Global Perspective on Intersectionality between Gender-Based Violence and Disability

• In Event: Intersectionality within research on gender and education: omissions, opportunities, and challenges

Proposal

Globally, women and girls face a significant disadvantage when trying to access quality education at all levels due to various social, economic, and cultural reasons from gender power dynamics, unequal distribution of resources to sociocultural norms and gender roles.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is frequently discussed as one of the key obstacles that make it difficult for women and girls to stay in school. Both in developed and developing countries, within and outside of school, girls and women face sexual, physical, and psychological GBV (UNESCO & UN Women, 2016). Among other obstacles to education that women and girls face, GBV is a severe violation of human rights and can have a lasting impact on a person’s physical and psychological well-being (Montserrat & Casas, 2017; Morrison & Orlando, 2004; Mukanangana et al., 2014). Another factor that affects the education of girls around the world is developmental disabilities. Children of all genders are affected by developmental disabilities (UNICEF, 2021). In particular, research finds that developmental/intellectual disabilities affect a girl’s access to quality education more heavily than that of a boy due to reasons such as underdiagnosis, unequal resource allocation, sociocultural stigma, and so on (Abdullah, 2018; Leonard Cheshire Disability & UNGEI, 2017; Rice et al., 2018; UNICEF, 2021).

While developmental disabilities and GBV have separately been researched in relation to girls’ education, there seems to be little research on the intersectionality between developmental disabilities and GBV that women and girls experience along their educational journey. However, this intersectionality merits more attention. Girls already face numerous hardships in continuing their education. In many societies, girls and women with developmental disabilities are highly stigmatized and face another layer of marginalization (Rohwerder, 2018). Particularly in terms of access to quality education, for a girl with developmental disabilities, the difficulty of staying in, or even beginning to attend, school is compounded by the higher susceptibility to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) (Barrett & Marshall, 2017; Meer & Combrinck, 2015; Nyambura et al., 2013; Rohwerder, 2018). Therefore, the authors began with the question: globally, how is GBV experienced by women and girls with developmental disabilities, and how does this affect their education?

To gain an understanding of current research, the authors have conducted a systematic review of articles following the PRISMA guidelines (Page et al., 2021). After screening the abstracts of 177 articles, the authors are in the process of conducting full-text reviews for 36 articles. So far, the authors have found that a) there are a similar number of qualitative and quantitative studies, b) almost all the studies were conducted in countries in the Global North, c) the age range of participants is 18 years and above for most studies, and d) the studies do not consider other intersectional factors such as socioeconomic status or race.

It is becoming increasingly evident that the educational experiences of women and girls vary. The authors hope to direct much-needed attention to a topic area in girls’ education and contribute to the discussion regarding intersectionality.

Authors

• Jung-Eun Kim, University of Maryland College of Education

• Elnaz Safarha, University of Maryland College of Education