Emerging findings from Close the Gap research on disabled women and work

Close the Gap has been conducting a research project on disabled women’s experiences of employment in Scotland. This blog sets out the work that’s been done so far, the emerging findings to date, and the next steps.

Why this research is needed

Disabled women are among the most marginalised in the labour market, but their experiences are rarely considered in policymaking or by employers. There is currently a lack of Scottish-specific data on disabled women’s labour market experiences, which contributes to their invisibility in policymaking. This prevents an intersectional approach being adopted, and means disabled women’s specific needs are not recognised or addressed.

From the evidence that is available, we know that disabled women face a wider gender pay gap than non-disabled women and are more likely to be underemployed or economically inactive. When they are employed, they’re more likely to be in low-paid and precarious work. This contributes to the higher level of poverty they face. However, there are still significant gaps in the evidence base, particularly the jobs and sectors disabled women work in, their access to in-work training and development, and experiences of workplace culture more widely.

Close the Gap’s research aims to gather evidence and data to build a richer picture about disabled women’s working lives, so that the inequalities they face are better understood, and tackled, by policymakers and by employers.

What we’ve done so far

Close the Gap is not a disabled people’s organisation, or an organisation which works directly with disabled people. We recognise that this work is also about building our own understanding of disability, and the intersecting inequalities that disabled women experience in their daily lives. Work so far has included:

Engagement with disabled people’s organisations and disabled women

We did scoping and engagement work with disabled people’s organisations, disability equality experts, and disabled trade unionists so that we better understand the current context for disabled women, including existing priorities around employment. This also allowed us to share information about our work to build trust in the process.

Reviewing existing literature and evidence on disabled women and work

Close the Gap commissioned Branch Social Research to do a literature review on disabled women’s experiences of employment. This exposed the dearth of intersectional data on how disabled women engage with the labour market, especially Scottish-specific data such as pay gaps, part-time working, occupational segregation, educational attainment, access to flexible working, disabled mothers’ experiences, access to training and skills, and how violence against women affects disabled women’s employment.

Exploratory focus groups with disabled women

Close the Gap worked with Zara Todd, disability equality expert, to deliver two exploratory focus groups with disabled women. The design was informed by the literature review findings and aimed to help us refine our focus for the research. Some of the key themes included:

• Inflexible work, poor employer knowledge about disability, discriminatory recruitment practice, caring roles, and social security rules were all identified as barriers to disabled women getting a job.
• Whether or not reasonable adjustments are put in place by an employer is key to positive or negative workplace experiences.
• Being visible in the workplace as a disabled women led to additional work educating others around needs and disability.
• Financial dependency traps women in both unhealthy work environments and low-paid jobs, and in abusive relationships.
• Line managers are central to having a good or bad experience in the workplace.
• Difficulties accessing training makes it harder for disabled women to do their job and progress in the workplace.
• Disabled women felt judged at work, with the vast majority having had their performance questioned formally or informally.
• Experiencing mental and physical harm in the workplace was a common experience.

Building capacity in Close the Gap staff on disability and doing research with disabled people

Our staff team participated in training on disability, and good practice on conducting research with disabled people. The training was invaluable not only to improve our own understanding of disability, but also in informing how we can better integrate the needs of disabled women in our wider work. It also provided important knowledge about how we can ensure that Close the Gap is supportive and accessible as an employer of disabled women and women with long-term health conditions.  

Next steps

During the next phase, we’ll be gathering more qualitative data by doing a series of semi-structured interviews, and a number of thematic mini focus groups. We’re really pleased to be working with Zara Todd again, and also doctoral researcher Tasnim Hassan to deliver the interviews and mini focus groups. The interviews aim to paint a picture of how disabled women’s impairments and health conditions have shaped their life, education and employment. We hope to build a richer understanding of women’s experiences and what the systemic barriers mean in reality for women.

One of the themes we’ll be looking at in the mini focus groups is performance management. This has emerged as a key concern with disabled women reporting that their skills and capability are routinely questioned in the workplace, with many having been unfairly performance managed.

We’ll also be exploring the intersection of disability, race and gender so we’ll be delivering a group for Black and brown disabled women to look in more detail at their experiences of the workplace.

Finally, we’re developing a survey which will be launched after the summer. This will allow us to gather quantitative data on a range of key areas including recruitment, access to training and development, how experiences of men’s violence shapes disabled women’s employment, and workplace culture. The survey will be primarily online, and we’ll be trying to reach as many disabled women in Scotland as possible so that we can capture a broad range of views.

We’ll be sharing more information about the research in due course, including our learning from this doing this work.

Meantime, you can read more on our blog about how the pension system compounds inequality for disabled women, and the need for disabled women to be visible in Scottish Government policymaking on employment.