Today (March 8th) is International Womenās Day. So here are a few āuncomfortableā facts we, as a society, arenāt talking about enough.
cw: mention of miscarriages, violence, death, pain
- Almost one in three women* has been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence.
- In 2024, 50.000 women* were killed by their partner or a family member.
- Millions of women* still canāt afford menstrual products and/or donāt have access to water and sanitation facilities to manage their periods.
- On average, it takes over eight years to receive an endometriosis diagnosis. And we are talking about incredible pain here. Every single month.
- Medicine and health research have primarily focused on male patients for decades. Even nowadays, only 5% of the worldwide expenditure on medical research and health research is spent solely on female health.
- You may think miscarriages arenāt a regular occurrence. But thatās only bc women* were taught to be silent about them. In reality, around every eight pregnancy ends in a miscarriage. And the affected women* are often left alone with it.
- Even more silenced: Postnatal depressions are affecting more than 1 in every 10 women* within a year of giving birth.
- Around the world, 119 million girls are out of school, including 34 million of only primary school age. Only 49% of countries have achieved gender parity in primary education. Itās even less in lower secondary education (42%) and upper secondary education (24%).
- 1 in every 10 women* in the world lives in extreme poverty. Far more than men.
- The European Union still records an average gender pay gap of 11%. Oh and yes, I dgaf about the adjusted pay gap. āWomen* are often in lower-paid positions because they have fewer calcifications and choose lower-paid jobsā¦ā - Yes Donald. But not because we are dumber. But because men are systematically disadvantaging us from the moment we are fcking born. And because you criminally underpay women-dominated professions.
- Women* only hold 1/3 of all managerial positions.
- On average, women undertake 2.5 times more hours every day on unpaid care work than men. Girls learn this early and (worldwide) provide 160 million more hours every day on unpaid care and domestic work than boys.āÆ
- 49% of girls drop out of sports during adolescence. This is six times higher than the drop-out rate of adolescent boys.
- Forbes Magazineās list of the 50 highest paid athletes in the world still does not include a single woman*.
- Approximately 650 million girls and women alive today were married before their 18th birthday.
- There still isnāt a single country that has achieved gender equality.