The significance of the learning society for women and men with learning difficulties

This article draws on work undertaken as part of the Economic and Social Re search Council's Learning Society Programme. The project from which data ar e drawn, entitled 'The Meaning of the Learning Society for Adults with Lear ning Difficulties', focused on lifelong learning opportunities available to people with learning difficulties and experiences of these services. The a rticle begins by examining theories of late modernity, their use by feminis t and disability studies theorists and their relationship to ideas of a lea rning society. Subsequently, using case study material, it is argued that t he identities of people with learning difficulties are not chosen freely fr om a range of options but are socially ascribed. The status of learning dif ficulties is used as a dominant category to justify deprivation of basic po litical and economic rights. In addition, the lives of people with learning difficulties are structured by gender and class, and these intersect with the category of learning difficulties. For both women and men, the advantag es of middle-class social and economic capital are overridden by the negati ve category of learning difficulties. In relation to gender, men with learn ing difficulties are more likely to receive post-school training, but in in appropriate areas of the labour market. Their domestic needs are also likel y to be attended to by others, but in the absence of employment, they find themselves without any valued social role. Women with learning difficulties are also likely to be excluded from the labour market, but are more likely to be involved in reciprocal, albeit limited, social relationships. It is concluded that postmodernist theories are inadequate to describe the struct uring of the lives of people with learning difficulties.