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FiLiA’s view on the planned cuts to disability benefits
FiLiA’s view on the planned cuts to disability benefits

Then once they've grown into women, the medical model dismisses women as exaggerating pain ‒ simply walking hysterical hormone sacks fainting at the slightest breeze. 

Maybe they grow up and find someone to love and support them? But abuse and exploitation of disabled women figures show they are more vulnerable and have fewer services available for them. There are less shelters; they are less able to just quickly jump on a free train and escape and risk losing the services and medication they need. 

BlogMICHELLE KERWINClass Politics, Disability, EcoFeminism
Psychosis and Sisterhood - National Schizophrenia Awareness Day
Psychosis and Sisterhood - National Schizophrenia Awareness Day

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness involving psychosis (loss of contact with reality), with many myths associated. Women experience it differently to men, and face specific difficulties associated with their experiences.

It's vital that the needs of Women with schizophrenia are considered, particularly around MVAWG. Sisterhood with Women affected by serious mental illnesses, although sometimes difficult, is desperately important.

MICHELLE KERWINViolence Against Women, Disability
Acid attacks against women in Mexico: the raison d'être of the Carmen Sanchez Foundation
Acid attacks against women in Mexico: the raison d'être of the Carmen Sanchez Foundation

The Carmen Sanchez Foundation foundation was created "as a response by Carmen Sánchez to the omissions and indolence of the Mexican authorities and the public health system in guaranteeing and enforcing the human rights of women who have survived an acid attack. But also as an act of love.” In Mexico this serious assault has also been associated with violence against women and girls, with disproportionately higher numbers of male perpetrators (87% of attackers)* assaulting women (94% of victims)*

BlogSara DahlenViolence Against Women, Global, Disability
We Need to Talk About the Misogyny Running Rampant in Healthcare
We Need to Talk About the Misogyny Running Rampant in Healthcare

FiLiA volunteer Freya highlights the disturbing omission of disabled women's experiences and women’s experiences generally within the healthcare system. Post-pandemic, as women share their experiences of reproductive healthcare failures, it is vital that disabled and chronically ill women are those leading the conversations around health and healthcare.

BlogJ SteinDisability
#162 Feminist Academic Jo Phoenix is Standing Her Ground and Moving Forward
#162 Feminist Academic Jo Phoenix is Standing Her Ground and Moving Forward

Professor Jo Phoenix, Chair in Criminology at The Open University, a Trustee of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and the Co-Convenor of the Gender Critical Research Network at the Open University, joins Raquel Rosario Sanchez to discuss the rights of women in prison, her decades-long work in Criminology and her personal experience being in the centre of the fight to uphold academic freedom.

PodcastJ SteinViolence Against Women, Class Politics, Disability, Sex-Based Rights
From Grassroots to the International: A Focus on Women’s Rights and Activism at Huge Annual Feminist Conference
From Grassroots to the International: A Focus on Women’s Rights and Activism at Huge Annual Feminist Conference

FiLiA steps into the spotlight as a showcase for new thinking in feminism | Portsmouth, 16-17 October

At its seventh annual event, at Portsmouth Guildhall this month the FiLiA conference is hosting the Women who, in 2021, put feminism back at the top of the political agenda.

DiaryJ SteinSex-Based Rights, Sexual Exploitation Industries, Representation, Reproductive Rights, About FiLiA, Health, Class Politics, Disability, Anti-racism, Peace, Global, FiLiArts, General Feminism, Secularism, Lesbian Rights, Spirituality, Violence Against Women
Closing my Eyes to Hide
Closing my Eyes to Hide

This prose poem is the cri de coeur of a woman living at the intersection, pilloried between single motherhood and chronic illness. A snapshot of an invisible life that aims to give voice to the intricate daily struggles faced by disabled mothers - unseen, unheard, unable to access the economic and cultural capital that will get 'our issues' onto the wider feminist agenda. It is time to hear the voices of disabled women. It is time for those voices to be prioritised and amplified within Radical Feminism.

BlogJ SteinDisability
#78 FiLiA meets: Rahila Gupta
#78 FiLiA meets: Rahila Gupta

Rahila Gupta is a writer, journalist and activist. She has published a number of books, short stories and poems, including Don’t Wake Me: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong and Enslaved: The New British Slavery. Rahila has been involved with Southall Black Sisters for many years. She joins Sally Jackson in conversation about her work, the importance of stories, the significance of women organising in Rojava and exploring themes such as disability, inclusion, displacement and survival.

PodcastLisa-Marie TaylorGlobal, Disability
DISABLED WOMEN IN ENTERPRISE EFFECTIVELY SILENCED BY NEW GUIDANCE ON ACCESS TO WORK
DISABLED WOMEN IN ENTERPRISE EFFECTIVELY SILENCED BY NEW GUIDANCE ON ACCESS TO WORK

By Jacqueline Winstanley

It’s hard to imagine that in a year when we celebrate the many achievements of women, once again we see conflicting criteria within the Access to Work award. Contrary to its stated intent and potential to lift disabled women out of poverty, it is now acting in ways which serve to remove the right to Advocacy and or Third Party Consent to assist with the application process.

BlogLisa-Marie TaylorDisability