While it is likely that role confusion could have a negative impact on women as they develop into adults, there is some debate as to the negative or positive outcomes of what can be seen as reduced sex stereotyping among women with disabilities. "From a feminist perspective, we might see the failure of the culture to leave its heavy sex-typing brand on the disabled girl as liberation. Is independence and self-sufficiency the product of avoidance; is it the outcome of marginalizing the disabled girl or of repressing her sexuality?" (Fine and Asch 132). It is unclear whether Deaf women have escaped sexual typing or are just less aware of it. Some research shows significant differences in attitudes between hearing and Deaf men and women about vocational goals and behaviours, while others show similar patterns.

Linda Stauffer and Greg long looked at attitudes towards vocational options for men and women among both Deaf and hearing men and women. They found that "Deaf young men and women graduating from high school still hold substantially more conservative attitudes towards sex roles than do their hearing peers" (Stauffer and Long). Other research indicated there was little motivation for Deaf women to be anything more than wives or mothers until later in life. Only after marrying and raising children did Deaf women consider careers or post-secondary education (Becker and Jauregui).

Impact of Sexism

If both men and women who are deaf experience education in the same schooling, and if gender socialization in these schools is less pronounced, one might think that Deaf women and men would have comparable vocational outcomes. Being deaf is in and of itself enough to create barriers to achievement of educational and vocational goals. Some Deaf advocates argue that it is not deafness but society which reduces opportunities; nevertheless being deaf is enough to reduce opportunities in a generalized sense. This is true for both men and women and, though the impact of gender on Deaf people has not been thoroughly researched, there is evidence to suggest that there are differential outcomes for men and women.

Research on sex stereotyping indicates that Deaf women experience a double whammy: "The combination of ineffective vocational counselling and isolation from the contemporary world of work leads to fewer choices and the resulting lower remuneration and higher unemployment. Therefore, while the Deaf individual suffers discrimination and limitations of job possibilities, the Deaf female endures a situation defined both by her deafness and her femaleness" (Cook and Rosett 341). Scott Brown suggests that sex is the most important predictor of variance in income. Even taking into consideration the graduate and non-graduates and higher degree recipients, Deaf women earned less than Deaf men across the board (Brown).

Looking back at the 1880-1940 era of education of the Deaf, jobs for the Deaf were traditionally vocational in nature, including metalwork, woodworking, and printing (predominately occupations for men) and key-punch, which was one of the only occupational options for Deaf women. It was very common for hearing men to be in manual blue collar occupations and hearing women in white or pink collar occupations, such as secretarial jobs, nursing, and teaching, which valued high verbal skills. While it is clear that all Deaf children were restricted in their options due to inadequate education and low expectations, the choices for Deaf women were far less broad than those of Deaf men. This challenges the idea that Deaf men and women are simply deaf, with no impact of gender on their lives.

Stereotypes, myths, and expectations based on disability, deafness, or gender are applied to Deaf women in compounded ways. Deaf women deal with the stereotypes of submissiveness, inferiority, and dependence as women as well as the labels associated with being a Deaf person. "Deaf women internalize these social expectations and have difficulties dealing with the role expectations of men in the Deaf community, especially if their personal views differ from cultural views on sex roles" (Rosen). Deaf women tell personal stories of sexual discrimination, sexual assault or violence, about having their vocational goals rejected or their academic course selections disallowed. In research about issues of importance to Deaf high school students, Larry Stewart categorized mental health issues including: reproduction issues, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual abuse (Stewart). Despite the fact that these issues are more clearly related to gender relations than to deafness, the results were not broken down by sex of respondent.