Women's Safe Hub
What would make you safer?
Women already know a great deal about what keeps them safe, and what doesn't. This page sets out what the research shows about sexual violence in the United States, then asks you, anonymously, what should change.
Rape is always the responsibility of the person who commits it. We're asking because your experience should shape the solutions.
BeginThe Scope
These aren't rare events at the edges of life. They're common, and they're often carried quietly.
CDC reports these figures as rounded fractions, and we've kept their wording. Contact sexual violence includes rape, being made to penetrate, sexual coercion, and unwanted sexual contact.
When It Begins
For most survivors, it happened when they were young. For many, it happened in childhood.
That means prevention can't start in adulthood. It has to reach schools, families, youth programs, and the adults who shape how young people learn to treat one another.
Who
The stranger in the dark is the image most of us were taught to fear. Most women who were raped knew the person who did it.
This changes what "safety" means. Better lighting and safer transit matter. So do the places where most harm happens: relationships, homes, social circles, campuses, and workplaces, along with the systems that respond when women speak up.
The Silence
Most rapes and sexual assaults never reach the police. The reasons are usually rational ones.
Not reporting is not a failure on women's part. It often reflects fear of not being believed, fear of retaliation, a relationship with the person who caused harm, or doubt that reporting will lead anywhere. A safer world is one where telling someone feels possible, and is met with care.
What Works
Prevention is possible. The strongest approaches change behavior, norms, and systems, not just the choices of the people most at risk.
CDC's prevention framework, STOP SV, groups the best available evidence into five strategies:
- 1
Promote social norms that protect against violence
Bystander programs, and engaging men and boys as allies in prevention.
- 2
Teach skills to prevent sexual violence
Social-emotional learning, and education on healthy dating and relationships, starting young.
- 3
Provide opportunities to empower and support girls and women
Economic support, and leadership opportunities for girls and women.
- 4
Create protective environments
Safer schools, workplace policies that are actually enforced, and community-level changes.
- 5
Support survivors to lessen harms
Victim-centered services, treatment, and support that help prevent future harm.
CDC, STOP SV Technical Package (2016)
Research tells us what has worked in studies. It can't tell us everything women know from living their lives. That's where you come in.
Your Voice
What would make you safer? It could be a policy, a design change, something a school or employer should do, something men should do, or something no one has thought to try. Big or small, it counts.
How we protect your anonymity
- We don't ask for your name, email, or location.
- We don't store your IP address, device details, or the exact time you submit, and this site uses no cookies or analytics.
- We store only the categories you pick, your words, and the date.
- Please leave out names or details that could identify you or anyone else.
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