What Is Violence Against Women?
Violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women and girls — including threats, coercion, and deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. This definition, established by the United Nations in its 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, remains the most widely used framework for legislation, policy, and advocacy globally.
It is not a niche crisis confined to particular regions, cultures, or socioeconomic groups. As the most comprehensive global study to date — published by the World Health Organization and UN Women in November 2025 — makes brutally clear: 840 million women, nearly one in three globally, have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime. The study analyzed data from 168 countries spanning 2000 to 2023. The figure has barely shifted in twenty-five years.
In the last twelve months alone, 316 million women — 11% of all women aged 15 and older — were subjected to violence by an intimate partner. Not in their lifetime. In the past year.
Women and girls are killed by an intimate partner or family member every single day — one every ten minutes. In 2024, 50,000 women and girls lost their lives this way.
Types of Violence Against Women
Violence against women takes many forms — many of which go unrecognized, unreported, and unaddressed. Understanding the full spectrum is essential for prevention, legal recognition, and supporting survivors whose experiences may not match the narrow public image of domestic violence as purely physical.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
Physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse by a current or former partner. The most common form — 27% of women 15–49 in relationships have experienced it.
Sexual Violence
Rape, sexual assault, and harassment — both inside and outside of relationships. 263 million women report lifetime non-partner sexual violence (WHO 2025), widely considered an undercount.
Coercive Control
A pattern of behaviour designed to dominate a partner through monitoring, isolation, financial deprivation, and humiliation. Now a criminal offence in England, Wales, and Scotland.
Economic Abuse
Control of finances, sabotage of employment, debt coercion, denial of money access. Often the mechanism that traps survivors when physical escape would otherwise be possible.
Digital & Online Violence
Cyberstalking, non-consensual intimate images, deepfakes, harassment, digital surveillance. The UN's 2025 16 Days campaign designated this the fastest-growing form of gender-based violence.
Femicide
The intentional killing of women because of their gender. 60% of intentional female homicides globally are committed by intimate partners or family members — vs. just 11% of male homicides.
Female Genital Mutilation
Over 230 million girls and women have undergone FGM — a 15% increase on figures from eight years ago (UN Women 2025). Practised in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Forced Marriage & Trafficking
1 in 5 young women aged 20–24 was married before 18. Women and girls account for 61% of detected trafficking victims globally, mostly for sexual exploitation.
Who Is Most At Risk?
While violence against women crosses every social boundary, risk is not evenly distributed. Research identifies several factors that compound vulnerability — not because these characteristics cause violence, but because the systems that should protect women fail them most severely here.
Displaced and conflict-affected women face dramatically higher rates. Forcibly displaced women in Colombia and Liberia were 40% and 55% more likely to experience intimate partner violence compared to non-displaced women (WHO 2025).
Women with disabilities report higher rates of all forms of intimate partner violence and face additional barriers in accessing services.
Indigenous and Native women face disproportionate rates in the United States and internationally. The crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) has received increasing legislative attention, though gaps remain severe.
Women in humanitarian crises face exponentially elevated risk: in conflict settings, 70% of women experience gender-based violence — compared to 35% worldwide (WHO). Crisis simultaneously increases risk and dismantles access to support services.
"We are not winning. After twenty years of international commitments, summits, and pledges, the needle has moved 0.2 percent annually. That is not progress. That is a failure of political will."
— Dr. Victoria Hargrove, Women ThriveThe Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
In the United States, the landmark legislative response to gender-based violence is the Violence Against Women Act, first signed into law by President Bill Clinton in September 1994. VAWA was the first piece of US federal legislation to acknowledge domestic violence and sexual assault as serious crimes deserving a coordinated national response — and to provide the federal funding to build that response.
Before VAWA, states handled these crimes inconsistently. Protection orders were ignored across state lines. Survivors had no guaranteed right to services. Law enforcement lacked training. VAWA changed all of that — creating the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), which since 1995 has awarded more than $8 billion in grants to states, tribes, local governments, and nonprofits.
VAWA: A History of Reauthorization
VAWA Enacted
Signed by President Clinton. Creates OVW, mandates federal prosecution of interstate domestic violence crimes, establishes interstate enforcement of protection orders, provides billions in investigation and prosecution grants.
First Reauthorization
Expands protections for immigrants and trafficking victims. Creates the first legal assistance program for domestic violence survivors. Adds dating violence and stalking to the Act's coverage.
