Gender and Disability

A detailed global picture on how gender and disability intersect is not yet possible as research has been quite limited and often clouded by factors that resist quantification, such as the feminization of poverty, cultural concepts of gender roles and sexual and reproductive rights, violence, abuse and other means of exploitation, such as child labor. This brief overview concentrates on information resources that clarify issues of importance to the estimated world population of 300 million women and girls with disabilities, most of whom live in developing or resource-poor countries.

Changing Dynamics

It is important to note that the global picture is not static but can change rapidly in response to external factors. For example, 20 years ago female HIV/AIDS infection rates were comparatively low, while today the UN Population Fund estimates that "young women in sub-Saharan Africa are six times more likely to be infected than young men." As some cultural taboos lessen in response to the worldwide focus on women rights, more information has become available about the millions of women disabled by obstructed labor, millions more women disabled by domestic violence, and millions of others disabled by female genital mutilation.

Areas where there are few statistics but indicators are emerging of greater impact on women are: differential rates and degrees of disability following heart attack or stroke, and vastly differing experiences of mental illness. For example, unipolar depression, predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the second leading cause of disability globally by 2020, is reported to be twice as common in women.

Other Gender Disparities in Disabling Conditions

In general, some disabilities are found significantly more often in girls and women (e.g., blindness, multiple sclerosis); others affect them substantially less frequently than boys and men (traffic, sports and gunshot injuries, autism); while still others are the provenance of women (osteoporosis).

Gender Inequities in Response to Disability

By the early 1980s, some national studies in primarily industrialized countries had identified that disabled girls and women were receiving significantly fewer services than disabled boys and men, including: rehabilitation and health care, education, assistive technology, vocational training and employment.

Early NGO Activity

During the 1980s numerous international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the disability field launched activities for and by disabled women to address perceived inequities in status and services. Some examples are: Disabled Peoples' International, World Blind Union Women's Committee.

In response to advocacy from various NGOs, in 1990 the United Nations sponsored the first international experts meeting on the situation of disabled womenand some patterns were identified.

As examples, in many countries disabled girls are not sent to school or trained for economic self-sufficiency; as adults they often do not marry and rarely inherit or own property; consequently, they are disproportionately represented among the poorest of the poor. The situation of women with disabilities is negatively impacted by both their gender and their impairments: hence, the term "double discrimination."

In the following decade, other UN agencies initiated projects and regional studies: the ILO began to focus on employment inequities in developing countries (ILO Disability Newsand Integrating Women and Girls with Disabilities into Mainstream Vocational Training)

In 1989 UNICEF sponsored a field study illustrating that although women and children were the most affected by war and armed conflict, they received the fewest rehabilitation services (www.unicef.org); and the Asia and Pacific regional UN body, ESCAP, sponsored studies on the situation of disabled women, called "Hidden Sisters," leading to the selection of disabled women as one of its 7 priority areas for the next decade 2003-2012  and to workshops in 2003 on "Gender & Women with Disabilities: the UN Convention".

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Publications and Reports

World Bank Publications

• Education for All: A Gender and Disability Perspective
  [PDF 252KB]
  By Harilyn Rousso
  October 2003
  Also available in MS Word [137KB]

Non-World Bank Publications

• A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities
  [www.hesperian.org]
  By Jane Maxwell, Julia Watts Belser, and Darlena David
  February 2007
• Double Burden - A situation analysis of HIV/AIDS and young people with disabilities in Rwanda and Uganda
  [www.savethechildren.org.uk]
  By Dr Aisha Yousafzi and Karen Edwards, Centre for International Child Health, Institute of Child Health, University College London
  © The Save the Children Fund 2004
  Also available in English and French
• Hitting Home: Stories of disabled women
  [www.bbc.co.uk]
  By Kate Ansell
  In-depth reports on domestic violence against disabled women on domestic violence against disabled women
  2003
• Forum Inspires Women's Rights and Disability Rights Supporters to Work Together
  [www.nowfoundation.org]
  By Lisa Bennett, Communications Director
  October 24, 2003

Related Links

• WHO: Gender and women's mental health
• Center for Women Policy
  U.S. based research and policy center, containing several reports on situation of disabled women with emphasis on violence, feminist studies, girls.
• Georgia Disabled Women's International Association
• Independent Living Institute: Women with Disabilities
  Swedish based international online full text library, focused on Europe but including many developing country reports.
• Mobility International USA: Women with Disabilities and Development
  Various recent reports, nearly all focused on developing countries, some on micro credit opportunities, others on leadership development for women.
• UK Disability Forum for European Affairs/Women's Committee
• Women With Disabilities Australia
  Comprehensive site of Women with Disabilities Australia, containing collection of studies, research, articles and testimony to government inquiries concerning disability.

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