IV. Severe Discrimination and Violence Against Women

1. Women face severe violent assaults

Women in the US were 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than women in peer nations.

Nearly half of female firearm homicide victims were killed by a current or former intimate partner.

Every month, an average of 52 women were shot and killed by an intimate partner, with 4.5 million women having reported being threatened with a gun.

2. Women face common sexual offending and sexual harassment

81% of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime.

More than 3.3 million US women ages 18 to 44 were raped the first time they had sexual intercourse.

The average age of women who experienced forced sexual initiation was 15.6.

Sexual assault prevalence in the Army rose for women from 4.4% in 2016 to 5.8 percent in 2018.

3. Sexual assault cases kept increasing

An estimated 139,380 rapes reported to law enforcement were reported in 2018, 2.7% higher than the 2017 estimate and 18.1% higher than the 2014 estimate.

4. Gender discrimination in the workplace extensively exists

More than four in ten women said they had experienced gender discrimination in the workplace when it comes to getting equal pay or promotions.

The US is one of just a handful of countries that does not guarantee any paid time off to new mothers.

Based on data from the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index, it was estimated that it would take the US another 208 years to reach gender equality.

5. Problems of gender and racial discrimination overlap

Only about 20% of white men were working in low-wage jobs, while 40% of black women were working in low wage jobs and then 46% of Latino or Hispanic women.

Latina women earned 46% less than white men and 31%  less than white women.

6. Women face more severe threat from poverty

A total of 10.6% of men in the US lived below the poverty line, while 12.9% for women.

Gender wage gap in the United States remained among the highest in the rich world and 70% of US poor were women and children.

Of the 7.1 million older adults living in poverty in the United States, nearly two out of three were women.

16% of women aged over 65 lived at or below the poverty line.