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This article considers the recent history and consequences of positioning people living with dementia in the realms of disability, disablism and disability rights. The geo-political focus is the United Kingdom and neighbouring resourcerich nations in the Global North. The first section examines the growing trend of identifying 'dementia' with 'disability', a trend fuelled by the expansion of dementia-related activism and research. The second section focuses on how researchers who have published in Disability & Society and other journals have applied the social model of disability to individuals living with dementia. The third section discusses three conceptual challenges that lie ahead for those who choose to research and theorise the dementia/disability connection. These challenges concern: theorising dementia as disability; understanding intersectionality in dementia contexts; and understanding 'abuse' in dementia contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews theory and research on disability and gender from a UK perspective. It reflects upon the theoretical perspectives and debates that are to be found in UK disability studies today, and considers their relevance for research on the gendered nature of disability. Themes in empirical research are noted, as is the representation and treatment of disability in mainstream feminism(s). The paper warns about the danger of exclusion through nominal inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the care-giving experiences of informal carers in cancer contexts in Great Britain. Examination of care work undertaken by informal carers; Importance of additional care work demands based on patients' disease; Efforts of carers on managing the emotions between carers and the patient.

In this article I examine the intersection of gender and disability in the medical arena by considering disabled women's experiences of receiving health care in the United Kingdom. Drawing on the "social model of disability," I focus on the attitudes and practices of doctors. I use two sources of qualitative data: (i) 68 disabled women's narratives gathered in the United Kingdom in 1996–1997; (ii) interviews with 17 disabled women regarding their reproductive experiences in the United Kingdom. I suggest that disabled women health service users are at risk of experiencing oppressive medical practices because two forces of oppression appear to be frequently, and interactively, in play: patriarchy and disablism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between unpaid domestic labour and health. Although the 'informal care' literature touches on the connection between aspects of domestic labour and health, sociologists have not engaged in a systematic analysis of the nature of this relationship. In the following discussion I examine i) the reasons why this relationship has been obscured, ii) possible ways forward in theorising the link and, iii) the under-recognised historical contribution made by domestic labourers to the improvement in the health status of the population in industrial Britain. In relation to the latter I critically examine the widely accepted 'McKeown thesis' (McKeown 1979) which postulates that falling mortality rates in late 19th and early 20th century Britain can be explained not by medical intervention but by rising standards of living and improved nutrition. I argue that in the McKeown thesis, and in the work of those like David Blanc (1987) who have examined it, the explanation for falling mortality rates is incomplete because it has not accounted for a then developing and expanding area of social activity, namely, domestic labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]