Nem Kearns:

Along with other female politicians, she spoke recently about the levels of abuse levelled at women in the public eye. It is a real barrier to political participation for women in general. When disabled women are advocating, speaking out or risking being in the public eye, they get sexism and ableism. That public eye might be on the national stage or in their communities, schools or wherever, but let us not be naïve and believe there are no consequences to advocating, for example, being labelled a troublemaker or being excluded for being the squeaky wheel. We need to recognise holistically the real lives that disabled women lead and support them fully in all those respects.