CLASSICAL LIBERALISM, CITIZENSHIP AND DISABLED WOMEN

This study aims to explain how classical liberal discourse of citizenship, despite its inclusive character, excludes disabled people in general and disabled women in particular. To this end, the understanding of citizenship in classical liberalism is examined with reference to the liberal understanding of individual and individualism and the separation between public and private realms. It is argued that both the liberal conceptualization of individual as an abstract, neutral, stripped of her/his body and social connections, independent and autonomous being, and the public-private distinction which prevents the publicization and politicization of the biological body by rendering it private excludes disabled women; and that this exlusion of disabled women are reinforced by citizens' rights and responsibilities defined from the perspective of able-bodiedness