Women’s career decision-making after brain injury

The career development and counselling literature has not included disability within the framework of diversity (Whiston & Breichesen, 2002) and has especially ignored women with disabilities (Flores et al., 2003). Consequently, the career development of women with disabilities is at an early phase of inquiry (Noonan et al., 2004) with no extant studies on the career development of women with acquired brain injury (ABI). Thus the purpose of this study was to give women with disabilities a greater priority in career research and to elucidate the career decision-making experiences of women with ABI. The social model of disability, which treats disability and normality as socially constructed statuses (Gill,
Kewman, & Brannan, 2003), and positive psychology (Duckworth, Steen, & Seligman, 2005) served as frames for the study. The article makes a unique contribution to the extant research in career psychology and counselling psychology. It advances the understanding of career needs, significant life decisions, emotions, perpectives, and experiences of women with brain injury, a negelected population in the counselling and psychology literatures.