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Abstract

This chapter focusses on both the rights of women and the right to have the breadth of relationships that others typically have: family, partners and parenthood.

Article 6 in the Convention on the rights of women and girls is due to it being recognised globally that women and girls can experience multiple discrimination in all areas of life. Due to this disparity, UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, adopted in 2015, is to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’.

Women with disabilities are known to experience more discrimination than men, and especially in relation to issues of sexuality and fertility, and more likely to experience exploitation and abuse (Atkinson et al., 2000; Scior, 2003). In recent years we have started to refer to the concept of intersectionality. It is a way to understand the layered forms of discrimination experienced due to multiple aspects of identity, such as gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age. Many women with a learning disability and parents with a learning disability typically experience this multi-layered discrimination, as these stories here tell us.

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Correspondence to Liz Tilly .

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Tilly, L. (2023). Women and Family. In: Tilly, L., Walmsley, J. (eds) Rights in Practice for People with a Learning Disability. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5563-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5563-3_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-99-5562-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-99-5563-3

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