16% of women with disabilities say they have been victims of rape

When disability-related inequalities are added to gender inequalities, we speak of double jeopardy. Through a study published on November 9, in collaboration with Ifop, ADAPT launches a “cry of alarm” on sexist and sexual violence of which women with disabilities are the main victims. Two investigations were carried out simultaneously. The first was conducted on 2,002 people with disabilities, the second on a sample of 2,001 people, representative of the French population as a whole. The results were then studied on the basis of four different populations: women with disabilities, men with disabilities, all women and all men. This is revealed by the Association for the social and professional integration of people with disabilities 16% of women with disabilities say they have been raped, compared to 9% of men with disabilities. This is nearly double that of all women surveyed (9%) and more than five times as many as all men (3%). Striking inequalities that know no exceptions.

23% of women with disabilities victims of domestic violence

Even in cases of domestic violence the gap is significant. 23% of women with disabilities report having been victims, compared to 15% of the female population as a whole. The figures drop dramatically for disabled men (13%) and even more for all men (4%). According to ADAPT, this “overexposure” of women with disabilities to gender-based and sexual violence is explained by their “physical, psychological and economic vulnerability (which) exposes them more to predatory behavior”.

Inequalities in all sectors

These inequalities are also observed in the workplace, where 52% of women with disabilities find that things are more difficult for them, compared to 36% of men with disabilities. But what would inequalities be without talking about domestic life. There too, women with disabilities spend more time (8.7 hours) than men with disabilities (7 hours) doing household chores. But the study also reveals that in this specific case “disability has little effect on the distribution of household tasks within the couple”. All the women questioned, in fact, declared that they did 8.5 hours of housework, against 6.5 hours for all the men. This study is an opportunity to recall that in the fight against inequality it is essential to keep in mind that one discrimination can hide another and that some people pay the costs of this accumulation.

Cover image: Unsplash / Virtual Roman