Gender and Ability Oppressions Shaping the Lives of College Students: An Intracategorical, Intersectional Analysis

Abstract

Emergent findings from a constructivist grounded theory study explicate how gender and ability oppressions intersected to shape the experiences of 47 college students from four post-secondary institutions in the United States. The logics of oppression that have historically supported spurious arguments for the biological inferiority of women and the erasure of trans bodies have mirrored the arguments used to problematize disabled bodies—making this particular intracategorical analysis of students with minoritized gender and ability identities especially important. Rich student narratives detail how intersecting gender and ability oppressions reinforced stereotypes of weakness, fostered fears of violence, and engendered feelings of lack of safety on campus.