Intl Womens Day 2025: Impact on Disabled Women
Saturday 8 March
Every year, International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated around the world on the 8th of March.
IWD is a time to reflect on our progress, to call for change and celebrate the courage and determination of the women who changed history. As well as looking to those who will advance gender equality into the future.
The official United Nations (UN) theme for 2025 is “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” with UN Women launching a supporting campaign “March Forward: For All Women and Girls”. The theme acknowledges the progress made while recognising the challenges that remain in achieving true equality and empowerment for all women and girls.
Thirty years ago, the world committed to a bold vision for gender equality through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a United Nations plan to achieve gender equality and women’s rights. It was adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, focusing on twelve areas of concern.
So, what does this theme mean for women and girls with disability in 2025? Is it truly for ALL women and girls, when women and girls with disability are often left behind and forgotten in government policy and discussions on women’s rights? And how are we tracking on rights, equality and empowerment for women and girls with disability?
Leadership representation is a key factor in achieving equality and empowerment. However, women with disability continue to be underrepresented in decision-making roles. Having women with disability in leadership roles is important to build greater inclusion of our perspectives in decision-making and to deliver on the motto of Disabled People’s Organisations “Nothing About Us Without Us”
People with disability in general are still underrepresented in leadership roles with only 19% of people with disability feeling represented in leadership roles, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Broken down by gender it relates to 23% of men with disability and only 16% of women with disability feeling they are represented in leadership roles.
Figure 8.3: Proportion of people with disability who report feeling represented in leadership roles, by gender, 2022
That same variation when looked at by sexual orientation, 20% of straight people with disability felt that people with disability were well represented in leadership roles. In contrast only 9.1% of people with disability whose sexual orientation was gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other shared this view. Given these disparities, queer women with disability are likely even less represented, highlighting the need for further data to understand and address these gaps.
Representation matters! Seeing women with disability in leadership reinforces the belief that we, too, belong in these spaces.
Women with disability are underrepresented in conversations on women’s rights which leads to policies and activism that do not reflect our needs. Feminism in our society often focuses heavily on white, able-bodied women at the detriment of women of colour, women with disability and LGBTQIA+ women and gender diverse people.
For International Women’s Day the Sydney Opera House will be holding its annual All About Women festival with prominent women holding talks on important issues facing women in Australia. Among the 22 talks being held across 2 days – not one of them is centred on women with disability as an important cohort or topic. In fact, representation of women with disability is almost invisible – but we are glad to see strong First Nations representation this year. While there may be participants present with disability, their disability is silent in favour of topics of menopause, skincare and abortion. While these are important issues to be discussed and they affect our community, women with disability remain invisible.
Earlier this year, there was a NSW government forum on gender-based violence, an issue where women with disability are often over-represented. Yet the forum failed to centre women with disability in these discussions. The increased risks of violence that women with disability face, sitting at the intersection of ableism and sexism means women with disability should be at the forefront of any discussions on this issue. We deserve to be platformed.
If women with disability are not included in these conversations, policies and solutions will continue to fail us. We must demand visibility in all discussions on women’s rights and gender-based violence.
Looking to the UN Women campaign “March Forward”, let’s see what progress has been made for women and girls with disability to march (or roll) forward.
Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 Community Attitudes Targeted Action Plan includes an objective to increase representation of people with disability in leadership roles and we have thankfully seen a number of women with disability appointed to prominent roles in Australia in the last year.
Today is as good a day as any to recognise women with disability newly appointed to leadership roles in Australia.
While by no means an exhaustive list of all the women with disability in leadership roles in Australia, the above list highlights some of those who have stepped into prominent positions over the last year, and we hope to see more added in 2025.
Trinity Ford appointed as PWDA President.
Natalie Wade appointed as Associate Commissioner of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
El Gibbs appointed as co-chair of the NDIS Reform Advisory Committee and CEO of Disability Advocacy Network Australia.
Dr Rhonda Galbally AC and Ms Leah van Poppel reappointed to the NDIA board for three-year terms.
Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan, Dr Gill Hicks AM MBE, and Jane Wardlaw joining the NDIS Independent Advisory Council.
Sophie Cusworth appointed as CEO of Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA).
These appointments are critical steps forward in ensuring that women with disability have a voice in shaping policies and programs that affect us. However, true progress requires representation at all levels-across workplaces, boardrooms, politics, media, and community spaces. High-profile leadership is important, but real change happens when women with disability have the opportunity to lead, influence, and participate in decision-making at every level of society.
If we are to truly March Forward for all women and girls, we must continue to break down the barriers that limit leadership opportunities and ensure that representation is not just symbolic, but systemic.
PWDA are funded for two programs in 2025 designed to specifically assist women and gender diverse people with disability. One designed to progress women with disability in leadership roles, Advancing Women, and one to increase access to DFV services in NSW, Building Access.
Women with disability are widely overlooked in national discussions on gender and workplace equality.
PWDA’s Advancing Women project that seeks to change this by improving leadership representation, workforce participation and safety for women, girls, feminine-identifying and non-binary people with disability in Australia.
Through extensive research-including a literature review, surveys, and interviews-the project identified key barriers to participation in leadership and decision-making. Read the full report: https://pwd.org.au/advancing-women-with-disability-in-the-workplace/
Westpac has successfully completed the first pilot of the Advancing Women mentorship program. Throughout the pilot the project team gathered valuable feedback from mentors, mentees, and stakeholders to refine and enhance the program and ensure it helps create new pathways to leadership.
Moving forward the project will expand cross-industry networking, education for leaders, and mentorship opportunities to create lasting change. The project will also work to ensure existing leaders understand the role they play in widening leadership pathways for women and gender-diverse people with disability.
Learn more and get involved in Advancing Women.
https://pwd.org.au/international-womens-day-2025-what-does-it-mean-to-women-and-girls-with-disability/