To read the press release in Spanish, click here
PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 WEDNESDAY 8TH MARCH 2006
71% of UK women are not feminists, new WOMANKIND Worldwide poll reveals on International Women’s Day
71% of UK women say they do not consider themselves feminists, according to a new poll commissioned by international women’s rights organisation WOMANKIND Worldwide. Wednesday March 8th is International Women’s Day; an opportunity to bring to light ongoing inequality and disregard of women’s human rights.
- Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury and death for women. One in three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way (Source: Amnesty; see notes to eds)
- A quarter of women in the UK will experience an act of domestic violence at some point in their lifetimes (Source: Mirrlees-Black; see notes to eds)
- Every day 6,000 girls undergo female genital mutilation (Source: Equality Now; see notes to eds)
- Two thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women (Source: UNESCO; see notes to eds)
- 70% of people living in extreme poverty (on less than $1 a day) are women (Source: Oxfam; see notes to eds)
- Only 15% of the world’s parliamentary seats are held by women (Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union; see notes to eds)
“We commissioned this poll to highlight that although many in the UK feel that equality for women has been achieved, shocking injustices remain here and throughout the world. Over 98% of Somali women have undergone female genital mutilation; 80% of Afghan women are illiterate, and in Ghana there is no law to protect women from domestic violence.”
WOMANKIND Worldwide is a UK charity which works in the UK and developing countries around the world to improve women’s lives and promote women’s rights. For more information, see www.womankind.org.uk. Case studies are available.
For further information, case studies & photos, contact Amy Pratt, Communications & Information Manager. Direct line: 020 7549 0383. Mobile: 07946 527 059
Notes to editors
Poll details
NOP Gfk polled 523 women aged 15+ by telephone between 17th and 19th Februrary 2006. Respondents were selected by random digit dialling. Quota controls were set by sex, age, social class and region to ensure that the sample was nationally representative of adults in telephone owning households in the UK.
Respondents were asked: “Do you consider yourself a feminist, or not?”. 68% answered “No”; 3% answered “Don’t know”; 29% answered “Yes”.
Where WOMANKIND works
Africa: Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, South Africa, Sudan, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, India
Central & South America: Bolivia, Nicaragua, Peru
Europe: Albania, UK
WOMANKIND’s aims
• To advance women’s status and wellbeing through increasing their political and civil participation
• To reduce violence against women
• To inform and influence policy and practice at local, national, regional and international levels
Sources for statistics
- Domestic violence (Source: Amnesty http://www.amnesty.org.uk/svaw/vaw/global.shtml#global and Mirrlees-Black, Domestic Violence: Findings from a new British Crime Survey: Self-completion Questionnaire, England & Wales, 1999)
- Female genital mutilation (Source: Equality Now http://www.equalitynow.org/english/campaigns/fgm/fgm-campaign_en.html)
- Illiteracy (Source: UNESCO http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=44167&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
- Poverty (Oxfam http://www.oxfam.org.au/world/gender/)
- Parliamentary seats (Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm)
