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.
Posting this from another thread.
It’s a shame that this data is being presented this poorly, because this is a really important issue that deserves attention. None of the figures presented in the linked article have the proper context to understand them. Even the UN report itself does not present their findings well.
So, for instance, 140 women per day is of course more than the ideal number of zero, but there are billions of people on this planet. To actually quantify the gender imbalance of this number, we need to compare it to the number of men who are victims in the same way. From the report:
Globally, approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed by their intimate partners or other family members […out of…] 85,000 women and girls killed intentionally during the year […] In other words, an average of 140 women and girls worldwide lost their lives every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative.
The report does not offer corresponding numbers for male (or non-binary) victims. It does, however, say that 11.8% of male victims and 60.2% of female victims are killed by partners or other family members. It also acknowledges that 80% of all homicide victims are men and 20% women, which is beside the point as this is about domestic violence, but it will allow us to do some math to arrive at numbers to compare against.
- 85,000 * 80/20 = 340,000 men killed total
- 340,000 * 11.8% = 40,120 men killed by partners or family
- so we are comparing 40,120 men with 51,100 women
- women are 27.4% more likely than men to be killed by partners or family.
…which should have been the headline. 27% more is massive! Domestic violence is a huge issue, and women are more likely to suffer from it!
There is no need to obfuscate the numbers to be less honest. The honest numbers themselves are shocking enough, and scientifically literate readers won’t dismiss your credibility along with your cause. I look forward to future UN reports communicating these horrifying statistics a bit more clearly.
Edit: Wtf is wrong with ya’ll? This article is only about one kind of violence that women are more suseptible too. That’s it. No one is trying to say men aren’t getting hurt, or even that women being harmed is the #1 cause of women’s death. Someone has a post like, “Well, women are more likely to slip, so that’s more dangerous, so there!” Like, okay??? Men are usually the victims of violent crimes and homicides, but when they looked at home based partner abuse, women come out on top. Like, damn.
Here’s some articles on men since apparently we can’t have an article talking about something specific. I guess I should leave a comment on all of these saying “What about the girls!” :
Men and boys are also victims of sex trafficking
Wtf is wrong with ya’ll? This article is only about one kind of violence that women are more susceptible too. That’s it. No one is trying to say men aren’t getting hurt, or even that women being harmed is the #1 cause of women’s death.
Maybe we’re just exhausted of being preached to about how hard life always is for women while at the same time being told life is never hard enough for men and boys to matter, and if it is, it’s their own fault? Or about how men are shit stains who are all at fault for everything each man has ever done and maybe should just all die? When the overall discourse is 99% about women and girls, each individual article becomes inseparable from the overall cultural norm that none of men’s suffering matters but all of women’s suffering does, no matter what it is.
Literally in this thread
Would the world be better if we limited the amount of men allowed in the world? It’s like every waking moment is a remind of how terrible we are.
And men are usually the most common victim of violence …from other men. This is if you take in the gang violence and LBGTQ factor. This is not to say that men cannot die from women or women are on some sort of pedestal this is just to say men are more likely to be killed by another man than a woman in many circumstances.
I’m confused - how are the numbers they provided less honest? You came up with a different stat than what they’re focusing on, but I don’t see how that makes it more honest.
Well, the way they initially presented has people coming in saying “Well, men get hurt too” like they’re trying to say they don’t. The way this first explained the numbers is saying, “Hey, they’re 27% more likely to be harmed.” All the person did was turn the data into a percentage.
It’s a dishonest representation. It ignores violence against men entirely, and makes it look like women in relationships should expect to be killed.
How is it dishonest? It’s looking at one specific kind of harm. It just happens men aren’t the highest statistic for this kind of violence. That’s literally all it’s saying. “When it comes to relationship violence, women tend to be victims more often than men.” If this was a report about suicide and they were ignoring men, I would get the issue.
It’s like an article talking about smokers being more likely to get lung cancer. It’s not the only way to get it, but they’re focusing on smokers. We wouldn’t go, “Well they’re ignoring all the miners.” They just happen to not be the focus of that study.
