MisInformation Exchange

MISSING: Government Concern for Disabled Women’s Rights

April 13, 2005
There are at least 300 million disabled women in the world, 28 million of whom live in the United States. The U.S. is now refusing to support the convention on international rights for disabled peoples currenlty being drafted by at the United Nations. This follows the U.S. government's trend of refusing to ratify (CEDAW and the Convention on the Rights of the Child), or support (Beijing Platform for Action) international conventions and documents to ensure women’s and girls’ rights

Some facts on disabled women in the United States:

• There are 28 million women in America living with a disability
  (National Women’s Health Information Center. )
• The rate of disability is higher for women than it is for men in nearly all racial and ethnic categories (with the exception of Native American people with disabilities, in which there is no significant gender difference in disability rates).
  (Disability Statistics Rehabilitation Research and Training Center.)
• Women with a work disability also experience higher poverty rates – about 34 percent—than men with a work disability (24 percent)
  ( Chartbook on Women and Disability )
• Women receiving benefits as a disabled worker also receive less than men: in 2003, women received $734.40 on average monthly, and men received $965.90
  (Social Security Administration)
• Women with disabilities have almost 2.5 times the yearly health care expenditures of women who are not disabled between the ages of 18 and 44—and 3 times for women ages 45-64.
  (White Paper: Financing Health Care for Women with Disabilities. RAND)

Take Action:
Mental Disabilities Rights International has organized a “call to action” on this issue.

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