I Am Not A Statistic (Or Are You?)
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.
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Comments (7)
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Author
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Jen Nedeau is a social media consultant, progressive activist, feminist speaker and writer. She currently lives in New York City, where she works full-time as the Director of Digital Strategy at Air America Media. In August 2008, Nedeau was selected to be the Editor of the WomensRights.Change.Org where she facilitates daily discussion about the feminist movement. Additionally, Nedeau volunteers as the Chief Technology Officer for New Leaders Council, a non-profit that offers exclusive training for young leaders. You can follow her on Twitter @HumanFolly or learn more here: www.jennedeau.com.
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Did you know every 2 minutes somewhere in the US a woman is raped?
Posted by Priscilla V. Quinones on 10/27/2008 @ 08:46AM PT
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That is certainly an important and disturbing statistic! Thanks for adding it. Do you have a source?
Posted by Jen Nedeau on 10/27/2008 @ 09:04AM PT
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45,000,000 abortions since 1973 (and folks wonder about dwindling Social security and tax problems.)
women who have abortions have a 248% increased chance of suicide
Posted by Phil Rautine on 11/08/2008 @ 07:47PM PT
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Really ? Im willing to bet mr. rautine that theres a 100 % chance of you being a fundemental christian.
Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/04/2009 @ 06:30PM PT
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I'm curious what you make of that statistic, Phil? Are you saying abortion should be illegal because it dimishes the number of taxpayers?
I see that stat, and think, look at how painful it is for her to have had an abortion! so we need to find ways to DECREASE the number, WITHOUT LIMITING HER FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
Looking at the other stats above, I see that the difference in pay between the sexes JUST MIGHT COVER CHILDCARE COSTS... and if she actually HAS health insurance, well, she might actually be able to have the child if she wants one.If she doesn't want one, or is not adequately prepared for parenthood, or is in an abusive relationship, victim of inscest, thenforcing her to be a mother is a bad idea all the way around.
If you are so against abortion, I'M SURE WE CAN FIND A WOMAN who would PREFER TO KEEP HER CHILD who would gladly change her mind if you will help her pay the costs!
Also please explain to me why the pro-life position is ALSO AGAINST PLANNED PARENTHOOD???!!
Posted by Kristen Annastasia on 11/11/2009 @ 03:06PM PT
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Forcing women to bear unwanted children is not the solution to Social Security. I highly doubt the 248% statistic.
Anyone who cares more about women than ideology would be far more interested in the percentage rate for depression, post tramatic stress syndrome, and suicide in women who have been raped or been the victim of incest.
People who oppose abortion have no interest whatsoever in controlling the behavior of MEN. This is sexism at its worst.
Posted by Arcadia B on 01/17/2009 @ 12:15PM PT
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Indeed.
I dont believe abortion should ever be used just as birth controll but then, I highly doubt that the majority of women who choose to abort their child would use it just for that.
Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/04/2009 @ 06:31PM PT
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