Following on from my Facebook post on advocacy (June 23), I dug around the literature, and found two articles on women’s experiences of the NDIS…. and it doesn’t look good!

Article 1:

Summarising an article by Yates et al. (2021) who investigated gender inequality and the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), the authors found that female participation rate is only 37%, even though women and girls comprise half of the disability population.

Reported barriers to accessing the NDIS included:

a) confidence, negotiation and self-advocacy

b) gender discrimination specific to diagnosis and the medical system (and implications for disability support access)

c) support and recognition of women in caring roles

The article by Yates et al. (2021) noted the following:

• low female participation rate in the NDIS is worrying, given Australia has obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

• many women are still underdiagnosed, particularly autistic women. The medical model of diagnoses is bias against women and girls, and is a contributing factor in women’s under-diagnosis, underrepresentation, and access to the NDIS

• women have other conditions and disabilities that are unlikely to get NDIS funding, for example, autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue (ME/CFS), Ehlers Danlos or fibromyalgia

• women and girls are more likely to undervalue and underpromote their own needs and requirements (and may lead to challenges with self-advocacy). The NDIS is a system that strongly relies of self-advocacy, and individuals who apply must cope with navigating the system

• women have additional needs relating to caring responsibilities that may not be recognised and supported by disability services. In addition, 35% of female primary care givers have a disability themselves.

• women with disability must work harder to overcome stigma to be perceived as acceptable mothers

• women are expected to be more passive and patient

• women are expected to be self-sacrificing and to advocate on behalf of others “feminine selflessness”

• women are often dismissed or disbelieved by the medical system

• autism is the most common primary disability of NDIS participants (32%), however, there are nearly three times more male participants than female

Reference:

Yates, S., Carey, G., Hargrave, J., Malbon, E., & Green, C. (2021). Women’s experiences of accessing individualized disability supports: gender inequality and Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1), 1-14.