Women are tired. We are angry and afraid and just so damn tired.
Since Sarah Everard‘s murder, male violence against women has dominated our collective discourse. We’re talking about it on the news, on social media, in our WhatsApp groups, and in our homes.
For women, this conversation is nothing new; this fear and outrage is nothing new, and one thing we certainly aren’t right now is shocked. But for the men around us, this month’s events have thrown women’s safety into the spotlight.
#NotAllMen has been trending on social media and crept into our conversations (again, women are angry about this, but we’re not shocked). The thing is, when you’re so damn exhausted from not only living in fear as a woman, but constantly discussing it too, sometimes this misogynistic defence tactic can be difficult to acknowledge and respond to. It just knocks us for six and all we can think is: ‘I can’t believe I’m having to explain this’.
We’re not saying the onus is on women to educate men about our experiences because as always, authentic allyship starts with education, and women should not be obligated to teach men about our experience. But we thought we’d gather some statistics about male violence against women to use next time you’re stuck in that numb, drained space. Or simply send them this link and tell them to read it for themselves. Whatever you have to do to look after your mental health right now in this especially triggering time, do that.
- Every year, 85,000 women experience rape, attempted rape or sexual assault by penetration in England and Wales alone, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).
- Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted every year in England and Wales, according to the Home Office.
- Only around 15% of those who experience sexual violence report to the police. 5.7% of reported cases lead to convictions.
- In the year to March 2020, 84% of victims relating to sexual offences were female, 16% male, according to data from 41 forces in England and Wales.
- One in three teenage girls has experienced some form of sexual violence from a partner, according to the University of Bristol for NSPCC, and one in five women has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16, as per the ONS.
- A woman dies at the hands of a man every three days, according to the Femicide Census. 1,425 women and girls were killed in the UK between 2009 and 2018.
- 97% of women aged 18-24 have been sexually harassed, while 80% of women of all ages said they had experienced sexual harassment in public spaces, according to a survey from UN Women UK.
- The total number of women killed in the year ending March 2019 increased by 10% from 220 to 241, the second consecutive annual increase and the highest number since 2006, according to the ONS.
- Last year, the number of people prosecuted and convicted for rape fell to the lowest level since records began. Police recorded 55,130 cases of rape, but there were only 2,102 prosecutions and 1,439 convictions in England and Wales between 2019 and 2020.
- 137 women are killed by a member of their family every day, according to the UN. It is estimated that of the 87,000 women who were intentionally killed in 2017 globally, more than half (50,000) were killed by intimate partners or family members. More than a third (30,000) of the women intentionally killed in 2017 were killed by their current or former intimate partner.
- In the year ending March 2020, 92% of defendants in domestic abuse-related prosecutions were male, according to the ONS. 77% of the victims were female.