I Am Not A Statistic (Or Are You?)

by Jen Nedeau

Published October 04, 2008 @ 09:14PM PT

Women's Leadership (data from the White House Project)

11

The amount of elected women heads of state out of 180 countries.

16%

The amount of women members of national parliaments worldwide.

49%

The proportion of women parliamentarians in Rwanda, which holds the highest proportion in the world.

1

The only country that does not have universal suffrage is Saudi Arabia.

39

The number of women ambassadors to the United Nations.

60

The number of world's states where women's income is 50% lower than men's income

1980

The year when US women started to vote in higher rates than men.

1964

The year that Margaret Chase Smith became the first US woman nominated by a major political party.

Women in Congress and the Senate (data from Center on Congress, Women In Congress)

74

The amount of female Representatives in the House, of which 53 are Democrats and 21 are Republicans. Two of the women House members are sisters: Loretta Sanchez and Linda Sanchez, both Democrats from California.

16

The amount of female Senators, of which 11 are Democrats and 5 are Republicans. These are the highest numbers of women Members in the history of the Congress.

193

The total number of women who have been elected to serve Congress since the first woman, Representative Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, was elected and served from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1941 to 1943.

23

The amount of women in congressional history who have been elected by their peers into the Democratic and Republican Party leadership-17 in the House and six in the Senate.

38

The total number of women of color who have served in U.S. Congress since Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964. Roughly three-quarters (30) of these women were elected after 1990. A total of 37 have served in the House; Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois served in the U.S. Senate (1993-1999). The first African-American woman to serve in Congress, Shirley Chisholm of New York, won election in 1968; 24 African-American women have followed her. The first Hispanic-American woman elected to Congress, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, entered the House in 1989; six other Hispanic-American women have followed her. In addition to Congresswoman Mink, three other Asian-Pacific-American women have served in Congress.

Women and Labor (data from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, Department of Labor)

77 cents

Women's median annual earnings were only $.77 for every $1.00 earned by men in 2005

$614

Women's median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary weekly earnings in 2007, compared with $766 for men. White women earned $626, compared with white men's $788; black women earned $533 to black men's $600; Hispanic women earned $473 compared with Hispanic men's $520; Asian women earned $731, compared with Asian men's $936 median weekly earnings.

$31,858

The average earnings of women in 2005, compared with men's $41,386. Real annual earnings have not increased for either women or men in recent years.

2,458

The number of sexual harassment settlements that were resolved in 2007 out of 27,112 receipts filed.

59.3%

The percentage of women in the labor force, compared with 73.2% of all men in the labor force.

Education (data from the National Center for Education Statistics)

58%

The percentage of educational degrees earned by women compared to men in academic year 2002-03. Women earned 60 percent of all associates degrees, 58 percent of all bachelor's degrees, and 59 percent of all master's degrees.

Mental Health and Body Image (data from National Institute of Mental Health)

20%

The percentage of women who struggle with an eating disorder or disordered eating at some point in their life.

14.8 Million

The number of adults affected by major depressive disorder each year, which is more prevalent in women than in men.

2 x

Women attempt suicide two to three times as often as men, but four times as many men as women die by suicide.

Reproductive Health (data from the Guttmacher Institute)

1/5

One out of every five pregnancies worldwide that end in abortion.

+ 50%

The increase in percentage of unsafe and illegal abortions in developing countries in 2007. There was a greater decline in abortion incidence in developed countries, where nearly all abortions are safe and legal (from 39 to 26 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44), than in developing countries, where more than half are unsafe and illegal (from 34 to 29).

35 million

The number of abortions that occur in developing countries annually, compared with seven million in developed countries.

17

The number of countries that liberalized laws to increase access to safe abortion between 1995 and 2005: Albania, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Nepal, Portugal, Saint Lucia, South Africa, Swaziland, Switzerland and Togo. Three countries tightened restrictions on abortion: El Salvador, Nicaragua and Poland. The World Health Organization defines unsafe abortion as a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy carried out either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both.

48%

The percentage worldwide of all induced abortions that are unsafe. However, in developed regions, nearly all abortions (92%) are safe, whereas in developing countries, more than half (55%) are unsafe.

5 million

The estimated number of women who are hospitalized each year worldwide for treatment of abortion-related complications, such as hemorrhage and sepsis.

67,000

The number of deaths worldwide due to complications from unsafe abortion procedures, which over all account for an estimated 13% of maternal deaths.

1/3

The fraction of the 205 million pregnancies worldwide that are unintended. Two-thirds of unintended pregnancies in developing countries occur among women who are not using any method of contraception.

22%

The percentage of pregnancies worldwide that end in induced abortion per year.

20 years

The average amount of time a woman must use some form of effective contraception if she wants to limit her family size to two children, and 16 years if she wants four children.