While there has been a lot of work done in the last 30 years on issues facing women and girls, there is still much to be done. Below are some compelling statistics quantifying the situation of women and girls today.

Issues Areas:

• Domestic Violence
• Economic Parity
• Teen Sexuality and Pregnancy

If you have additional or updated information or have any questions, please contact wfa@wfalliance.org.

Domestic Violence
All information was found on the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence web site.

• More than 50% of child abductions result from domestic violence.
• Approximately 1 out of every 25 elderly persons is victimized annually.
• 22 to 35% of women who visit emergency rooms are there for injuries related to on going abuse.
• Up to 50% of all homeless women and children in this country are fleeing domestic violence.
• Five to 25% of pregnant women are battered.
• One out of every four gay couples (25%) experiences domestic violence in their relationship. That's approximately the same rate as heterosexual couples.
• A study of violence among dating couples of high school age found that 12% had experienced abuse in one of their relationships.
• Sexual abuse against disabled girls and women is roughly twice as high as for non-disabled girls and women. Considering that 33 percent of American women experience domestic violence, a conservative estimate says that at least 60% of disabled women have experienced it.
• According to the U.S. Department of Justice, over two-thirds of female victims of violence documented in 1993 were related to or knew their attacker.
• A 1992 study of family and intimate assaults reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that family and intimate assaults involving firearms are 12 times more likely to result in death than all non-firearm family and intimate assaults.
• Homes experiencing domestic violence were close to five times more likely to be the scene of a homicide than other homes. It also reported that a handgun in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a family member or an acquaintance than an intruder.
• Although divorced and separated women comprise only 7% of the population in the U.S., they account for 75% of all battered women and report being assaulted 14 times more often than women still living with a partner.

Economic Parity
All information was found on the Center for Policy Alternatives web site or from the US Dept. of Labor.

• At age 30, the average woman has approximately the same level of education as the average man--yet she earn about 20% less.
• Women earn $0.74 for every $1.00 a man earns; women of color earn $0.63, and Latinas only $0.56.
• According to national public opinion data, the biggest problems facing women at work today are combining work and family (34%) and receiving equal pay (25%).
• Two-thirds of the 60 million women that work outside of the home do not have a pension plan.
• Women constitute 73% of all caregivers. For 17% of working caregivers, the demands are so intense they give up work entirely or take a leave of absence.
• According to national public opinion data there is consensus from women (82%) and men (70%) that women are paid less than men for the same work.
• While the wage gap has dropped since 1979 when women earned $0.63 for every $1.00 a man earned, this is explained not by an increase in women's wages, but a decrease in men's real wages.
• A study found that almost 40% of working poor women would be able to leave welfare programs if they were to receive pay equity wage increases.
• According to the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, due to the fact that retirement benefits are based on the accumulation of lifetime earnings, women with pensions receive about half of the amount that men do. This translates into $4,200 annually for women while men receive $7,800, producing a retirement wage gap of $0.53 per women.

Teen Sexuality and Pregnancy
All information was found on the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy web site and the Washington NARAL Foundation web site.

• The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the Western industrialized world.
• Four in 10 young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20-nearly one million a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended.
• Close to four in ten girls who had first intercourse at 13 or 14 report it was either non-voluntary or unwanted.
• Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school, only one-third receive a high school diploma.
• Teen mothers are more likely to end up on welfare; nearly 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare.
• Three out of four girls and over half of boys report that girls who have sex do so because their boyfriends want them to.
• Although 93% of Americans support teaching sexuality education to high school students, Washington state law does not require schools to provide sexuality education.
• The only Washington state academic requirement is two hours of AIDS prevention. All STD education materials must emphasize "the importance of sexual abstinence outside lawful marriage."