Leading advocates, women’s rights donors and development aid agencies agree that much more can and needs to be done to include women with disabilities in agenda setting, movement building, and funding.
Women with disabilities — nearly 1 in 5 women worldwide — experience multiple forms of discrimination that create additional challenges for their activism and lives. These include barriers to accessing education and employment opportunities, as well as experiencing high levels of violence. Due to discriminatory attitudes and institutional barriers to participation, the voices and lived experiences of women with disabilities have been largely ignored by their communities, societies, and within human rights movements.
Funders can help address this gap and promote more inclusive and equitable rights movements by ensuring that the groups they already support make visible the diversity of perspectives, knowledge, and leadership of women with disabilities, as well as by bringing much-needed resources to the field.
Women with disabilities and their organizations are passionate, energetic and committed to this urgent effort. Furthermore, these women want to work collaboratively and demand their rights unequivocally.
Resources
- Blog by Catherine Hyde Townsend, Collective Power of Inclusion
- Blog by Catherine Hyde Townsend, Why we need specific funding for the rights of women with disabilities
- Donor Guide, “Supporting Inclusive Movements: Funding the Rights of Women with Disabilities”
- Mapping by Women Enabled International identifies country-based organizations led by women with disabilities
- UN webpage Women and Girls with Disabilities
- AWID’s Who can fund my women’s rights organizing?
- Grantmaking with a Gender Lense – Five practice case studies
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Intersectionality of Gender, Disability, and Indigenous Identity
