Special education students and handicapped people generally are among those least valued and most discriminated against by society. This paper explores the experience of women who teach severely handicapped students in an attempt to apply some of the increasingly familiar feminist critiques of women's work in education to this unique group. The paper examines the impact of working in a low prestige occupation with low prestige students, with particular emphaisis on the role of care. The paper argues that the injunction to care in special education, whether it originates from outside special education or from the teachers themselves, largely reinforces devaluing attitudes toward both the teachers and their students. (Four pages of reference conclude the document.) (Author)