COMPARING WOMEN WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES: WOMEN, WORK, AND MENTAL HEALTH

In any study that has been carried out with an aim of comparing disabled women and the non disabled women has always come out with outcomes showing how disadvantaged the disabled women are. Even though at times we hear about the women’s employment revolution, the disabled women are not seen to be part of this revolution. The evidence available to date leads to the conclusion that the economy in general and the specialized services in particular, restrict the employment opportunities and lives of women with disabilities.

Women with mental disabilities can be productive when they are given an opportunity and an environment to boost their ability to work. The most is when the disabled women with mental health disabilities happen to be mothers, these are women who already have some burdens to carry and when they happen to get jobs in unfriendly environments, then this will add to the stress they are already facing.

In real sense, work should be a source of self esteem and satisfaction for any person especially women and more specifically disabled women while narrowing down to women with mental disabilities. This should be seen as a central contributor to adult adjustment, participation in the labor force may be health enhancing for women.