Physical violence results in injuries, distress and health problems. It also encompasses violence resulting in the death of the victim. Examples are beating, strangling, pushing, and the use of weapons (for instance knives, everyday objects or dangerous substances such as in acid attacks). In the EU, 31 % of women have experienced one or more acts of physical violence since the age of 15.

An estimated 83 million to 102 million women (45 % to 55 % of women) in the EU have experienced sexual harassment since the age of 15. Sexual harassment includes unwelcome verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person. Sexual conduct is unwelcome whenever the person subjected to it considers it unwelcome.

Sexual violence includes sexual acts, attempts to obtain a sexual act, acts to traffic, or acts otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion. It is estimated that one in 20 women (5 %) has been raped since the age of 15. 12 % of women have experienced some form of sexual violence by an adult before the age of 15, which corresponds to about 21 million women in the EU.

43% of women in the 28 European Union Member States have experienced some form of psychological violence by an intimate partner. This may include psychologically abusive behaviour and other forms of psychological violence such as controlling behaviour (for example, trying to keep a woman from seeing her friends or visiting her family or relatives), economic violence (such as forbidding a woman to work outside the home) and blackmail.

Domestic violence is a complex form of violence and includes all acts of physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence that occur within the family, domestic unit(irrespective of biological or legal family ties), or between intimate partners such as former or current spouses, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence as the victim. Out of all women who have a (current or previous) partner, 22 % have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a partner since the age of 15.

One in 10 women in the EU has experienced cyber harassment since the age of 15 , including having received unwanted, offensive or sexually explicit emails or SMS messages, or offensive, inappropriate advances on social networking sites.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) violates women’s bodies and often damages their sexuality, mental health, well-being and participation in their community; it may even lead to death. It is estimated that more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation. In most of the countries, the majority of girls were cut before age 5. It is estimated that at least 500,000 women living in the EU have undergone EU.

Forced marriage refers to marriage concluded under force – either physical pressure to marry (for example, threats, physical violence or sexual violence) or emotional and psychological pressure (e.g. if one is made to feel like they will bring shame onto their family by refusing). Forced marriage is closely linked to child marriage, when children are wed before reaching the minimum age for marriage. Official data on forced marriage is hard to track, and comparable data on EU level is not available.

This is not an extensive list – there are other types of violence against women that are pervasive throughout the world.