Global Status Report on Disability and Development Prototype 2015 unedited version
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- UN mandates
- Status and trends
- Measures taken by countries to improve the participation of women and girls with disabilities
- Conclusion and the way forward
4.2Other disadvantaged groups4.2.1Women and girls with disabilitiesWomen with disabilities are often subjected to double discrimination, for being women and disabled. Women and girls with disabilities continue to be at higher disadvantage from receiving mainstream education, access to employment and participating in social activities, when compared to their male and non-disabled counterparts. While progress has been made in some areas for women and girls290, there has been less progress made with regards to women and girls with disabilities, including in responding to the specific challenges they face, such as discrimination, risk of violence and abuse, economic empowerment, and civic and political participation291. Disability has an additional gender dimension. Women, including those with disabilities292, are more likely to be caregivers for children, family members with disabilities and other family members293. This risks to result in poverty for women due the costs related to caring for persons with disabilities as well as reduced opportunities for women to participate, contribute further and benefit from the economy and the society beyond their home294. This section will identify key international mandates and measures taken to improve the participation of women and girls with disabilities, and illustrate the trends and remaining gaps. It will also make some recommendations of how women and girls with disabilities can become an integral part of all efforts to address gender equality and disability inclusion.
Women with disabilities are also protected by normative frameworks safeguarding and advancing the rights of women, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action296. While CEDAW does not make explicit reference to women and girls with disabilities, the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action does so in the General Recommendation No 18 on disabled women--which recommends that States parties provide information on women with disabilities in their periodic reports, and on measures taken --, in the General Recommendation No 24 on health, which calls for increased attention and provides guidance on measures to promote and protect the rights of women with disabilities, and General Recommendation No. 33 on women’s access to justice, which recommends that State parties give special attention to access to justice systems for women with disabilities. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action recognize disability as a barrier to full equality and advancement, and the enjoyment of human rights297, and identify specific actions to ensure the empowerment of women with disabilities in various areas. Specific actions include, but are not limited to:
Status and trendsOut of the estimated one billion persons living with a disability, women and girls with disabilities make up a significant proportion. The average disability prevalence rate in the female population 18 years and older is 19.2% compared to 12% for males.298 This means that almost 1 in 5 women is likely to experience disability throughout their lifespan. Several factors explain the higher prevalence of disability among women and girls compared to men and boys. These include women’s lower economic and social status, violence against women and harmful gender-discriminatory practices. Among women of reproductive age, complications during pregnancy can cause disability299. In all regions, women live longer than men300, making up around 55 % of the total older population (60 years of age and above) in the world301. As disability prevalence increases with age, women are at an increased risk of acquiring a disability and may spend a longer time living with a disability. While global trends show an increase in the enrolment of women and girls in education302, including gender parity in secondary education303, available data show that the educational attainment of women and girls with disabilities is lower than that of women and girls without disabilities, and of men and boys with disabilities304. The Figure and Figure demonstrate the disadvantage experienced by women and girls with disabilities, who are less likely than their male and their non-disabled counterparts to complete primary education and to have less years of education. Other evidence shows that gender is one of the key factors that accentuates stigma and discrimination. Girls with disabilities are more likely to be socially excluded than boys with disabilities, with direct bearings on their educational trajectories305. Figure . Percentage of population who completed primary school, by gender and disability, in 51 countries, 2002-4306 Source: WHO (2011),185 p. 207. Figure . Mean number of years spent in education, by gender and disability, in 51 countries, 2002-4306 Note: t-tests suggest significant difference between the percentages above for persons with and without disabilities. Source: WHO (2011),185 p.207.307 Available national level data on literacy, support in early childhood education, and school attendance, including in special education, while not comparable across countries, persistently show a gender gap with females with disabilities lagging behind males with disabilities. In New Zealand, 29.7 % of girls with disabilities compared to 70.3 % of boys with disabilities receive support in early childhood education307; and participation rates of girls with disabilities in primary and secondary education are nearly half of those for boys with disabilities308. In the Solomon Islands, secondary school attendance is 30% for females with disabilities and 70% for males with disabilities309. In Australia, among people with disabilities310 aged 15-24, 45% of women compared to 55% of men were in school.311 Women with disabilities are more likely to be affected by poverty than men with