40% of women across the board are targets of harassment, rape threats, and death threats.

Posted by The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Oct 23, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictMixed

Sources: 3 contradict4 context
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 60%

The Briefing with Jen PsakiOct 23, 2026

The 40% figure matches survey results for female parliamentarians (IPU 2016: about 40–44% reported death, rape, or similar threats), but the sources do not show that 40% of all women face such threats. The claim's 'across the board' scope widens a politician-specific survey to women generally, and the post's 80% clause was dropped in extraction without changing the 40% assertion.

A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.

This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.

What we found

Contradicts. The 40%-range figures describe female parliamentarians, not women across the board; the sources do not report a comparable rate for women in the general population.[1][2][3]

Supports. The IPU 2016 survey of 55 women parliamentarians found 44.4% had received threats of death, rape, assault, or kidnapping, which is close to the claimed 40%.[1][2]

Supports. A Cambridge study citing IPU surveys reports that about 40% of female parliamentarians experienced threats of physical violence, including death threats and rape.[3]

Context. General-population data is lower or differently defined: a Pew 2014 survey found 37% of women internet users experienced some online harassment, not specifically rape or death threats.[4]

Context. Other UN Women figures refer to narrower groups, such as one in four women journalists reporting online death or physical threats, and 42% of African parliamentarians reporting death or rape threats.[5][6][7]