What's the worst place in the world to live for women? Well, going by these Worst Places to Be a Woman maps, they all seem to be on the other side of the world. Overall the U.S. is a pretty good place for women. We do a good job of educating girls. Baby girls are cherished just as much as baby boys. And underage marriage (under 16) is illegal. Score, USA!
But when it comes to safety -- eek! Let's just say the U.S. is definitely not the safest place in the world for women.
We're kind of somewhere in the middle. Well, that whole map looks scary, actually. When it comes to "how vulnerable women are to various forms of physical assault, including murder, rape, and domestic violence" it's pretty much Western Europe and everyone else. Kind of makes me want to move to Spain.
Want a closer look at that safety question? According to Forbes, America's most dangerous cities for women in the U.S. are Memphis, TN; Battle Creek, MI; Lawton, OK; Pine Bluff, AK; Flint, MI; Redding, CA; Springfield, IL; Fairbanks, AK; Anchorage, AK; and Saginaw, MI.* (Michigan, what the hell?!?) This is based on FBI crime data on violent crimes and sexual assault per capita.
Wouldn't it be a luxury if we could all choose where we live based on the safety of the location? I would love to see the top 10 safest cities for women as well.
It makes me wonder about everything that goes into making a city safe or dangerous for women. Is it the economy? The weather? Is Alaska more dangerous because women are so outnumbered? I don't know, but I'm feeling nervous for the women in these cities now.
*Forbes has discovered some discrepancies in their numbers and are bustin' the calculators to figure it out. The infamy of most dangerous city may not belong to Saginaw after all.
Are you surprised that the U.S. isn't safer for women?
Image via Toasty Ken/Flickr
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Comments 13
No I'm not. It is already far from the best place to give birth.
In many countries rape is almost never reported because "it is the women's fault." Even in countries where rape is legally the man's fault and a womans testimony is adequate, the culture, often, still blames the woman, so they don't report in.
In many countries marital rape doesn't count, nor does domestic violence, because it is the husband's right.
The U.S. and eastern Europe are more likely to acknowledge violence against women, so of course our statistics show more of it. It's not hidden/swept under the rug when it happens. It's investigated and prosecuted.
"Endangered" American females are certainly represented by the females killed every year via abortion.
Planned Parenthood alone performs an abortion roughly every 95 seconds or about 330,000/year. Don't know the breakdown, but I guess about half of those babies are females.
That's a monumental amount of girl-powered potential thrown out with the trash or otherwise disposed of as "waste".
Velez: "Are you surprised that the U.S. isn't safer for women?" No, not when life is held so cheaply by so many - that should make you "nervous".
anon: " I see no logic in her jump between the subject of the article and that of her comment."
Of course you don't.