Connections Between Gender, Sexuality, and Disability
One in five women ages 18 and older are disabled. The United Nations, through their work toward full gender equality, highlights that “disabled women encounter challenges in attaining access to adequate housing, health, education, vocational training and employment, and are more likely to be institutionalized.”
According to USAID, “this inequality is exacerbated for women and girls with disabilities who are members of marginalized ethnic or racial groups or part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community.”
For philanthropy’s gender-focused social justice work to be truly inclusive, it’s crucial to recognize that disability significantly compounds gender inequities. To begin, please watch our webinar on the connections between gender, sexuality, and disability. Then, to further your learning, we encourage you to explore the following articles and resources.
Overviews
- Disability Justice is Gender Justice: Acknowledging Disabled Women This Women’s History Month by Marissa Ditkowsky for the American Constitution Society
- Access to Justice for Women and Girls with Disabilities, Women Enabled International
- Supporting Inclusive Movements: Funding the Rights of Women with Disabilities, Disability Rights Fund
Health Equity
- Health Status and Unique Barriers to Care for Women with Disabilities, National Council on Disability
- The missing millions from the gender lens discussion of COVID-19, International Disability Alliance
- COVID-19 at the Intersection of Gender and Disability, Women Enabled International
Gender-Based and Sexual Violence
- Five facts to know about violence against women and girls with disabilities by Mari Koistinen, Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo, Diana J. Arango, Camilla Gandini for World Bank
- The Right of Women and Girls with Disabilities to be Free from Gender-Based Violence, Women Enabled International
- Preventing and Addressing Gender-Based Violence against Women, Girls, and Gender Non-conforming Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic, United Nations Population Fund
- Sexual Violence and the Disability Community, Center for American Progress
Sexuality
- Mythbusting, Sexuality and Disability
- Disabled and Fighting for a Sex Life by Katharine Quarmby, The Atlantic
- Disability Justice Is LGBT Justice: A Conversation with Movement Leaders, Center for American Progress
- The Intersection Between Disability and LGBT Discrimination and Marginalization by Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán for American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law
- LGBT People with Disabilities, Movement Advancement Project
Reproductive Rights
- Reproductive Justice for Disabled Women: Ending Systemic Discrimination, Center for American Progress
- Access, Autonomy, and Dignity: A Series on Reproductive Rights and Disability Justice, National Partnership for Women & Families
- Enabling Sexual And Reproductive Rights For People With Disabilities by Kristin Duquette and Cailin Crockett for Forbes
- Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women, and Girls with Disabilities, Women Enabled International
- Abortion and Disability: Towards an Intersectional Human Rights-Based Approach, Women Enabled International
- Shifting the Frame on Disability Rights for the U.S. Reproductive Rights Movement, Center for Reproductive Rights
- Sterilization of Women and Girls with Disabilities, Open Society Foundations
- Ensuring Human Rights-Based Sexual and Reproductive Health for Women, Girls, and Gender Non-conforming Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic, United Nations Population Fund