Education and Employment for the Next Millennium

by Maria Barile

For most non-disabled people, higher education has been a means for greater opportunities and stable employment. Until recently, most women with disabilities were assigned to the underclass or not assigned any status at all. Part of the basis for this reality is their lack of opportunities for higher education. Given that women with disabilities are still at a lower stratum today compared to non disabled people, what effect will the present economic downside have on them? If those who have had access to guaranteed stable employment in the past are questioning their economic stability in the next millennium, what will the future economic uncertainty mean for women with disabilities?

What will the future economic uncertainty mean for women with disabilities

It is my contention that for the majority women with disabilities, higher education may become even more difficult to attain. This is due to the present down sliding and transforming economy, as well as the effects of combined and ongoing sexism and ableism. Women with disabilities who do reach graduate and post graduate degrees may find that their outcome is not on par with non-disabled women or men with disabilities. Without higher education and degrees, people with disabilities will likely be worse off.1

University Degrees

General information and statistical data regarding women with disabilities and their educational and employment conditions began to appear in academic and popular circles only in the late 1980s. That information presented an unfavorable educational and employment, picture. It showed that although women and men with disabilities were almost even in attending elementary schools, the percentage shifted when attending higher education. One study, by L'Association des adults handicapés de la Maurice on the economic realities of women with disabilities, found that among its 63 respondents 46.3% had attended primary school but only 3.18 % had gone to university2. L'association study's sheds light upon an interesting factor: 16% of the women interviewed had accepted jobs below their academic qualifications. These figures agree with those of Statistics Canada for the Montreal area (see graph).

The number of non-disabled women and men who obtained university degrees in 1991 and those who obtained them twenty years earlier has increased 17% for women and 14% for men. This is proportionate to the gap between women and men with disabilities who currently obtain degrees (5.6% and 6.2% respectively) and those of the non-disabled community who obtained them in 1991 (19.2% of women and 20.6% of men)3 Despite the social changes of the last two decades, women and men with disabilities still face systemic barriers in the achievement of a university degree. Some of these barriers are lack of architectural access to buildings, lack of access in the classroom, inflexible administrative procedures, very little financial assistance, insensitive staff and classmates, etc.

Éducation et emploi en prévision du prochain millénaire
par Maria Barile

Si celles qui, parmi vous, ont occupé des emplois stables dans le passé, remettent en question la stabilité économique de ces derniers au prochain millénaire, que réserve l'avenir aux femmes handicapées? Selon moi, la majorité de ces femmes éprouveront des difficultés encore plus grandes qu'aujourd'hui pour faire des études supérieures et se trouveront par conséquent dans une situation pire qu'actuellement.

Un certain nombre de facteurs freinent les progrès des femmes handicapées dans le domaine de l'équité en éducation. L'un de ces facteurs est l'actuel climat socio-économique. Des changements sociaux se produisent dans ce pays lorsque l'économie est florissante. Or, quand on parle des handicapés, la situation économique joue un rôle clé, puisque qui dit accessibilité, dit dépenses. De plus, les personnes qui faisaient .leurs études élémentaires de 1940 à 1980, les ont faites dans des écoles isolées, la qualité de l'éducation y étant très faible.

Nombre d'hommes et de femmes handicapés se dirigent vers des domaines connexes à la justice sociale, car ils et elles ont eux-mêmes eu à faire face à des obstacles et à la discrimination. Mais il faut se trouver là où se trouve le pouvoir économique. Les hommes et les femmes handicapés doivent par conséquent détenir des outils éducatifs et des compétences s'ils veulent être concurrentiels sur le nouveau marché du travail. Toutes les personnes handicapées devraient avoir les ressources et les possibilités de s'inscrire à tous les niveaux scolaires, d'y réussir et de faire carrière dans la plupart des secteurs professionnels.


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