The safety of women has always been an issue, and in the digital age, the issue of women’s safety is even more prominent. On the internet, harassment, trolling, cyberbullying, and stalking are virtually inescapable. Historically, women have never been safe. The oppression of women has been reinforced through generations of patriarchal systems with misogynistic societal norms. As women fear for their lives, men often cheer on their counterparts, and passersby mutter how “boys will be boys.” However, it doesn’t take a genius to realise the crises that women are in every day. Across cities, workplaces, campuses, and the internet, women are targeted for no reason. Is it because of their sex? Do men believe that they are “easy targets”? Depending on who you ask, it’s a mix of both factors. However, women are pushed to be vulnerable, and pushed to be targets. It is not a natural evolution, but rather the effect of systemic inequality, chauvinistic norms, victim blaming, and patriarchal social structures.

Throughout their lives, women restrict themselves, their actions, behavior, and even adjust the way they dress to avoid sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and crime—all to protect themselves from the threat of male violence. Even women who have not previously been victimized find themselves doing these things almost out of instinct. Not only do women bear the brunt of being disproportionately victimized to domestic violence, sexual crime, online crime, and stalking, but, the majority of the time, they are also victim blamed. Even when a woman is subject to brutal acts of physical, sexual, or mental abuse, seeing a man being properly held accountable and facing fitting consequences is rare. Instead, the woman is questioned, and the blame is somehow pointed to her. It is assumed that she provoked him, overreacted, blew the situation out of proportion, or, because of rape culture, “asked for it” by wearing something scandalous (SCSU). This tendency of victim blaming is influenced by placing focus on women’s actions rather than the abuser’s and influenced by “...levels of empathy, with lower empathy correlating with a higher likelihood of blaming women exposed to partner violence” (Taccini and Mannarini).

To understand the persistence in women’s safety concerns, we must first understand why women are the main victims of severe domestic abuse and sexual crimes. The Women’s Aid Federation of England states that domestic abuse against women is "deeply rooted in inequalities between women and men,” and that women experience domestic abuse as part of “embedded, structural inequalities against their sex” (Women’s Aid). Additionally, about one out of every three women across the world have been subjected to sexual or physical violence, a figure which does not even include sexual harassment in the count (UN Women). Women are continuously made victims every day and suffer through domestic abuse for unbearable periods of time, sometimes finding themselves to be victims in more than one relationship. Ultimately, the disproportionality in the victimization of such crimes comes down to the system that we live in. Patriarchal norms and long-standing misogynistic sentiments, such as traditional gender roles, expect women to be vulnerable, submissive, and meek in relationships, feeding into the inherent power imbalance within heterosexual relationships. As the systemic inequalities are supported by societal norms, the risks of women facing partner and sexual violence never truly go away.

Women who belong to additional marginalized groups, such as LGBTQ+ women, disabled women, women of color, and women in low-income households face even higher risks of violence due to their subjection to additional inequality (UN Women). Women’s safety concerns, though all persistent, are not all experienced equally. Those who find themselves as victims of intersecting forms of discrimination are put in greater danger and intense disadvantage. This further proves that women are not just “easy targets,” but the victims of broader systemic and structural shortcomings.

Works Cited

Southern Connecticut State University. "Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, and the Facts." Inside Southern, Southern Connecticut State University, inside.southernct.edu/sexual-misconduct/facts. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.

Taccini, Federica, and Stefania Mannarini. "Exploring the Phenomenon of Victim Blaming toward Women with an Intimate Partner Violence Experience and the Role of Empathy." Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 40, nos. 23-24, 2 Jan. 2025, pp. 5427-52. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605241307224. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.

UN Women. "Facts and Figures: Ending Violence against Women." UN Women, 19 Nov. 2025, www.unwomen.org/en/articles/facts-and-figures/facts-and-figures-ending-violence-against-women. Accessed 24 Apr. 2026.

Women's Aid Federation of England. "Domestic Abuse Is a Gendered Crime." Women's Aid, womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/domestic-abuse-is-a-gendered-crime/. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.