WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES AT A HIGH RISK OF FACING GENDER IMBALANCE

Gender imbalance is an issue that cuts across all spheres of life, it hiners women in the society to take active roles in development as well as decision making and also education. It is even more worse if the women in question are Women With Disabilities-WWDs. Men in general, including men with disabilities, have a greater chance to get access to power, economic capital, opportunity to participate in decision making opportunity to access education, resources as well as public space more than the women with disabilities. Even though both men and women with disabilities make up the biggest percentage of persons who are marginalized in the society (Persons With Disabilities-PWDs), there is still a gender issue which makes the women with disabilities to be more disadvantaged as compared to men with disabilities and women without disabilities.

There is a more likelihood of women with disabilities, as compared to the men with disabilities, to be poor, less educated, lack medical interventions to control their fertility as well as experience sexual violence. When focusing on the relationship between disability and gender, the social model of disability is supposed to be seen to be a progressive process of ensuring that the inequalities that are faced by persons with disabilities are well addressed. But unfortunately, this makes it to be a bit insufficient because it does not come out so clearly well due to the aspect of ignoring the gender roles in the creation of the double disabling conditions of women with disabilities. This is with bias to sexual and reproductive health rights of women with disabilities.

Women with disabilities also have added disadvantages of sexual health issues like cases of unplanned pregnancies, higher risks of contracting sexually transmitted infections and even breast and cervical cancer just to name a few. In order to realize the rights to reproductive health by persons with disabilities, especially women with disabilities, there is need for more than just giving it an approach from the medical as well as the social model. This requires a combination that will be made up of the relationship between disability and gender, race, sexual orientation, age, social status, economic status and many other aspect that will not favour one factor over the other.

The best option could be the use of an approach that originates from human rights because this looks at the inherency of dignity and equality of all persons as humans. This is clearly stipulated in the international human rights documents, standards, conventions and treaties. With these in mind, there will be a platform on which the rights of persons with disabilities to sexual and reproductive health will be realized. Sexuality and disability need an equal meeting point. This can not be understood if there is lack of primary understanding or rather acknowledgement that every individual human being has a right to his or her own sexuality.

In most places where this is common, it seen just seen or known to be a paper knowledge that has not yet yet been received in reality due to the deep rooted stereotypes and negative attitudes that the society has towards persons with disabilities and specifically Women With Disabilities-WWDs.