Feminism Saves Lives

Here’s an interesting benefit of the feminist movement:

WOMEN are less likely to fall victim to murder today than 20 years ago because they are more willing to walk out of violent relationships, a new study has revealed.

[…]

Danny Dorling, the report’s author and professor of human geography at Sheffield University, said that marked changes in the social status of women explained the shift.

“The decline in the female murder rate is probably due to women being more likely and able to walk out of violent relationships,” he said.

“People have both became aware of how dangerous domestic violence is and how fruitless it is to stay in a violent relationship. In addition, women have become economically better off and so, in increasing numbers, they can afford to walk out.”

Sadly, Britain (where this study was done) has seen its murder rate in the overall population double in the last 20 years, with young men twice as likely to be murdered now as they were in 1981. But check this out:

The study reveals that the five main causes of murder were fights, poisoning, strangling, firearms and cutting by glass or broken bottle.

Notice what’s missing? That’s right—handguns at the top of the list, because all but shotguns are still illegal in Britain, and death due to shooting is most prevalent among the wealthy, such as landowners who have guns for sport. In the US, 54% of female homicide victims in 2002 were killed with a gun, and in 73% of those a handgun was used.

I’m still waiting to hear a reasonable explanation from the gun crowd why handguns, whose only purpose is to kill humans (and, apparently, particularly women), should be legal.

(Hat tip to Bitch PhD, from whom I also stole the post title.)