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.

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]