An estimated 140 women and girls across the world die at the hands of their partner or family member every day, according to new global estimates on femicide by the UN.
The report by UN Women found 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally by men in 2023, with 60% (51,100) of these deaths committed by someone close to the victim. The organisation said its figures showed that, globally, the most dangerous place for a woman to be was in her home, where the majority of women die at the hands of men.
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, UN Women’s deputy executive director, said: “What the data is telling us is that it is the private and domestic sphere’s of women’s lives, where they should be safest, that so many of them are being exposed to deadly violence.
This data is worthless without the corresponding rate for men.
I think the point of studies like this is to show that violence against women is overwhelmingly perpetrated by people they know. People love to characterize the epidemic of physical and sexual violence against women as though it’s because of random horrible men targeting women in dark alleys. This directly shows that this is not the case. It’s overwhelmingly men that women know directly. The vast majority is committed by intimate partners and close male family members in women’s homes.
Women who speak out against this violence are very frequently met with shame and further violence. Even in cases where the man is obviously in the wrong. I would know as I and several of my friends have had this experience ourselves. Society is only sympathic to women who have experienced violence in mass media. When it comes to women in their hometowns, in their local communities, they often face outright hostility. The problem of misogyny is far more widespread than people are willing to acknowledge.
The thing is: Interpersonal violence in general is mostly perpetrated by someone the victim knows, so we have no idea how strong the “women” part of the equation is. This study only says women are more likely to be killed by intimate partners or family members, which isn’t saying much because outside of active warzones or other places of rampant violence everyone is more likely to be killed by intimate partners or family members.
Edit: See 2ugly2live’s comment in this thread for what I mean. Now that’s useful data.
I live in Canada, so I’ll use data for here. Before I do I’d like to point out that this is misogyny. There is never any degree of acceptability for the amount of violence women are subjected to. It wouldn’t matter if men suffered literally the exact same amount. This is not a petty “who has it worse” contest. This is addressing the horrifying reality that the majority of women will be abused by an intimate partner at some point in their life.
The Canada gender-based-violence fact sheet shows some data on rates of violence against women for different groups. Crucially it shows an overall victimization rate of 44% for all women. It shows an unwanted sexual behavior victimization rate of 61% of women aged 15 to 24. It also shows 93% of all female victims of gender based homicide were murdered by a male intimate partner or family member.
There are other government of canada studies, such as this one, that show that men also experience intimate partner violence. It is notable that none of the figures can even be construed as equivalent, the rate of victimization is higher for women across the board. These studies are based on self report surveys, not on crime reports.
Then there is this aggregate of information page created by the Canadian government to show exactly the ways in which gender based violence against women is unique and horrific. Here’s a couple key points but you can check it yourself as well.
And there’s lots of other data on this for other countries and even more for Canada as well. This is official stats Canada surveys. Their methodology and everything is available online. These studies show conclusively beyond any reasonable doubt that violence against women is a systemic issue at all levels of society and in all aspects of the lives of Canadian women.
It would, though, because domestic violence based on gender is a complete different problem from other forms of interpersonal violence with completely different causes. That’s why I said the data was worthless without the equivalent for men, because without that we don’t (based on the report alone, anyway) know whether homes are dangerous for women because homes are just dangerous or because they’re women.
That aside, after skimming through this data, I have to say: This is fucked up. It’s also useful information that clearly shows a correlation relation between being a woman and gender-based violence.
Don’t let this information just exist passively now that you know it. Remember it the next time you hear a guy going off about his crazy ex-girlfriend who’s accusing him of all kinds of stuff. Or when you hear a woman share her story. Or when you see a guy leering at a woman in a public space.
I’m not accusing you of not already recognizing predatory misogynistic behavior for what it is. But the context that the majority of women have experienced these kinds of things is important. When you are safely able to speak up you should. If your friend is abusive to his girlfriend he shouldn’t get to be your friend anymore. Men should face severe social consequences for committing acts of violence against women. The reality is that they don’t.