Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Older Women with Disabilities

April 15, 2019

By Women Enabled International
Endorsed by: Ferdous Ara Begum, Gender and Ageing Issues Specialist and Former Member of U.N. CEDAW Committee; and Lois A. Herman, Managing Director, Women’s U.N. Report Network

Women comprise a majority of the population of older persons, while nearly one-quarter (23.6%) of the world’s women are aged 50 and older. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of all women over the age of 65 are persons with disabilities. Indeed, because women on average live longer than men, women make up the majority of the older population, represent a larger proportion of the total population at each higher age, report higher rates of physical disability, and spend more years as persons with disabilities. For instance, in the U.S., older women account for 59% of all older persons with disabilities, and older women are more likely than older men to experience disability.

Women with pre-existing disabilities generally experience disparities that persist and intensify with older age, including poverty, lack of access to adequate nutrition and health care, and violence. Ageing will likely be exaggerated for women who have lived in poverty with poor nutrition and have had little, if any, access to education and health care, increasing the risk that they will acquire impairments that lead to disability in older age.

This submission will concentrate on providing information on the situation of older women with disabilities, including related to violence and abuse, institutionalization, social protection, and access to health care, to help provide a particular gender context for the Special Rapporteur’s forthcoming report on older persons with disabilities. This submission will also provide an overview of international human rights legal standards concerning these topics as they apply to older women with disabilities. Finally, this submission contains a short set of gender-specific recommendations for the Special Rapporteur to consider including in her report on the rights of older persons with disabilities.