Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities
This page features disability news on Gender Equality and Women with Disabilities from the Debrief Library. See also news on other subjects.
Overview
International
From Beijing to the CRPD: the missing keystone. (Mar, IDA)
The Feminist Accessibility Protocol: “a groundbreaking set of commitments that seek to ensure the inclusion of feminists with disabilities in gender equality spaces.” See also some notes on what it is, and why we need it. (Nov, Women Enabled)
Laws across the world fail to consider disability and gender. A policy brief surveys legislation in 190 economies: only ten of them have mentions of women with disabilities in both their gender equality law and disability rights law. (Oct, World Bank)
A short brief from UN Women “addressing the intersection” of Gender, age, and disability. The brief focusses on older women with disabilities, which is very important to do – but I can't help but be disappointed by this brief not reflecting more deeply on how interventions on gender, age, and disability intersect. (Jun, UN Women)
A Compass to Steer Our Work in Gender Transformation and Inclusion - on steps to put gender equity into practice. (May, DRF)
Policy discussion on barriers for disability organizations, and especially women with disabilities, to be involved in discussions on gender equality. (Apr, Center for Inclusive Policy)
Mama Cash report If you stay quiet, you stay invisible featuring eight profiles of feminist disability rights activism.
"The activist groups featured in this collection are doing ground-breaking work – often with relatively limited resources. Many of them depended on volunteer labour and worked from their homes before they received their first funding. Sufficient and good quality financial and other resources are crucial for sustained activism. This is a key recommendation that most of the activists in this collection made, and one that we feel strongly about emphasising and amplifying. Funders need to provide consistent, long-term, core support so that feminist disability rights groups can strengthen themselves and sustain their work." (Feb)
Empowering women and changing minds on CBM Germany efforts to support women with disabilities. (Jan, D+C)
Cameroon
Pascaline Mekati Matoko, the founder of Deaf Rights Cameroon Association, is passionate about promoting the rights and education of girls and women with disabilities. (Sightsavers)
Colombia
Cultivating Autonomy Colectiva Polimorfas: ‘Donors should listen. That’s the number one thing,’ says Yoli. ‘That’s what we do ourselves – we listen to the voices of people with disabilities that may be different from ours.’ (link to pdf, May, Mama Cash)
Europe
Addressing the invisibility of women and girls with disabilities (Apr, Council of Europe)
Fiji
Needs assessment on women and young people with disabilities. (Aug, UNFPA)
Georgia
Exploring visions of inclusion: women’s disability activism in Georgia. (Oct)
India
Trans Persons With Disabilities Lack Enabling Social Systems and Healthcare Support: “the medical fraternity is patronising and insensitive towards their healthcare needs. It does not help that families, already struggling to cope with their disability, find it hard to come to terms with their gender identity.” (Jun, BehanBox)
Women With Disabilities Have To Constantly Negotiate Between Isolation And Intrusion
“We noted in our conversations with women with disabilities that they experience social isolation and the invasion of privacy simultaneously. Their body becomes available to other people — parents, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, groups of medical students doing the round of wards, for example.”
(Mar)
Kenya
Profile of Easter Achieng (Mar, Inclusive Futures)
Nepal
Disability and Gender: Lived Experiences of Economic Hardships Faced by Women with Disabilities from Sudurpaschim Province (Apr, International Journal of Social Sciences and Management)
My Lens My Reality a photovoice study on the rights of women with disabilities. Appreciated the slippers that illustrate inclusion and exclusion (p16): “The slippers symbolize there are many members in the family. Dad, mom, brother, sister who are actually going outside to work. And me, I’m inside, with my disability, I was always in my room.” (Mar, SDDC) Some great pictures in here - first time I saw a pic of slippers that illustrates exclusion (on page 16).
Nigeria
Assessing impact of Disability Act on Nigerian women (Jul, BluePrint)
Pakistan
The stigma against women with disabilities: Women with disabilities suffer from discrimination and are less likely to get married. Why? (Aug, T-Magazine)
Samoa
Needs assessment of women and young people with disabilities. (Aug, UNFPA)
Uganda
Leave No Woman Behind: A blog on Disability, Gender, and Employment. (Nov, Disability Justice Project)
Leading the Charge a feature on Christine Oliver Dhikusooka and her work mobilizing around women with disabilities. (Sep, Disability Justice Project)
United States
Book review of V. Jo Hsu's Constellating home: trans and queer Asian American rhetorics which “enfolds transnational and Black feminism, critical race, disability, queer and trans studies into its’ theoretical framework.” (Mar, Disability & Society)
A federal appeals court finds that gender dysphoria is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). (Aug, CT Mirror)
Vanuatu
Needs assessment of women and young people with disabilities. (Aug, UNFPA)
International Women's Day
International
CEDAW Committee adopts General recommendation No 39 on the rights of Indigenous Women and Girls: 30 references to disability and to indigenous women and girls with disabilities. (Nov, IDA)
What does it take to create a space for women and girls with disabilities? content of a webinar. (Mar, IDA)
From Light for the World International: Women activists with disabilities say: "#BreakTheBias!" (Mar, LFTW)
CBM Australia stories from women with disabilities. (Mar, CBM)
Sightsavers joining the campaign to #BreakTheBias. (Mar, Sightsavers)
Cameroon
Break the Bias: Paving the Way for Women in Healthcare features Pascaline Mekati Matoko, the founder of Deaf Rights Cameroon Association.
Europe
Gender Equality Week: outsized discrimination against women with disabilities (Oct, EDF)
Mexico
Look at me, I'm also a woman demands of women with disabilities. (In Spanish, Mar, Yo También)
Women’s Disability Rights Should Not Only Exist on Paper: “demanding inclusion in services provided for women, particularly related to gender-based violence.” (Mar, Human Rights Watch)
Rwanda
A journey at the intersection of gender and disability. (Mar, LFTW)