A recent survey shows the major issues women face everyday.
From domestic abuse to equal pay and access to employment, women have it harder than men.
However, despite this is a very evident matter, there are still many misperceptions surrounding key equality issues.
In a recent Ipsos MORI index, where 19,428 interviews were conducted between 26 January – 9 February, 2018 in 27 countries around the world, sexual harassment stood out as the most important issue facing women.
Sexual violence, with around one in five picking out physical violence, domestic abuse, equal pay, and workplace discrimination follow as the toughest issues women must endure everyday.
Sexual harassment by countries
According to a November 2017 CNN article, 35% of women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence. Just in Egypt, a 2014 Smithsonian article posted that 99.3% of the women studied in a local report had sexually harassed. The most common form of harassment, says Daily News Egypt, citing the same report, was inappropriate touching, as 96.5% of the women who’d been harassed said they’d been physically assaulted.
In the U.S., just inside the entertainment industry, 94% of the 843 women surveyed by USA TODAY who work in the entertainment industry say they’ve experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault. More than one-fifth of respondents (21%) say they have been forced to do something sexual at least once.
In Mexico City, 96% of women surveyed by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) had experienced some form of sexual violence in public spaces, and 58% had been groped.
87% of women surveyed by the Australia Institute reported at least one form of verbal or physical street harassment, while 40% do not feel safe walking in their own neighborhoods at night.
Communicating the problem
According to Research Gate, 71% of women do not report sexual harassment, and far fewer bystanders report harassment that they have witnessed, as there are many potential reasons why women could choose not to.
Ipsos MORI also shows people from Russia, Great Britain, Japan, Australia and Hungary have said they are not talking at all about sexual harassment in their families, which suggests a clear barrier.
The Ipsos MORI data reveals that half of the people in Peru, Malaysia, Turkey, Mexico and India clearly feel sexual harassment is the worst issue women face; in Russia, Poland and Serbia, on the other hand, less than a fifth of people see this as the most important matter.
As for sexual violence, the second major issue women face everyday, according to Ipsos MORI, Peru, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Chile are the countries that see this as a big threat for women.
