Women with disabilities: A cultural heritage? disability, gender and culture: An italian approach

When talking about women and disability in Italy, it is inevitable that a paradigm should enter the discussion: the cultural paradigm. In this chapter, I will discuss just how fundamental culture is in any discourse linked to gender in Italy, and in particular to gender and disability. After a short literary introduction, I will then introduce some numbers. These will, however, be partial because of all the huge quantity of data available; figures related to disability are the most cumbersome. Data will, however, confirm that the “culture” variable acts alone and with no mathematical rule, influencing every aspect of the life of women with disabilities and setting the pace even where least expected. Therefore I will demonstrate how pervasive it is our culture and how an intersectional approach to the theme women and disability in Italy will be determined not only by gender, but also by the culture, tradition, geography, history, literature and religion. The Italian example could also be used for other similar analyses in comparable countries. We are our culture and our contemporary societies express this. Sometimes it happens tacitly, sometimes explicitly, just like our legal system, employment market, social dynamics and so on represent and reproduce the cultural and political systems of the country from which they originate.