Transcript Women, Cuts and Disability

Introduction
Michelle Millar
Outreach Officer
Disability Action
Centre on Human Rights for People with
Disabilities
Double Jeopardy
• “Women with disabilities face double jeopardy
based both on their disability and their gender”.
• The stereotypes ascribed to women with
disabilities condones passivity, dependence
and failure”. (Menz. et al., 1989:32)
• More women than men are classed as being
disabled
Stereotyping
• Incapable, unambitious, unreliable Ignorance,
fear and prejudice are among the reasons for
persons with disabilities being five times more
likely to be unemployed and claiming benefits
than able-bodied people.
(‘Ready, willing and disabled’.” ‘Still afraid of the
wheelchair’, Financial Times, 2 April 2003)
Who are women with
disabilities?
• Mothers, carers, partners, daughters
wives, lovers, sisters, friends, grandmothers,
workers, artists, musicians, sports women,
individuals
The five areas of Disability
• Physical
• Sensory
• Hidden
• Intellectual
• Mental Health
Medical v Social
Medical Model
• Society often considers disability to be a
tragedy for the individual and a burden for the
family and society. This is based on a
medical approach to disability.
Social Model
•
•
The social model of disability says that
disability is created by barriers in society.
These barriers generally fall into three
categories:
1
The environment
2
People’s attitudes
3
Organisations
Personal account from
colleague
• Seen as an extra cost to the organisation
• If my needs are not met I can lose networking
opportunities and become isolated
• Rarely invited to social events outside work
• Sometimes feel I am being a nuisance
Being a disabled woman
• Sexual health – smear tests
• Difficult for women to access breast screening
/ mammograms.
• Some disabled women are unable to perform
breast self examinations, thus increasing their
risk of detecting an abnormality
Being a disabled woman – cont.
• Women with disabilities are seen as asexual.
• They are not seen as in need of birth control
or information on sexual health
• Women with disabilities are at greater risk of
being sexually abused than non-disabled
women. (Craine et al., 1988: Musick, 1984; Senn, 1988).
• Likely to live on their own
Being a disabled woman - Cont.
• Sexual assault and battering may be two or
three times higher for women with disabilities
than for other women.
• Higher proportion of women with disabilities
need fertility treatment as a result of their
disability
Impact of budget cuts
• Training may become less important to
employers
• Reasonable adjustments may become less
important
• Flexible working patterns may become less
important
Barriers
• Accessing good quality affordable childcare is
crucial to enable women to remain in paid
work, to access training or to retrain to
increase their employment opportunities.
• Dealing with patronising attitudes from health
professionals (e.g anti natal)
• Getting access to health care to suit ones’
needs
• Lack of awareness of what support &
information is available
Employment?
• Over a third of businesses find it difficult to fill
vacancies, yet 3.4 million persons with
disabilities are out of work.
• One million say they want to work but cannot
find a job.
www.realising-potential.org/your-business
case
Employment?
• Improving the employment rate of persons
with disabilities would boost the economy by
£13 billion the equivalent of six months’
economic growth.
(Disability Rights Commission, ‘Disability, Skills
and Work: Raising Our Ambitions’, June 2007)
Access to work
• 37,290 individuals were helped via access to
work in 2009/10 financial year
• 29,040 individuals were helped in a 6 month
period from April – Sept 2010
• Companies do not have to make expensive
changes to their workplace to accommodate
persons with disabilities.
Benefits cuts
• From April 2011 those working and receiving
working tax credits will have their tax credits
overall reduced by a bigger percentage
(increasing from 39% to 41 %)
Withdrawal of certain elements (e.g. family
element & baby element)
• Child benefit will be frozen for 3 years from
2011
Benefits cuts
• Independent Living Fund
• This fund provides money to allow 20,000
disabled people to live independently.
• The Independent living fund has closed to
new applicants
• It will close permanently by 2015
Disability & Poverty
• Disabled people have extra costs associated
with the effects of disability and these can
include heating, transport, fuel, housing,
shopping, clothing, aids, equipment and
paying for care.
• There are many reports available to back up
and illustrate the extra costs disabled people
incur
Pregnancy
• Fears about how the pregnancy will impact
upon their body
• How will their body adjust to the weight gain,
mobility & independence
• Anxiety can increase due to previous
experiences of hospital visits
• Feel more vulnerable
• May need specific equipment, mobility aids or
larger wheelchair
Pregnancy - cont
• Concerns about choice Concerns about
dignity
• Concerns about their disability being
exacerbated following the birth
• Concerns that medication currently being
taken has the potential to harm the foetus
• There is a 1:2 risk for women with mental
health difficulties that their mental health will
deteriorate
• Concerns about effects of post natal
depression
Menopause
• Some women with disabilities may
experience added difficulties with hot flushes.
• Women with conditions that affect the bowel
and bladder (e.g. spina bifida), may find that
fluctuating and then declining oestrogen
levels increase urinary tract infections, kidney
and bladder stones, or result in poorer kidney
function.
Menopause - cont
• Women with disabilities are one of the most
marginalised groups in our society.
• Much work is still to be done to understand
their lives in order to remove the barriers
which still exist.
Principles of Human Rights
• Fairness
• Respect
• Equality
• Dignity
UNCRPD
Article 6 – Women with Disabilities
• State Parties recognise that women and girls
with disabilities are subject to multiple
discrimination, and in this regard shall take
measures to ensure the full and equal
enjoyment by them of all Human Rights and
fundamental freedoms
UNCRPD
Article 6
• State parties shall take all appropriate
measures to ensure full development,
advancement and empowerment of women,
for the purpose of guaranteeing them the
exercise and enjoyment of the human rights
and fundamental freedoms as set out in the
present Convention