In research addressing disability and gender, one of the findings has been the desexualization of women with disabilities. In addition to the expectation that women with disabilities be asexual or non-sexual, there is a concomitant understanding that their gender roles are not enforceable. Thus the traditional roles of mother, lover, homemaker, caregiver are not expected of disabled women. This may not be entirely true for Deaf women, due to the controversy about whether Deaf people can be categorized as people with disabilities. But the difficulty of not being expected to fulfill traditional roles can result in a sense of rolelessness and confusion for women as they mature. "The lack of approved social roles for disabled women derives from a constellation of confounding forces. Disabled women (like racial or ethnic minority women) experience a major disadvantage in relation to their relevant single minority reference groups: disabled men and non-disabled women" (Fine and Asch 7). Women with disabilities and Deaf women must deal with the social expectations that are attached to being female and deaf or disabled.

The Power of the School

The school system has a significant influence over both gender and disability related expectations. Research on general school effectiveness suggests that teacher background characteristics are related to student outcomes. The relationship between a teacher's race and student outcomes is dependent upon the predominant race of the student body. In a predominately Black school, being a Black teacher is associated with higher student out- comes, while the reverse is true in predominantly white schools.

One of the significant differences among Deaf children with Deaf parents is their feeling of self-worth, pride in being Deaf, and connection to the Deaf community. The positive role models that most of the women in my research had were those who shared a communication mode. Hearing women named mothers and other adults as role models while Deaf women named peers or teachers at schools. One might hypothesize that once deafness becomes a less problematic issue, identity issues of class, race, sexual orientation, and status might supersede issues of "hearing loss." Conversely, it might be found that the positive associations with deafness will strengthen the focus on being deaf to the exclusion of other identities.

Deaf children are certainly deaf, and my research indicates that Deaf adults, in particular Deaf women, identify more strongly with being Deaf than with being female. However, they are still women. Men and women, deaf or not, experience differential outcomes and may have different needs which are not met by an educational system intended to "treat" their deafness. More qualitative research is needed to look at the meaning of gender and sex roles for Deaf people within the Deaf community and outside of it.

The school has incredible power and potential in the development of Deaf children, both to maintain the culture and values of Deaf people and to normalize or integrate Deaf children into mainstream society. This power must be harnessed to ensure that Deaf men and women can fulfill their full potential as gendered people and not only as Deaf people. This should be done intentionally, openly, and with effort; it should be done with Deaf women and men as active participants of their own construction.

Reprinted from WEdf, Summer 1996, Volume 12, Number 2.

At the time of publication, Tanis Doe, Ph.D., a Canadian researcher with disabilities, was working in California. This paper is based on her doctoral dissertation conducted in Alberta and British Columbia.