Poll finds the United States is one of the most dangerous countries for a woman
For the first time, the United States has made the official top ten list for the most dangerous countries to live in for women.
The US skyrocketed into the top 10 over a huge rise in complaints of sexual assault and harassment from female citizens in the last year.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation conducted the survey by polling 548 experts and found that the United States is the tenth most dangerous country in the world for women.
The US is the only Western nation to make the shortlist, with the remainder of the top ten being made up of third-world and middle eastern countries.
India is ranked as the world’s most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence and being forced into slave labor, according to the poll.
The US is rapidly gaining on India and the war-torn countries that followed, however, due to the rising risk of rape for American women.
The U.S. is the only Western democracy in the top 10, which also includes India, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
The U.S. was tied for third with Syria for the risks women face in terms of sexual violence, harassment, sexual coercion and women’s lack of access to justice in cases of rape, pollsters said.
“People want to think income means you’re protected from misogyny, and sadly that’s not the case,” Cindy Southworth, executive vice president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told Thomson Reuters.
“We are going to look back and see this as a very powerful tipping point.
“We’re blowing the lid off and saying ‘#Metoo and Time’s Up,’” Southworth continued.
Poll respondents included “aid professionals, academics, healthcare staff, non-government organization workers, policy-makers, development specialists and social commentators for the survey.”
The survey was conducted online and via phone and in-person interviews from March 26 to May 4 across Europe, Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Pacific.
READ MORE: San Francisco Declared One of the ‘Filthiest Slums’ in the World