Second Reauthorization
Introduces prevention strategies, housing protections for survivors, first federal funding for rape crisis centers, and culturally specific services. Addresses survivors with disabilities for the first time.
Third Reauthorization
Extends tribal jurisdiction — allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Native offenders for crimes against Native women. Adds protections for LGBTQ+ survivors. Strengthens college campus programs.
Most Recent Reauthorization — signed by President Biden
Addresses cybercrime and non-consensual intimate image sharing. Expands tribal jurisdiction to Alaska Native Villages. Adds Native Hawaiians as eligible recipients. Strengthens housing protections and health sector responses to gender-based violence.
VAWA's impact in the United States has been measurable. Between 1993 and 2010, the rate of intimate partner violence in the US declined by 67% — a result in which VAWA's coordinated community response model played a central role. The law demonstrates what sustained political commitment, adequate funding, and coordinated policy can achieve.
IVAWA: Taking the Commitment Global
The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) would extend the US commitment beyond its borders — making the prevention of gender-based violence a core component of US foreign policy. It would require the State Department to develop comprehensive multi-year strategies for addressing violence against women in every country receiving US foreign assistance.
Women Thrive Worldwide was one of the foremost advocacy organisations championing IVAWA — and secured some of the most powerful voices in America to testify in its support, including Nicole Kidman's landmark Senate testimony in 2012.
Read the full political history: The IVAWA Campaign — A Decade of Advocacy
The Funding Crisis
One of the most damning findings in the WHO and UN Women's November 2025 report is this: in 2022, only 0.2% of global development aid was allocated to programmes focused on the prevention of violence against women. And according to the report, that funding has fallen further in 2025 — even as prevalence remains essentially unchanged from two decades ago. We are spending less to address a crisis that has not shrunk. This is not resource scarcity. It is political choice.
What Progress Looks Like — And What It Takes
The US experience under VAWA demonstrates what is possible. Countries and jurisdictions that have invested in the following have seen measurable reductions in violence against women:
- Accessible, adequately funded shelter networks with clear legal authority
- Economic support enabling survivors to leave financially controlling relationships
- Trauma-informed law enforcement training and dedicated specialist units
- Legal aid specifically for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors
- Prevention programmes targeting adolescents before patterns of violence establish
- Digital violence legislation and enforceable platform accountability
- Independent evaluation of funded programmes with transparent reporting
The problem is not that solutions are unknown. The problem is that these investments remain the exception globally, not the rule.
How to Get Help
If you or someone you know is experiencing violence, please reach out. You do not need to wait until violence becomes physical. Coercive control, threats, and fear are sufficient reason to call.
Emergency & Crisis Numbers
Frequently Asked Questions
According to WHO and UN Women (November 2025), 840 million women — nearly 1 in 3 globally — have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once. In the last 12 months alone, 316 million women experienced intimate partner violence — not across a lifetime, but in a single year.
The main forms are: intimate partner violence (physical, sexual, emotional, economic abuse by a partner); non-partner sexual violence; coercive control (a pattern of domination and monitoring); digital and online abuse including cyberstalking and non-consensual intimate images; human trafficking; forced marriage; female genital mutilation; and honour-based violence. Many survivors experience multiple forms simultaneously.
VAWA is a landmark US federal law first enacted in 1994 that created the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and established federal grant programs for domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Since 1995, OVW has awarded over $8 billion in grants. VAWA has been reauthorized in 2000, 2005, 2013, and most recently 2022 under President Biden. It contributed to a 67% decline in intimate partner violence rates in the US between 1993 and 2010.
Globally, 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners. In 2024 alone, 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members — 137 per day, one every ten minutes. Only 11% of male homicides are perpetrated by intimate partners or family members, underscoring the gendered nature of lethal domestic violence.
The global picture is grim. The rate of intimate partner violence has declined by just 0.2% annually over the past two decades. In the US, VAWA contributed to a 67% decline between 1993 and 2010 — proof that sustained investment and coordinated policy can produce results. Globally, however, that investment does not exist: in 2022, only 0.2% of global development aid went to violence prevention programmes.
Coercive control is a pattern of behaviour used by an abuser to dominate a partner. It includes monitoring communications and movements, isolating victims from friends and family, controlling finances, humiliation, threats, and psychological manipulation. It does not have to be physical to be dangerous or to qualify as domestic abuse. It is now a criminal offence in England, Wales, Scotland, and several other jurisdictions worldwide.