Countries Where Women Do Not Feel Safe

While the march towards gender equality slowly progresses around the world, one disturbing issue remains unresolved — safety for women. Even in the developed world, large segments of the female population do not feel safe going out in their own communities at night. A new survey released by Gallup shows that in countries like the United States, where 82% of men feel comfortable going out at night, just 62% of women do.

Read: Countries Where Women Do Not Feel Safe

The least safe countries in the world for both sexes are, for the most part, war-torn areas in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa. In these countries, men and women generally feel the same about their safety — though women almost always feel less secure. This trend holds true for developing countries, but the gap between men and women begins to widen.

Based on the Gallup’s report, 24/7 Wall St. examined the 10 countries where the gap between how men and women feel about their safety is the widest. While in these countries the level of perceived safety is among the highest in the world, women still report feeling far less safe compared to what men report. 24/7 Wall St.’s independent analysis of the economic conditions in these countries shows that they are among the most developed in the world, both in terms of wealth and gender equality.

Most of the countries on our list have among the highest GDP per capita. Two of the countries, the U.S. and Australia, are among the 10 richest in the world on that basis. Education and literacy rates are among the highest in the world in these countries as well. And secondary school enrollment is in the top third for eight of the 10 of the countries on this list (one of the remaining two does not report data).

Gender equality is generally stronger in these countries as well. According to a separate Gallup survey, the reported gap between women with full-time positions and men with full-time positions is among the lowest in the world. Generally, there are almost always more men employed full-time than women. But in Finland, one of the countries on the list, 12% more women are employed full-time compared to men. According to the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, which measures the relative opportunities for men and women in their culture, the countries on our list have some of the strongest gender equality in the world.

Gallup consultant Steve Crabtree, one of the study’s authors, suggested that the general prosperity of the nations on our list is likely the reason for the disparity between how safe men and women feel in these countries. “As countries develop and poverty declines, the economic rationale for committing an assault, which would be to steal someone’s money or property, becomes less prevalent,” he told 24/7 Wall St. But, he explained, sexual and other violent assaults against women are not based on financial incentives and therefore may still remain high.

Many of these countries appear to have real issues with violence against women. Reported rapes in these nations on a per capita basis are among the highest in the world. Three of the countries on our list, including the country with the highest disparity — New Zealand — have among the top 10 worst rates of reported rape per capita. Despite having among the strongest gender equality, it is clear that rape and other forms of violence against women — including domestic violence — are still an issue in these countries.

Not all of the countries with the largest gap between the perceived safety of men and women are developed economies with high income and otherwise strong gender equality. Two of the countries on our list, Algeria and Albania, are considered less developed countries. While these two still have above-average GDP per capita, they have lower income, worse scores on many of the measures of gender equality and lower levels of perceived safety among men than the other countries on our list. Nevertheless, violence against women in these countries is well-documented, and the gender gap in perceived safety is still high.

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24/7 Wall St. reviewed Gallup’s report, “Women Feel Less Safe Than Men in Many Developed Countries.” The report looked at 143 countries to identify the 10 in which women feel less safe than men walking alone at night. We also reviewed Gallup’s “Wide Gender Divide in Employment in One-Fourth,” which identified the percentage of men and women in each country that are employed full-time. Both surveys were conducted in 2011 and published in July 2012. Using data provided by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), we also reviewed incidents of reported rape by country for 2009 or the most recent available year. In addition, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed literacy, percentage of the population living in urban areas and GDP data provided by the CIA World Factbook. We also included reference to levels of violence and perceived violence, as measured by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

These are the countries where women do not feel safe.

10. Finland
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -26%
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 66%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 92%

In Finland, 80% of women are employed full-time, while just 68% of men are fully employed. When it comes to feelings of personal safety, however, women still feel less safe than men — and by a wide margin. While the likelihood of violent crime in Finland is very low according to the EIU, only 66% of Finnish women actually felt safe where they lived or when out at night. In its 2012 annual report, Amnesty International criticized the nation for having inadequate shelters and clinics for victims of rape and domestic violence.

9. France
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -27%
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 51%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 78%

Barely half of France’s women feel safe when going outside at night, compared to the nearly 80% of men who feel safe. According to the CIA World Factbook, nearly 85% of the population lives in urban areas, the 18th highest out of the 138 countries in this study. By many conventional measures, France is one of the most developed countries in the world. More than 98% of residents enroll in secondary education, compared to 95.6% in the U.S. However, there were more than 10,000 reported incidents of rape in 2009, a rate of 16.2 per 100,000 people. This is among the worst recorded rates in the world.

