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The Global Forum on the Leadership of Women with Disabilities (GFLWD) was born from a shared vision: a world where women and girls with disabilities lead, shape, and influence the decisions that affect their lives. For decades, women with disabilities have been at the forefront of advocacy—working tirelessly to claim space in movements where their voices were often overlooked or underrepresented.
GFLWD emerged as a response to this gap. It is the culmination of years of activism, collaboration, and determination by women leaders with disabilities from across regions, cultures, and communities. Their lived experience, resilience, and leadership form the heart of this global movement.
For too long, disability and gender equality efforts evolved in parallel—rarely intersecting in ways that reflected the realities of women with disabilities. Despite facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, they continued to lead transformative work at local, national, and global levels.
GFLWD was established to bridge this divide.
Together, we work to ensure that women with disabilities are recognized not as beneficiaries but as experts, leaders, and agents of change.
The idea for a global platform strengthened during years of engagement at the United Nations through the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Conference of States Parties to the CRPD (COSP), and a series of high-level dialogues. Advocates highlighted how the leadership of women with disabilities was not formally represented in global decision-making spaces.
Supported by institutions including:
the Global Forum was formalized as a multi-stakeholder platform designed to elevate leadership, drive policy change, and strengthen global cooperation..
