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7C. DISABILITY
90 European Disability Forum, Women and Gender Equality Policies , see at: https://www.edf-feph.org/women-and- gender-equality/
91 Women s Human Rights, Women and girls with disabilities , see at: http://hrw.org/women/disabled.html 92 O REILLY, A.; and ILO (2007), The right to decent work of persons with disabilities , available at: https://www.ilo.
org/moscow/information-resources/publications/WCMS_249156/lang--en/index.htm
Women and girls with disabilities constitute 16% of the total population of women in the European Union and 60% of the overall population of 100 million persons with disabilities90. Women and girls with disabilities are likely to experience double discrimination, including increased risk of gender-based violence, socio-economic disadvantages, social isolation, and abuse and marginalisation. As a result, women and girls living with disabilities are confronted by disadvantages such as unequal treatment in the labour market and other public spheres (i.e. health care provision) in comparison to men with disabilities and women without disabilities91. For example, according to data from EIGE s 2020 Gender Equality Index, only 2% of women with disabilities graduate tertiary education, compared to 17.5% of men with disabilities and 29.6% of women without disabilities. Although all persons with disabilities face barriers to employment92, only 6% of women
with disabilities are in full-time employment, compared to 28.5% of men with disabilities and 48.5% of women without disabilities. Women with disabilities should be considered as active players that can contribute to society. However, women with disabilities are not a homogenous group. The wheelchair is universally understood as including all disabilities, yet disabilities can be invisible, which makes them at particular risk of being left out of city planning. Changes to autonomous and electric municipal vehicles such as buses, for example, can impact feelings of safety for blind women who rely on the sound of motors to detect traffic. By taking a gendered perspective on disabilities, municipalities can recognise these disparities and can ensure the equal rights of all (and work towards reaching the SDGs). In 2017, the city of Brussels (Belgium) released a handistreaming guide in French to support these developments.
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