Spain: Approximately 77% of Women with Disabilities Who Want to Work Are Not

Of the 2,030,397 women with disabilities in Spain, only 10,4000 are working. This means that 77% of these women do not have a job, announced Ana Peláez, General Advisor of the National Organization of the Blind of Spain (Organización Nacional de Ciegos de España) and member of the Women's Commission of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities. She participated in the Women with Disabilities and Empowerment Seminar, organized by the Institute on Women and the Spanish Committee.

This Seminar was part of the activities of the 20 Anniversary of the Institute on Women.

Miriam Tey explained that one of the objectives of the Seminar is to promote the participation of women as board members of the organizations of persons with disabilities and their inclusion in the decision making process of society.

Ana Peláez commented on the "multi disability and multi exclusion" often found among women with disabilities, who need more support to be able to represent themselves, particularly women with cognitive disabilities.

Carlos Rubén Fernández, said that this Seminar was also important to promote the objectives of the European Year of Persons with Disabilities in areas like addressing the real life problems of this sector of the population and to eliminate all obstacles that prevent social inclusion.

Finally, Pilar Ramiro commented on the topics to be covered at this Seminar: "There is a double discrimination against women with disabilities, because they are women and because they have disabilities. There is also the fact that there is no equality for women with disabilities compared to men with disabilities."

Mutual Cooperation Agreement
Miriam Tey and Carlos Rubén signed an Agreement of Mutual Collaboration to foster the development of women with disabilities. Miriam Tey said that: "the objective of this agreement is to develop actions toward social inclusion and job participation of Spanish women with disabilities. There is a double discrimination which must end, the discrimination based on being women and on being women with disabilities. We started this together and we are going to work on two priorities: inclusion of women in the work force and social awareness of the challenges for women with disabilities."

The Director of the Institute for Women said: "We are conducting studies on violence against women with disabilities, which happens to be more serious than with other groups of women."

Carlos Rubén Fernández noted the importance of this collaborative effort saying: "It will advance the work of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities. Furthermore, it is another way of joining the celebration of the European Year of Persons with Disabilities. We will achieve two objectives: increase social awareness regarding the problems encountered by persons with disabilities and provide a legal framework to eliminate social exclusion against all persons with disabilities. Here we also need the support of the media, to get our message across and to make society aware that this social exclusion must end."

The whole project fosters the social inclusion of women with disabilities, to make proposals to improve the quality of life and to protect the right of women with disabilities, to conduct the research that is needed to determine the social reality encounters by women with disabilities seeking work. The Spanish Committee will be regularly consulted on the actions of the Institute of Women.

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