80% of women aspiring towards leadership are targets of harassment, rape threats, and death threats.
Posted by The Briefing with Jen Psaki, Checked
- Sources
- 2 contradict2 support7 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
The Briefing with Jen PsakiOct 23, 2026
The sources do not support the claim's 80% figure for threats. They report roughly 80% of women parliamentarians experiencing psychological violence, but about 42-44% receiving threats of death, rape, or beating, and none addresses women aspiring to leadership. The claim also departs from the post's 40% figure for women generally, which is not in the claim as extracted.
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 IPU study cited by Genderlinks reports 42% of women parliamentarians and staff received death threats, rape threats, or threats of beating or abduction, not 80%.[4]
Contradicts. IPU survey data cited by IWDA reports 44.4% of women parliamentarians received threats of death, rape, beatings or abduction.[5]
Supports. The roughly 80% figure exists for a broader category: 80% of women parliamentarians reported psychological violence, and 81.8% to 85% in other surveys, which is a different measure from threats.[4][5][6][7]
Context. Full Fact reports women candidates are twice as likely as men to report abuse and intimidation, but gives no threat percentage for women aspiring to leadership.[1]
Context. No source provides a figure for women aspiring to leadership specifically; the figures cover sitting women legislators or candidates in general.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
Sources
11 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 1 primary, 8 not rated
- 1Full Fact Report 2026 – Full Factfullfact.org · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Women leaders driven offline and out of work by social media abusereuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3Statistics on Women in National Governmentscongress.gov · primary source · cited for: context
- 4Women's Political Participation in Africa 2024genderlinks.org.za · not rated · cited for: contradicts, supports, context
- 5VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IS A BARRIER TO ...iwda.org.au · not rated · cited for: contradicts, supports, context
- 6Women still lag behind men in reaching leadership roles: Gender Equality in a Changing Worldoecd.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 7Women’s leadership in a world of risk and opportunitiesdiplomaticourier.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 8Understanding (gendered) public tolerance of violent ...cambridge.org · not rated · cited for: context
- 9Misogyny, racism, and threats to our families: a qualitative study of harassment of female politiciansonlinelibrary.wiley.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 10National Action to Reduce Barriers to and Bias against Women’s...tandfonline.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 11A Renewed Call to Action STOPPING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN ...ndi.org · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
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