Women and Girls with Disabilities

Disabled, female and proud.
Harilyn Rousso, feminist, rights activist, psychotherapist and artist with cerebral palsy (1946 – )

Page contents

Introduction
Risks to Deprivation of Rights
Data on Women with Disabilities
Advocacy
Resources

Introduction

Collectively, people with disabilities face many barriers in daily living and tend to be discriminated against.

However, disability is not a gender-neutral experience (CBM, 2019).

… women with disabilities are invisible both among those promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, and those promoting gender equality and the advancement of women.
WomenWatch

Women and girls with disabilities face greater discrimination and unequal treatment than men and boys with disabilities because of negative gender and disability stereotyping.

And, disabled women and girls face additional and more severe disadvantage than non-disabled sisters, even when they all experience inequality.

Persistence of certain cultural, legal and institutional barriers makes women and girls with disabilities the victims of two-fold discrimination: as women and as persons with disabilities.
Leandro Despouy, Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, para. 140 in Human Rights Studies Series, Number 6, 1993

Discrimination and inequality experienced by women and girls with disabilities are further intensified by other drivers of exclusion.

Belonging to multiple marginalized groups puts women at even more disadvantage. Women with disabilities have to fight sexism AND ableism. Women of color with disabilities add racism to that list. Women of age add ageism to that list.
Sheri Byrne-Haber, 2020 in Types of discrimination women with disabilities face while looking for work

Risks to Deprivation of Rights

Women and girls with disabilities are more vulnerable and at greater risk of deprivation of rights due to a lack (or absence) of the following in their lives:

Education;
Health care;
Sexual and reproductive health;
Protection from gender-based violence;
Access to justice;
Accss to information and knowledge;
Access to economic opportunities and remunerated employment;
Social protection;
Financial independence;
Independent living;
Agency and meaningful participation in decision-making processes at all levels;
Meaningful participation in community, culture, leisure, recreation and sports activities;
Meaningful political participation.

The situation of women and girls with disabilities in Malaysia is similar to what is reported for countries in the Global Majority. There is a poverty of gender-disability disaggregated data for understanding the true impact of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities in Malaysia.

Most important, we remind you that you are always entitled to be treated with dignity.
Judy Panko Reis, Access Living Healthcare Policy Analyst and former Executive Director, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago’s Women with Disabilities Center (1993-2010).

Access to Justice

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Data on Women with Disabilities

Disability Prevalence in Women

World Report on Disability, 2011 by World Health Organization

The World Health Survey (2002-2004) estimates the disability prevalence rate as 60% higher among women than men.
An estimated 19% of women globally have a disability, compared to 12% of men.
In lower income countries, 22.1 per cent of women have a disability compared to 14.4 per cent of women in higher income countries.

Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017 to 2022 by Statistics Canada

Women of all ages are more likely than men to have a disability.
“Women (43%) were more likely than men (39%) to have a more severe disability.”

Disability Prevalence with Increasing Age

Spotlight on Women with Disabilities, March 2021 by the Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor

Disability prevalence increases with age for both women and men, 4% in young adults, 15% in 60-year-olds and 35% in 79-year-olds.
The difference in disability rates between women and men is small but increases with age.

Disability Incidence Rates for Men and Women in 23 Countries: Evidence on Health Effects of Gender Inequality by Lee et al., 2020

Among people aged 65 to 69, disability incidence rates are higher in women than men.

Therefore, it is important to examine disability rates among women in a more nuanced way. With rapid population ageing in Malaysia, this points to the urgent need for greater attention to examining data and issues concerning older women with disabilities.

Gender Differences in Access to Employment Opportunities

In Malaysia, more men with disabilities (58.6%) have access to job opportunities, compared to women with disabilities (20.1%) (Simranpreet Kaur et al., July 2024).
In the European Union, women with disabilities face the most barriers in accessing employment compared to other groups:
- For people with disabilities aged 20-64, less women with disabilities (49.0%) are employed compared to men with disabilities (53.9%).
- Difference in full-time employment:
  - 20% women with disabilities;
  - 29% men with disabilities;
  - 48% women without disabilities;
  - 64% men without disabilities.
- Women with disabilities have lower pay due to gender and disability-based discrimination.
- Women with disabilities face harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment. They are also less likely to report the offence because they fear retaliation.
- Many women with disabilities who have full or part-time jobs face lower financial resources compared to men with disabilities and women without disabilities. Often, they also experience in-work poverty.