8. United States
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -27%
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 62%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 89%

The U.S. may be the strongest example of national wealth not ensuring personal safety. In 2011, GDP per capita on a purchasing power parity basis was $48,100 — one of the highest in the world. Yet, women in America felt far less safe than men, and likely with good reason. According to the UNODC, 88,097 incidents of rape were reported in the U.S. in 2009 — more than were recorded in any other country the UN surveyed. This only accounts for reported cases. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) reports that one out of every six American women, 17.7 million in total, has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.

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7. Australia
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -27% (tied for 6th)
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 51%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 78%

Barely half the women in Australia feel safe when walking at night. In no way is this more evident than in the nation’s rape statistics: Australia recorded 91.92 rapes per 100,000 people in 2009, the highest rate in the world. In 2011, the Australian government passed the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children, a program designed to reduce incident rates for gender-based violence in Australia. According to the Australian government’s website for the program, one in three Australian women have been victims of physical violence and almost one in five have been a victim of sexual violence after turning 15.

6. Albania
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -27% (tied for 6th)
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 54%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 81%

While more than four in five men in the country feel safe going out at night in Albania, just over half of the women do. The extent of actual violence against women in the country is difficult to determine. According to the UNODC, the rate of reported rapes per capita is below the world average. However, the homicide rate in the country is more than 80 per 100,000, one of the highest recorded rates in the world (in the U.S., the rate is closer to five per 100,000). The high rate of violence suggests that the rape numbers may be underreported. According to Amnesty International, Albania faces a major problem with widespread domestic violence, as well as trafficking of women for forced prostitution.

5. Italy
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -28% (tied for 4th)
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 40%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 68%

When it comes to gender equality, Italy’s performance is exceptionally poor. Just 56% of women are fully employed versus 69% of Italian men, a 13% gap in employment that is among the largest in the world. Italy also had a mediocre performance on the 2011 World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index, receiving a composite score of 0.6796, in the bottom half of the 135 countries surveyed. The composite measures the levels of women’s economic participation, educational attainment, health and political involvement. The World Economic Forum’s accompanying profile of Italy noted poor rates of labor force participation and little wage equality for similar work performed. When it comes to safety, gender inequality in the country persists as just 40% of Italian women feel safe compared to 68% of men.

4. Cyprus
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -28% (tied for 4th)
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 57%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 85%

Women’s economic participation is somewhat advanced in Cyprus, as 74% of women are employed at full capacity versus 78% of men. However, the unemployment rate for male Cypriots was half that of women at just 3% versus 6% in 2011. In many other areas the status of women in the country also remains extremely unequal. Political participation for women is limited: just 10.7% of Cyprus’s parliament is made up of women, while just 9% of ministerial positions are held by women. The unequal treatment of women extends to many facets of women’s lives in Cyprus, adversely affecting women’s safety. According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report, Cyprus is a “destination country” for sex traffickers.

3. Malta
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men: -34% (tied for 2nd)
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 48%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 82%

In a 2010 report, the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women criticized Malta for its approach to women’s rights and safety. The report expressed concern that domestic violence was an ongoing problem in the country and that Maltese sociocultural attitudes continued to condone domestic violence. However, some progress has been made when in July 2011 Malta’s parliament legalized divorce. The inability to divorce has been cited by CEDAW as resulting in “de facto discrimination against women.”

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2. Algeria
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men:-34% (tied for 2nd)
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 32%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 66%

Less than a third of women in the North African nation of Algeria feel safe going out at night, the fifth-worst rate in the world. While the proportion of men working full-time compared to women working full-time is nearly identical, the nation fails several other gender equality tests. Just 8% of those in parliament are women. The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index rates the country as having the 11th-worst score for equal opportunities among 114 nations. According to the UN, reported rapes per capita are relatively low, but this may be a reporting issue. Amnesty International explains that the rights of women in the country are marginalized. There are continued issues of violence against women, and women’s rights are “subordinated to those of men in matters related to marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.”

1. New Zealand
> Pct. women who feel less safe than men:-35%
> Pct. women who feel safe at night: 50%
> Pct. men who feel safe at night: 85%

In most measures of gender equality, other than perceptions of safety, New Zealand actually performs well. The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index gives New Zealand the fourth-best score of all nations surveyed. Regarding employment prospects, the proportion of men working full-time is only slightly higher than women’s at 66% for men versus 64% for women. On the issue of political participation, 32.2% of parliament is composed by women. However, such data seemingly ignores the detrimental impact of violent crime in women’s lives in New Zealand. At a rate of 30.58 reported incidents for 100,000 people in 2009, the country has the seventh-highest frequency of rapes out of 94 countries surveyed. Gallup also cites a 2011 United Nations report that labels New Zealand as one of the worst countries when it comes to incidents of domestic violence among a surveyed group of highly developed nations.

–Michael B. Sauter and Alexander E. M. Hess