15% of any population worldwide are people with disabilities of which half are women and girls.1
Due to their gender and disability and various identities, women and girls with disabilities often experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. Poverty, conflict, fewer opportunities to participate in decisionmaking processes, and a lack of access to services such as health, education and employment, contribute to the marginalization of women and girls with disabilities in society.
Studies further show that even when services are available, men and boys tend to access services on a more regular basis. This shows that households are more inclined to invest in improving health and living conditions for boys than girls.2 Findings show in fact that disability rates among women are higher than men and that 22.1% of women in lower income countries have a disability compared to 14.4% in higher income countries.3
Women and girls are also often discriminated against in health, education and the labour market — with negative repercussions for their freedoms 4 and their development. Negative attitudes, marginalization and poverty often expose women and girls with disabilities to a higher risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Studies show that
women with a disability are 2 to 3 times more likely to be physically or sexually abused than women without a disability.5
These figures may be even higher in situations of risk and humanitarian crisis, where society, community and institutional protection mechanisms are weakened or destroyed.6
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1 World Report on Disability, WHO World Bank, 2011
2 Réadaptation genre: enjeux et stratégies, Handicap International, Département des Ressources Techniques, 2016
3 World Health Survey. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002–2004
4 Gender Inequality Index: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii
5 Department for International Development [DFID], Disability, Poverty and Development, 2000
6 Building capacity for disability inclusion in gender-based violence programming in humanitarian settings, Women Refugee Commission, 2014