disabilities312. For example, in Austria the ‘at risk of poverty rate’ is 50 % higher for women with disabilities (23 per cent) than for men with disabilities (16 per cent)313. In countries of the European Union, it is estimated that about 20 % of women with disabilities live in households at risk of financial poverty314. Persons with disabilities in general face difficulties in entering the open labour market, yet seen from a gender perspective, men with disabilities are almost twice as likely to have jobs as their female counterparts. Available data show that women with disabilities have lower participation rates in the labour market than men with disabilities and women without disabilities. In 51 countries, the employed to working-age population ratio for men with disabilities is 53% compared to 65% for men without disabilities. For women, only 20% of them are employed among those with disabilities versus 30% for those without disabilities (Figure ). Data from Europe, the Caribbean and Arab regions also indicate lower employment rates of women with disabilities in comparison to men with disabilities and women without disabilities. In countries of the European Union, the employment rate among women with disabilities is 44 % compared 65 % among women without disabilities315. In the Caribbean, on average men with disabilities were almost twice as likely to be employed then women without disabilities316. In some countries of the Arab States region, employment rates for men with disabilities are as much as 3 to 4 times higher than for women with disabilities317. When women with disabilities work, they often experience unequal hiring and promotion standards, unequal access to training and retraining, unequal access to credit and other productive resources, unequal pay for equal work and occupational segregation.318 It is also reported that women with disabilities are less likely to be referred to vocational training; have a harder time gaining access to rehabilitation programmes; and are less likely to obtain equality in training319. Figure . Employed to working-age population ratio320 for persons with and without disabilities, by sex, in 51 countries, 2002-2003 Source: WHO (2011). 185 Women and girls with disabilities are also at a higher risk of suffering violence. Based on available data from the 28 European Union countries, 34% of women with a health problem or disability had ever experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, compared to 19% of women without a disability or health problem321. Women with disabilities also face specific challenges to access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. During visits to general practitioners, women with functional limitations, for example, may be less likely to be asked about contraceptive use322. Women with disabilities, in particular those with intellectual disabilities, face restriction to their fertility, including through involuntary sterilization323, which may also be used as a technique for menstrual management324. Measures taken by countries to improve the participation of women and girls with disabilitiesAddressing the cross-cutting barriers faced by women and girls with disabilities are essential. Not only is it important to mainstream disability into the gender work but also to ensure that the gender perspective is mainstreamed into the disability policy making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. A number of national governments have undertaken initiatives to address, from a gender perspective, the issue of disability, such as the adoption of action plans on women with disabilities; undertaking gender analysis in the context of national disability plans; and promoting equal access of women with disabilities to services. Table below summarizes the key legislations, initiatives and programs employed by governments to mainstream a gender perspective in disability policy making. Table . Country-level legislations, policies and action plans that mainstream a gender perspective in disability
Conclusion and the way forwardThe available data and trends demonstrate that women with disabilities continue to face barriers in access to education and employment. National policies and programs are often ‘gender blind’ and ‘disability blind’, leading to policies which do not accommodate for the needs and do not address the issues of women with disabilities. As result, women and girls with disabilities are often left out. In addition, data disaggregated by disability, sex and age remains insufficient. Most of the significant global development reports across all sectors seldom include information on disability, and where available, is almost never disaggregated by both sex and disability. This hinders progress in developing targeted policy and program responses in socio-economic and civic and political participation. In light of these barriers and gaps, a set of action points is needed to promote disability-inclusive development with a gender perspective. These action points should aim at dismantling the barriers that women and girls with disabilities face in realizing their human rights and achieving their full potential and include:
Directory: disabilities -> documents documents -> United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Building Inclusive Society and Development through Promoting ict accessibility: Emerging Issues and Trends documents -> Summary of comments (25 September 2015) documents -> Sixth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities disabilities -> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Telecommunication Device Distribution Program revised Jan. 31, 2017 documents -> United Nations crpd/csp/2010/CR disabilities -> Guide to Embedding Disability Studies into the Humanities disabilities -> Participating organizations Members of the Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities documents -> Common beliefs documents -> Sixty-seventh session Item 70 (a) of the provisional agenda Download 0.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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