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Feminist research on community care and 'informal carers' identified this as a women's issue but failed to address the interests and experiences of older and disabled women – those who received 'care' One consequence is that such feminist research has implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, undermined disabled women's rights to a home, children and personal relationships. Using qualitative research, the article highlights the actual experience of women whose physical impairment means that they need help with daily living activities, looking at the different circumstances in which such help is received. The disability movement's concept of 'independent living' raises particular issues for disabled women. 'Independent living' is about having choice and control over the assistance needed, rather than necessarily doing everything for yourself. However, gender inequalities may also inhibit the choice and control that women have in their lives. Assistance can be given within a personal relationship as an expression of love, but disabled women may also experience abusive, restrictive or exploitative relationships. Public services do not generally provide assistance in a way which enables a woman to have choice and control in her life, or even to carry out child-caring or homemaking tasks. The research on the various ways of receiving personal assistance found that those women who were able to purchase their own help were most likely to be living independently, in the sense of exerting choice and control in their lives. Feminist research can help to create a space for disabled women's absent voices, and add to the pressure for change in the way that personal assistance needs are met. This is a human and civil rights issue which has a key impact on the control that disabled women have over their lives.

Community care policies, despite their rhetoric about helping people to live independent lives, are based on an ideology of dependency. This means that community care practice - in particular the changes in the Independent Living Fund and the way that statutory services are delivered - often constitutes a barrier to independent living. Research on the experience of receiving personal assistance with daily living activities found that receiving cash to pay for assistance enables disabled people to make the kind of choices in their lives which non- disabled people take for granted. However, there are opportunities within the community care reforms to promote independent living principles and these need to be seized upon by both professionals and disabled people.

"Die neuesten Entwicklungen in der feministischen Theorie konzentrieren sich auf die Wahrnehmungen der Erfahrungen unterschiedlicher Gruppen von Frauen und die Beziehung zwischen Geschlecht und anderen Formen der Unterdrückung." Die Themen Behinderung und Alter werden kaum in Betracht gezogen. Am Beispiel der Zeitschrift "Feminist Review" kritisiert die Autorin, daß nur wenige Arbeiten über Feminismus und körperliche Behinderung veröffentlicht werden. Sie stellt zum einen fest, daß Behinderung im allgemeinen aus der dominierenden feministischen Tagesordnung ausgeklammert wird und zum anderen, daß, wenn Behinderung einmal ein Thema feministischer Forschung ist, Forscherinnen die subjektive Realität behinderter Menschen auslassen und statt dessen zum Objekt machen, und somit die Erfahrungen Behinderter nicht berücksichtigen. (psz)