had experienced AMI reported low satisfaction with life and decreased mental health; 49% were experiencing depression. However, they also reported that religion, family, and friends provided strength and comfort at the time of their AMI. Greater activation of simple, family-oriented, coping resources during recovery may be key. It is recommended that mental health nurses be essential members of the recovery planning team.
Meakes, E., O'Connor, T. S., & Carr, S. (2002). The great leveler: Gender and the institutionalized disabled on faith and disability. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 6(1), 37-46.
Gender similarities and differences are examined among disabled persons who are institutionalized using an ethnographic study already published (O'Connor et al., 1998). The sample in the study is 26 participants with 16 being female and 10 being male. Gender differences arise around the importance of relationships and the experience of the wheelchair. There is a lack of awareness of patriarchy, and both genders view a radical difference between disabled and able bodied, and not between the genders. Both genders fight for justice and use non-gender specific language to describe God. Disability in this sample tends to produce a level playing field between the genders.
Miltiades, H. B., & Pruchno, R. (2002, February). The effect of religious coping on caregiving appraisals of mothers of adults with developmental disabilities. The Gerontologist, 42(1), 82-92.
Researchers explored the association between race and religious coping on caregiving appraisals for mothers who co-reside with an adult child with mental retardation.
Moultrie, M. (2006). "In the world to come God will sign": Challenges to feminist theologies of embodiment and wholeness and a model of inclusivity for persons with disabilities. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 11(1), 27-36.
The correlation of disability studies and feminist theology is discussed, as this is one arena where feminist theologians are failing to create an inclusive community. Of particular concern for feminist theologians and ethicists is the dominant language of embodiment and wholeness pervasive in feminist theological ethics. In this paper, I argue that feminist theologies of embodiment and wholeness are incomplete without understanding what these terms mean for persons with disabilities. I also challenge the discipline to actively prepare the community by looking critically at its language and pedagogy to create a theological ethic where one can be "different but not alienated."
Nosek, M. A., & Hughes, R. B. (2001, January/February/March). Psychospiritual aspects of sense of self in women with physical disabilities. Journal of Rehabilitation, 67(1), 20-25.
This paper reviews findings on sense of self and spirituality that have emerged in several of the studies conducted by the Center for Research on Women with Disabilities. It presents a review of literature on self-esteem, self in connection to others, and self-efficacy, and describes findings from two qualitative and one quantitative study of these constructs in women with disabilities. Discussion leads to the hypothesis that the sense of self in connection to others is a fundamental determinant of self-esteem, and that self-efficacy, when perceived as a power drawn from a divine source, is an important mechanism used to transcend the challenges to both that often accompany disability.
Porter, E. J., Ganong, L. H., & Armer, J. M. (2000). The church family and kin: An older rural Black woman's support network and preferences for care providers. Qualitative Health Research, 10(4), 452-470.
Although kin and church are considered premier support sources for rural elders, few scholars have undertaken descriptive studies to explore the nature of rural Black elders' support networks and their preferences for in-home service providers. In the case study described in this article, methods of support network analysis and descriptive phenomenology were used to analyze data from five lengthy, open-ended interviews with a 94-year-old rural Black woman. The various groups and individuals of her network are labeled in her words, the network's supportive functions are described, and preferences for providers are noted. In addition, the varying structures of her home care experience with the support network members are described. Her attempts to voice and exercise her preferences for in-home service providers are explained in terms of two contrasting processes: preference uptake and preference suppression. Based on these findings, implications for appraising the appropriateness of rural elders' in-home services are discussed.
Somjai, A., & Chaipoom, A. (2006, September). Psychosocial needs of women with cancer of the reproductive system: A comparison between Buddhist and Muslim patients in Thailand. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 9(4), 379-388.
The aims of this study were (1) to compare the differences in psychosocial needs and needs-met between Buddhist and Muslim patients with cancer of the female reproductive system; and (2) to identify factors associated with those needs, and the perception of responses to their needs. The subjects were 45 Thai Buddhist and 45 Thai Muslim patients, with cancer of the reproductive system, who were admitted to a gynecological ward of a university hospital in southern Thailand. A structured interview questionnaire concerning demographic and disease characteristics, and eight categories of psychosocial needs and needs-met (hope, more information, moral support, acceptance, relief of anxiety, economic support, discussion about death, and privacy) was given to the patients an average of six days after admission. Both Buddhist and Muslim patients had overall high psychosocial needs that were not fully met. Muslims had significantly higher needs for acceptance, relief of anxiety, economic support, discussion of issues related to death, and privacy than had Buddhists. The needs scores were higher than the needs-met scores for all categories in both Buddhist and Muslim patients. Being Muslim was the only factor related with the change in the overall needs score. The type and stage of cancers were significantly associated with change in the needs-met scores. Ovarian cancer patients had higher needs-met scores than cervical cancer patients, and patients in the higher stages of illness had lower needs-met scores than those in stage 1. The study revealed a high level of psychosocial needs in female cancer patients. In future planning for the provision of nursing care for these patients, the particular needs of different ethnic groups and patients in different types and stages of cancers should be considered.
Turcic, E. K., & Hughes, R. S. (2004). Caregiving influenced by gender and spirituality. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 7(4), 41-53.
Current trends in American families point to the importance of sibling relationships as part of lasting family ties. In families where a child has a disability, siblings are often called upon to be caretakers of their sibling with a disability. Consistent with the research on the caretaking of elderly parents, females are more likely to become caretakers of members with disabilities due to gender role expectations. Such caretaking females face unique emotional and spiritual challenges as they cope with their unique role in the family. This paper will serve as an introduction to the explanation behind the caregiving role for sisters of siblings with disabilities and their consequent spiritual challenges and coping resources.
Turmusani, M. (2001). Disabled women in Islam: Middle Eastern perspective. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 5(2/3), 73-85.
Western debates have increasingly included women issues in their analysis. These debates however, proved to have little relevance to women with impairments and are in fact being held under scrutiny by feminist writers. The position of disabled women in other cultures remains especially one of the most under-researched areas within current discourses on women and disability issues. This presentation fills the gap and presents an account based on textual analysis of disabled women in Islam and Muslim culture. It argues that disabled women in Islam have a lowly position in society due to historical perception related to both the inferior position of women in Islam as well as the lowly position of disabled people in society in general. Understanding the position of disabled women thus requires close investigation into these two positions within their particular socio-economic and historical contexts. Despite the presence of various feminists' movements in Muslim countries these days, these have not included much debate on disability and disabled women within their mainstream analysis. The paper concludes by calling for existing theoretical perspectives to include the analysis of disabled women within their remit and also to take note of wider contextual issues including cultures, religions, and economy when studying women in society.
Walton, J., Craig, C., Derwinski-Robinson, B., & Weinert, C. (2004). I am not alone: Spirituality of chronically ill rural dwellers. Rehabilitation Nursing, 29(5), 164-168.
Study examined what spirituality means to chronically ill rural dwellers and the impact it has on their illness. Content analysis was used to analyze the data obtained from phone interviews with 10 chronically ill women. The theme "means the world to me" described what spirituality meant to participants. The following themes described how spirituality related to chronic illness: (1) I am not alone, (2) putting on a happy face, (3) others are worse off, and (4) transcending despair and letting go. Findings from this study provide rehabilitation nurses with insight into the spirituality needs of chronically women living in rural areas.
Zimmerman, D. R. (2006). The participation of disabled women in the rules of niddah. Journal of Religion, Disability and Health, 11(1), 217-220.
In Jewish Law (Halachah) a woman is in the state of niddah after uterine bleeding. This short paper explains the laws concerning niddah and also aspects involving the women with disability.