#AllWomen – National Women’s Council launches new Campaign

Published: Thursday, December 03, 2020

To mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities today (3 December) the National Women’s Council (NWC) launched a new social media campaign #AllWomen – Disabled women in their own words.

The campaign aims to provide a space for disabled women to speak about their lives, their experiences and highlight what they would like to see happen for the inclusion of all disabled women.

The campaign includes videos featuring interviews with five disabled women, as well as social media posts.

Orla O’Connor, Director of NWC said,

“Listening to women’s direct experiences and voices is central to how we do our work. Disabled women have been at the forefront of campaigning for change in their communities and challenging stereotypes and today is about celebrating that contribution.”

Nem Kearns, disabled women and video participant, said

“We are spoken about more often than to. And the words used are very negative terms, such as ‘burden,’ ‘risk’ and ‘cost’. The impact our lives have on other people is usually the focus of the discussion, not our lives or our needs ourselves. The most important thing is for disabled people to no longer be pushed to the sidelines or no longer be spoken about.”

Evie Nevin, disabled women and video participant, said

“Society as a whole is changing. It would be nice for it to change a little bit quicker in some parts but it’s encouraging to see so many people with disabilities and women and other minority groupings finding their voice and for them to be proactive so that they can pave the way for other people so they don’t have to go through the same stuff that we went through.”

The #AllWomen campaign is the result of a collaborative project in which NWC has supported disabled women to come together online over the last few months.

Find out more about the campaign 

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for this project. 

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For more information or to organise interviews with the women, please contact Silke Paasche, Head of Communications, NWC, Tel. 085 858 9104.