Patience Ndlovu Udonsi P.Udonsi@salford.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer
Reversing a one-track history: listening to minority voices at the intersections of gender, race, and intellectual disability
Udonsi, Patience
Authors
Abstract
This chapter applies Black feminist theoretical methodologies of intersectionality to post-colonial social work in the context of working with women with Intellectual Disabilities. A case study has been used to deconstruct the experiences of a young woman of Asian heritage with an intellectual disability, living in the United Kingdom as part of a migrant family. The case study will demonstrate that prevalent, dominant legal frameworks and social work models are ill-equipped to respond to the needs of minoritized and racialized women, in a world where intersectional racism reproduces interlocking oppressions (Nayak, 2019; Nayak, 2015). Dominant western policies and procedures regarding the safeguarding of adults do not explicitly respond to intersectional constructions of subjugation. For example, it is possible to undertake safeguarding interventions regarding a woman with intellectual disabilities who is considered to be at risk of harm, without ever naming racism, classism, dis-ableism, patriarchy, capitalism, and neo-liberalism. Women with intellectual disabilities often experience repeated emotionally distressing discrimination which may lead to trauma manifestations. The underlying emotional distress triggers may remain unnoticed by social care providers and social workers, thereby compounding their impact on women with lived experience of intellectual disabilities. On a practical and ideological level, the imperative is to respond to the causative factors leading to the subjugation of women with intellectual disabilities. This chapter is a call for the removal of these pervasive clouds of inequity and the gaining of a clear vision for addressing underlying issues regarding the oppression of racialized and minoritized women.
| Online Publication Date | Jun 6, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | Jun 6, 2024 |
| Deposit Date | Jan 31, 2025 |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| Series Title | Routledge International Handbooks |
| Book Title | The Routledge International Handbook of Feminisms In Social Work |
| Chapter Number | 4 |
| ISBN | 9781032327600 |
| Publisher URL | https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-International-Handbook-of-Feminisms-in-Social-Work/Noble-Rasool-Harms-Smith-Munoz-Arce-Baines/p/book/9781032327600 |