Gender Differences in Access to Public Transportation

In the United Kingdom, more women with disabilities (35%) experience problems reaching their destinations due to gaps in accessible transport, compared to men with disabilities (45%).

To create a safe and accessible public transportation system for women and girls with disabilities and older persons, significant efforts need to focus on:

Ending sexual harassment in public spaces,
Ensuring safety and first- and last-mile connectivity,
Increasing the number of women working in public transportation,
Level boarding to reduce steps,
Enhancing enforcement measures on public transportation.

Source: Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024 by UN-Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Differences in Experiences of Physical or Sexual Violence

Women and girls with disabilities are two to three times more likely to experience physical or sexual violence than women without disabilities.
Yet in 2014, only 1.5% per cent of specific funding for women’s and girls’ rights focused on women and girls with disabilities. And within disability rights funding, only 9.5% per cent focused on women and girls with disabilities.
Jane Edge, Chief Executive of CBM Australia in CBM Australia calls to leave no woman behind

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 by United Nations

In Mongolia, 41% of women with disabilities have experienced physical violence from a partner, compared to 28% of women without disabilities.
In Viet Nam, 1 in 5 women with disabilities has been sexually abused by an intimate partner, compared to 2 in 15 women without disabilities.

Gender Differences in Diagnosis

There is a risk of underdiagnosis of disability among girls and younger women. Autism and ADHD are more frequently diagnosed in males than females across ages.

Studies have also shown that girls tend to mask disability better than boys and hence may be underdiagnosed; for example, autistic girls (Cruz et al., 2024; Hull et al., 2020; Wood-Downie, 2020).

Underdiagnosis of disability in women and girls can be exacerbated by biases in the process of clinical diagnosis and referrals. For example, ADHD in females (Faheem et al., 2022; Mowlem et al. 2019; Young et al., 2024).

Need for Gender-Specific Data Collection, Policies, Plans, Programmes and Resource Allocations

Data trends are available from countries that undertake serious work on gender-disaggregated data collection and analysis.

It is time to heed these data trends. And, to spotlight the rights of women and girls with disabilities: within the mainstream disability discourse and community of persons with disabilities.

Additionally, we should ensure that women and girls with disabilities are clearly visible in mainstream women’s policies, plans, programmes and budgetary allocations.

Advocacy

Inclusive Feminist Visions in Nepal features the advocacy of women with disabilities from marginalized identities and their demands for the 2025 Global Disability Summit.

Our Agenda Too: Women with Disabilities Advocating for Inclusive Systems of Care & Support at #CSW68

UNFPA advocacy video launched during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence of 2025, aligning with the global theme “Digital violence against all women and girls.” The video aims to raise awareness of technology-facilitated gender-based violence as an urgent and growing human rights issue, shedding light on its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities

Resources

*Note: Resources linked are in English and website or PDF format, unless stated otherwise.

Rights of Women and Girls with Disabilities

Gender-responsiveness in the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy: An analysis of United Nations entities’ UNDIS reports from 2023, published in 2025, launched on 2 December 2025:

UNFPA at the Global Disability Summit 2025

Intersectionality Resource Guide and Toolkit: An Intersectional Approach to Leave No One Behind, UN Women and UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2021

Third European Disability Forum manifesto on the rights of women and girls with disabilities, European Disability Forum, 1 March 2024

Women with Disabilities in Africa

Powerful yet overlooked: African women with disabilities and the ongoing struggle for inclusion, 30 years after Beijing by Disabled Women in Africa (DIWA), Humanity & Inclusion – Making It Work Gender and Disability project, International Disability Alliance (IDA) and the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), October 2024

Voices of women with disabilities in Burundi: Shared realities by Association pour la Promotion des Droits des Femmes Handicapées du Burundi – Urumuri, 18 June 2024

Leadership of women with disabilities: strategies to combat violence in West Africa by Making It Work Gender and Disability project, 10 December 2023

Gender and disability: Inspiring practices from women and girls with disabilities addressing discrimination and violence in Africa by Making It Work Gender and Disability project, October 2020