Society is failing women. I know that seems like an overdramatic statement, but I have the evidence that back that statement up. Women are being failed by the Criminal Justice System, the government, and by society as a whole.
Let’s start with the statistics for rape and sexual assaults. According to RAINN - The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network - every 2 minutes an American is sexually assaulted and 9 out 10 of those Americans are women. That’s an average of 288,820 survivors of assault age 12 and older everyyear. 1 out of every 6 women will be the victim of rape (attempted or completed) in their lifetime. According to the National Sexual Violence Research Center (NSVRC), 1 in 5 college women experience sexual assault while at college. Unfortunately only 344 of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police - only 1 in 3 of sexual assaults are reported(RAINN). Only 6 rapists are incarcerated for every 1,000 rapes. That’s .6 % of rapists are incarcerated every year.
Our society is failing women because we have allowed for rape culture to flourish. For those of you who don’t know what rape culture is, rape culture is defined as “a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women" (Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW)). A society where a rape culture is present “both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable" (WAVAW). You might not think we live in a society that rape culture exists in. I can tell you that rape culture is prevalent is in our society. Victim blaming runs rampant. Half of the most popular songs have something related to sexual assault or have something that demeans women. There are shirts in existence that say things like “Keep calm and rape a lot” and sayings like “No means no and yes means anal.” We are taught Don’t Get Rapedinstead of Don’t Rape.
When victims actually report and they go through the pain of reliving the most awful experience of their life over and over again to get justice, they are blamed for their own assault. Just look at the questions the prosecutor in Brock Turner’s case asked; questions like “What were you wearing?” and “How much did you drink?” They asked her how much she weighed and “when did you urinate?” The questions were a disgrace, but what's even worse is that he only got 3 months in jail because a harsher sentence would have a “severe impact” on Brock. Here’s another statistic for you from RAINN - 94% of women who have been raped suffer from PTSD. 33% of rape survivors contemplate suicide. 13% of rape survivors attempt suicide. So I’d say that Brock had a much more severe impact on his victim then jail would have had on him.
The prevalence of rape and sexual assault, the lack of justice and our rape culture are just some of the big ways that society failing women. There are some slightly smaller ways that society is failing women. For instance, women are still paid less than men. According to the Institute For Women’s Policy Research, women make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. Seriously?! It is 2016. It is about damn time that we realize that men and women are EQUAL and actually treat women like they aren’t inferior to men. Also have you heard about the pink tax? Women who already make less than men have to pay more money for their personal care items like razors, shaving cream and some medications. Women also pay taxes on their personal hygiene products as if they are luxuries and not necessities.
It is about time that we worked to make a society that is better for the young girls. We should be teaching boys and men not to rape. We should teach society what consent is and what victim blaming is. We should be more likely believe a woman if she says she has been sexually assaulted or raped. For some reason people like to think women cry false rape a lot; only 2-10% of rape allegations are false. As a society, we can do better. Let’s make this country and this world a safer place for girls.
