Bodies in Revolt : Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care

ISBN-13: 9780415945332 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 216 str.

Ruth O'Brien

Opis

By defining a disability as what a person cannot do - rather than in terms of a specific medical condition or disease - The ADA has tranformed disability into a non-essential, universal, ever-evolving, socially constructed category. Bodies in Revolt analyzes the ADA's potential to make employers take into account the individuality of their employees, showing how an important branch of feminist theory - an ethic of care - could be studied in a new location: the workplace. Also, if Congress amends the ADA, making it less vulnerable to the conservative federal judiciary's discretion, the definition of a disability could be further universalized, offering women a strategy to feminize the workplace. In many places of employment, pregnancy is already treated like an illness or short-term disability, allowing women to take leave with pay. This leave policy, however, does not alter the workplace culture. - one that recognizes the organic nature of the human mind and body - could include most women (and many men) and offer them a means of persuing justice in the workplace as they negotiate about work conditions based on concrete considerations of human needs.

O autorze

Ruth O'Brien is Chair of Political Science at The City University of New York Graduate Center and a Professor of Government at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.