How and where? The violence against woman with disabilities in Portugal

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue of violence against women with disabilities in Portugal. It draws from the reports of 28 women with all types of disabilities about the ill treatment and discrimination that they experienced, over the last five years. We identified the various types of violence these women had faced (Physical, sexual, psychological, economic, institutional, bullying at work and symbolic) and the places where it occur (Public transport, family, workplace, school and training organizations, health organizations, social space in general). Dependency emerges as the key driver of the conflicts and ill treatment that generated the most serious forms of violence and the humiliations that were perpetrated against these women.