Concerns of women with disabilities must be made visible
By Elizabeth Ombati
(This opinion piece (edited) was published on 26th June in Kenya's Business Daily: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/
Ironically, it is a group that is often invisible in many spaces. A group whose specific needs for inclusion are often ignored. For example, whereas Kenya’s national principles and values, include, among others, equity, social justice and inclusiveness, it has not been lost to the disability community that 24 counties in Kenya miss a representative of persons with disabilities in their county assemblies.
Yet still, it is not just leadership spaces that are elusive for persons with disabilities. A recent convening of women with disabilities listed other critical spaces where voices of persons with disabilities continue to be left out. From their participation in the open labour market, access to sexual reproductive health services, access to quality inclusive education, climate change discussions, are just but a few spaces they indicated that their voices and representation is missing. In some this is deliberate, in others it is unintentional. It goes without say then that the specific needs of persons with disabilities will often not be reflected in related policy decisions. And it gets more difficult for women and girls with disabilities!
Take this reality for example on access to sexual and reproductive health services for women with disabilities, elaborated very well by Josephta Mukobe, a former PS for Culture and Heritage. ‘In medical facilities, they ask very embarrassing questions. Who made you pregnant? Why don’t you sympathize with yourself when you have enough problems? …yet we are just human beings, and we are just doing what other human beings do.’ Such voices, (often pained) personalized experiences of how women and girls with disabilities face marginalization need to have enough space to be heard by the wider society. Yet this will not happen if this is not done intentionally. It will not happen if leadership spaces are not open to women and girls with disabilities. Their experiences will remain confined to small spaces of less influence. This must change.
Consider access of women with disabilities to the labour market as another critical issue of concern. Labour market indicators by the International Labour Organization (ILO), 2022, indicate among others that the labour force participation rate of people with disabilities is very low. This is mostly unsurprising, because we know that systemic barriers keep people with disabilities outside the labour market. Even then, what must we do to change the situation? Because as we approach 2030, we must be aware that leaving no one behind as a mantra under the sustainable development Goals will be unfortunately missed.
The ILO statistics show that globally, seven in ten persons with disabilities are inactive (neither in employment nor unemployed), compared with four in ten persons without disabilities. Additionally, while the inactivity rate is higher for both women and men with disabilities than for those without, it is particularly high among women with disabilities which suggests that they face a double disadvantage in the labour market on account of both their sex and their disability status. In all 60 countries with available data, ILO notes that the inactivity rate of women with disabilities was not only higher than that of women without, but also higher than the rates of men with and without disabilities.
Indeed, many studies continue to explore and show that women and girls with disabilities continue to face multiple discrimination in many areas of their lives. They face a combination of systematic, attitudinal, or environmental barriers which limit their participation in their communities. Attitudinal factors such as misconceptions that question their abilities, distrust by financial institutions that excludes them from accessing credit facilities, and years of stigma that have played a huge role to erode trust in themselves, thus bringing about what we call self-stigma, all contribute to the limitation in their participation in different spaces in their communities.
Therefore, for all these concerns to be made visible, they must keep being talked about. Change has to continue happening. In the month of July, stakeholders from around the world shall gather in Kigali, Rwanda for the Women Deliver conference, a conference that seeks to identify solutions and drive progress for gender equality. May this also be a platform where issues of women and girls with disabilities take center stage. As Lucy Mulombi, a grassroots woman leader with disability aptly puts it, ‘For us to bring change, women with disabilities must be at the planning table.’
The author, a member of the Kenya Network of Women and Girls with Disabilities, works at the African Disability Forum: eombati@adf-secretariat.org
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