Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Socio-Political Shaping And Lived Consequences Of Involuntary Retirement For Women With Ms, Kristen A. Bishop

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) face a number of challenges negotiating and maintaining work, and are at risk for involuntary retirement and associated consequences. Few studies have positioned involuntary retirement and such consequences in socio-political contexts or examined their implications in women’s lives. This study critically examines the socio-political production and lived consequences of involuntary retirement for women with MS within the contemporary context of Southwestern Ontario. Employing critical narrative inquiry, informed by critical life course theory and disability studies perspectives with an intersectional lens, narratives of work and retirement were co-constructed with five women with MS who self-identified as …