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Publications : ILO Publications : Integrating Women and Girls with Disabilities into Mainstream Vocational Training 1
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"Despite their significant numbers, women and girls
with disabilities, especially in the developing countries (in the
Asian and Pacific Region), remain hidden and silent, their concerns
unknown and their rights overlooked. Throughout the region, in urban
and rural communities alike, they have to face the major problems of
triple discrimination by society: not only because of their
disabilities, but also because they are female and poor."
– Hidden Sisters: Women and Girls with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region |
". . . I want to be like others . . ." - a woman disabled by cerebral palsy |
This is the aspiration of every disabled woman – to be able to have friends, to go to school, to have the qualifications and skills for a good job and then do the job well, to be independent, to be respected, to give and receive love. In other words, they want to have a life like other women.
But most women with disabilities cannot live like others. They are more likely to:- be extremely poor
- have little or no schooling
- be without vocational skills
- be unemployed
- have less access to public services
- be unmarried or childless
- be physically, sexually, or psychologically abused.
Women with disabilities are disadvantaged by negative attitudes towards disability.
Like all other disabled people, women with disabilities are often treated as if their particular disability has affected all their other abilities. In society’s eyes they are not capable of earning an income, let alone of living independently.Women with disabilities are disadvantaged because women’s work is seen as secondary to men’s.
A woman’s main role, in most communities, is still to be a wife, mother, and homemaker while the man is the main decision-maker and incomeearner. Since education and vocational training are seen as investments for higher-value employment, a woman is less likely to have the opportunity to receive them. While public attitudes are changing, illiteracy rates among women worldwide are falling, and more and more women are entering the labour market, the situation has changed little for women with disabilities. The general attitude is still that a disabled woman has little hope of becoming a wife or a mother, or of getting a real job. She therefore is a burden to her family or the state – a dependant for the rest of her life.Women with disabilities are disadvantaged by poverty.
Excluded from opportunities, disabled women are on the whole desperately poor. While poverty is a result of discrimination, it is also a cause of further discrimination. Poverty is the lack of resources: not just money, but also skills, knowledge, and social connections. Without those resources, disabled women have very limited access to institutions, services, markets, and employment.The extensive discrimination against women with disabilities violates the principle of equality of rights and their human dignity. They are denied equal opportunities in social, economic, and political life. The specially difficult situation of women with disabilities has been recognized nationally and internationally. However, there is as yet not enough action or results, at least to the extent that women with disabilities everywhere are able to experience a tangible improvement in their lives.
Where disabled women have been given opportunities for training and work, they have shown that they can be loyal and reliable workers. They are highly motivated because, while for most people work is a means of gaining financial independence, for women with disabilities having a job also means becoming part of society – something others take for granted.- education
- vocational training
- employment.
Vocational training provides them with specific skills for jobs in the labour market. It therefore increases their chances of finding work - and not just any work, but decent work. Vocational training furthers the education disabled women have received from school. It sometimes compensates for the earlier lack of opportunities for an adequate education. Vocational training is not an end in itself; its goal is appropriate employment. Having a job gives the disabled woman the opportunity to break out of poverty, dependency, and social isolation.
However, women with disabilities everywhere have far less opportunity for education, training, and employment. For example, it has been estimated that only two per cent of visually impaired children in developing countries receive any formal education. It is reasonable to expect that visually impaired girls in that group who receive formal education form a significantly smaller proportion compared to visually impaired boys. A report on a district in Karnataka State, India found that the literacy rate of disabled women was 7 per cent compared to a general literacy rate for the state of 46 per cent. Few statistics exist on the employment situation of women with disabilities in developing countries. However, one report suggests that 85 per cent of disabled people between the ages of 15 and 64 in Tunisia are unemployed and that disabled women find it four times more difficult than men to find work.Work for the disabled woman, as for everyone else, is central to her sense of social integration and psychological well-being because it:
- gives her an income and the means to be financially independent
- improves her self-esteem because she has a role in society
- brings her respect from society as she is perceived to be more
independent, contributing to the lives of others, as a taxpayer,
colleague, and friend
- provides opportunities for social contacts, to interact with others,
and to find her identity as part of a broader community
- provides her with opportunities to learn new skills and to develop new competencies.
C. Barriers to vocational training for women with disabilities
- negative attitudes towards their disabilities
- bias in favour of boys and men
- failure to meet entry requirements for vocational training
programmes
- lack of information about available vocational training programmes
- lack of vocational guidance in selecting the appropriate training
programme
- tuition fees and other training costs
- lack of transport or inaccessible transport
- inaccessible buildings at the training centre
- lack of suitable and accessible accommodation
- lack of aids and adaptations
- lack of confidence and experience of mainstream vocational training
institutes in teaching disabled students
- low self-esteem
- overprotective families
- lack of policy support to increase the participation of women with
disabilities in vocational training
- barriers in finding subsequent employment.
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Equalization of opportunities is a basic concept in the principle of equal rights. It is the process through which the various systems of society and the environment (such as services, information, and documentation) are made available to all – particularly to those who are excluded by social, economic, cultural, and political barriers. |
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Access in its fullest sense refers to physical access, communication access, and social access to facilities, services, training, and jobs. Physical access means that people with disabilities can, without assistance, approach, enter, pass to and from, and make use of an area and its facilities without undue difficulties. |
- segregates people with disabilities and the rest of society from
each other, perpetuating the problem of isolation for disabled people
and lack of awareness for the rest of society
- tends to slow changes to training programmes in response to changes
in the labour market
- tends to maintain disability- and sex-stereotyped training
activities, which are often for low-paying jobs, such as dressmaking,
hairdressing, basketry, handicrafts, typing, and shorthand (for women);
and carpentry, radio-repair, car-repair, and electrical work (for men)
- is less sustainable because funding for the special vocational
training system is more likely to be at risk during times of economic
difficulties
- can only address a tiny fraction of the training needs
- exacerbates lack of access for disabled people to information services and jobs.
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“.. When I train with others [non-disabled persons],
I can improve myself because I know what standards are required.” |
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Mainstreaming is the process of integrating equal access concerns for people with disabilities in all mainstream systems of society, including vocational training. |
1. Women with disabilities
Integrating Women and Girls with Disabilities into Mainstream Vocational Training
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Updated 2004-12-07 |