Count in disabled women this International Women's Day - and every day

Writer and disability advocate Laura Pettenuzzo shares why she wants disabled women to be included in the conversation this International Women’s Day. 

As I scroll through my feeds, I have to suppress a sigh. It’s March, which means a flood of social media posts and events for International Women’s Day, most of them inaccessible or intended for an able-bodied audience. This is indicative of a bigger problem at play: that disabled women are not only being left out on our international celebratory day, but in society at large.

It’s time for that to change, especially in light of this year’s theme: ‘Count Her In. Invest in women. Accelerate progress.’ We need to see accessible and inclusive investment in all women, across all sectors.

Two sectors in which this is particularly pertinent are sports and healthcare. In a landmark move last year, Football Australia announced a boost in funding for the Matildas, following widespread media coverage of the pay gap between the Matildas and the Socceroos. Matildas players received a base salary of $110,000 per year prior to this announcement. In contrast, as of December 2023, ParaMatildas players, despite being ranked no 1 in the world, don’t get paid anything to play. To be so successful in their field and paid nothing for it, doing the same job as an able-bodied woman? Not acceptable.   

Similarly, disabled women are being left behind in the healthcare field compared to their able-bodied peers. Women with disability are more likely to have unmet healthcare needs than women without disability. This is for a variety of reasons, including a lack of accessible healthcare services and ableism among healthcare professionals. 

Some findings in this BCM Women’s Health review showed that service providers believe that women with intellectual disabilities or/and visually impaired people were not able to be pregnant, to look after a baby, to perform safe sexual activities, to make a decision and to give birth naturally.

Psychologist with disability, Liel Bridgford, says that investing in healthcare for disabled women involves “subsidising access to training, internships, and placements for disabled women, as well as training education and health professionals about treating and supporting disabled women, and paying disabled women [for their time and expertise].”  

The above inequities are compounded for First Nations women and women of colour. Rates of disability among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (24 percent as of 2018) are higher than the general population. For Biripi – Dunghutti disabled woman and artist Renay Barker Mulholland, investing in First Nations disabled women would be transformative. It would “mean no one gets left behind,” and “a chance for the barriers that disable us to be reduced.”

For those of us looking to take up the call and invest in First Nations disabled women, Renay encourages us to go directly to the source and “look to enable leadership of the most impacted,” by working with First Nations owned businesses.

These are just a few examples of how we need to do better at 'counting in' and investing in disabled women in our society. To achieve this, though, we need ongoing, co-designed investment in disabled women across all sectors and areas of society if we want to create a more inclusive world.

As individuals, we are not powerless when it comes to making a difference. We can all do our part to learn more, speak to people with lived experience, reflect on our own attitudes and behaviours, and do whatever we can to change them. By investing in disabled women, we are contributing to a more inclusive society - every ripple we make to disrupt the status quo contributes to a bigger wave of change. 

Personally, I'm going to start by reading Breath, a new memoir by disabled writer Carly-Jay Metcalfe, sharing content from El Gibbs and watching Millie Donaldson in Boy Swallows Universe. I’ll be listening to music from Alice Skye and Eliza Hull, and rewatching Natalie Wade’s powerful 2023 Disability Leadership Oration. 

I’ll be making ripples this International Women’s Day. I hope you’ll join me.