“We Need More Information on How to Protect Ourselves From Being Raped”: A South African Exploration Into Gender-Based Violence Against Women With Disabilities

People with disabilities are vulnerable to violence, and while research has shed light on the financial, health, social, and psychological manifestations of violence, little is known about how it manifests in the lives of people with disabilities, especially those living in low- and middle-income contexts or those with cognitive-communication impairments. By applying Butler’s theory of corporeal vulnerability, this article explores the relationship between disability, vulnerability, and gender-based violence (GBV). Data from three qualitative studies were re-analyzed, exploring the manifestation of GBV in the lives of adults with disabilities living in two South African provinces. Evidence of GBV emerged in 13 out of 65 transcripts. Participants ranged in age from 22 to 53 years, with 11 participants identifying as female and 2 as transgender. Data were analyzed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s approach to inductive analysis. Three themes emerged, namely the diminishment of sexual agency and bodily autonomy; dependency and unequal power relations; and ableism and the politics of recognition. The findings illustrate how normative assumptions around sexuality, gender, and disability contribute to heightened vulnerability, compounded by poverty, institutional inaccessibility, and limited access to education and justice. Participants’ narratives reveal how dependency is often exploited and how social systems fail to recognize or respond to their experiences of harm, thus perpetuating embodied precarity and vulnerability. This paper reframes vulnerability not as an individual deficit but as a socially produced and unequally distributed condition. The study calls for disability-inclusive GBV prevention strategies, accessible reporting mechanisms, and inclusive sexuality education. It also emphasizes the need to foreground the voices of people with disabilities in research and in the development of policies.