The Numbers Behind Gender-Based Violence in BC (And Why Awareness Changes Everything)
Maya sits at a café in Vancouver, scrolling through her phone. She's 22. A man she doesn't know leans over her shoulder and tells her she'd be prettier if she smiled. When she ignores him, he calls her a moody bitch. She leaves her coffee unfinished, her heart racing.
Later that week, she mentions it to a friend who says, "That happens to everyone. Don't let it get to you." And Maya nods, pushes it down, and tries to move on. But it doesn't feel small anymore, it feels like evidence of something larger.
She's right to feel that.
Women are significantly more likely than men to have experienced any form of Interpersonal Violence (IPV), including physical abuse (23% versus 17%, respectively), sexual abuse (44% versus 36%), and psychological abuse (43% versus 35%).¹ Yet these numbers often hide in statistics and news cycles. They don't feel real until they touch someone we know or until we realize it’s us.
The truth is gender-based violence isn't just a rare tragedy. It's an ongoing reality, but reality can be interrupted, and that is the purpose of this blog post and our work at Arise. We believe that change starts through awareness and through small steps. It’s not something will go away if we ignore or think it won’t or doesn’t impact us.
We hope something in this post will help you reflect on 1) your own experiences and know that you’re not alone, or 2) how people you know are impacted by this much more than you realize, and that you can make a difference in how you reinforce your friends’ behaviours, raise your kids, and help build safer communities for everyone.
The Scope: BC and Canada
Let's start with the number that stopped us in our tracks. Between 2018 and 2022, 850 women and girls were killed across Canada.² That's at least one every two days. That's mothers, sisters, daughters, friends. That's women with futures, with dreams, with people who loved them.
Think about it. While you slept last night, while you worked today, while you went about your ordinary life, the probability that another woman or girl was murdered because of her gender was nearly certain.
And here's what makes it worse, femicide is not included in the Canadian Criminal Code. There's no official category or tracking for it. No legal framework that names what it is. It's violence against women, but our laws don't say so.
In British Columbia specifically, 29.8% of women report experiencing physical or sexual assault from an intimate partner since the age of 15.² That's nearly 1 in 3. That's in your workplace, your family, your community.
Women living in Canada are almost four times more likely than men to have been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15.¹ The disparity is staggering and consistent, violence follows gender lines.
These aren't abstract numbers. They represent childhoods disrupted, futures altered, and communities fractured. They represent women like Sarah, who left her partner after 15 years of control and isolation. Or James, who finally reached out for help after realizing his behaviour toward his girlfriend mirrored what he witnessed growing up. Or dozens of friends' sisters, cousins, neighbours—people with names and stories and people who love them.
Who Is Most Vulnerable?
Gender-based violence affects different populations in different ways, but the patterns are clear: those with fewer resources and less social power face the highest risk.
Young women are at the highest risk. Consider Jasmine, 19, navigating her first year of university. She's learning to be independent, but she's also navigating spaces where her safety isn't always guaranteed. Young women experience the most severe and frequent violence. For Jasmine and millions like her, harassment and assault aren't rare events—they're part of navigating public and private spaces. It's the guy on the bus who touches her without asking. It's the "joke" at a party that crosses a line. It's the knowledge that she has to be careful, always.
Indigenous women and girls face disproportionate violence. The statistics are stark and painful. These numbers reflect centuries of colonialism, systemic racism, and ongoing marginalization. They reflect real women—sisters, mothers, daughters—whose safety has been systematically deprioritized.
2SLGBTQI+ communities experience elevated rates. Marco, who came out as gay five years ago, carries a different kind of hypervigilance. For many in these communities, violence isn't just about intimate partners—it's embedded in everyday interactions, in workplaces, on streets, in families that don't accept them.
Women with disabilities are at heightened risk. Priya uses a wheelchair. She's intelligent, capable, and independent—but she's also more vulnerable to abuse in ways that people without disabilities often don't see. Dependency on caregivers can be weaponized. Physical vulnerability can be exploited.
The pattern is clear: vulnerability compounds. The more marginalized you are, the more exposed you become.
The Costs: Beyond Statistics
Gender-based violence doesn't just harm individuals. It fractures families, destabilizes workplaces, and drains public resources at every level.
Consider what happens behind closed doors. A woman stays late at work to avoid going home because her partner's mood is unpredictable. A teen misses school because she's covering bruises. A man loses his job because he's too distracted by anxiety and fear. These invisible costs ripple outward.
The financial impacts are significant. Financial abuse can include an inability to work and loss of wages, lengthy and costly court battles, loss of housing and property, and counselling and health care costs.¹
But the cost isn't only financial. The psychological and neurological impacts are profound. As many as 92 percent of women who have experienced intimate partner violence demonstrate signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury.² Think about that: nearly all survivors of intimate partner violence are experiencing brain injury. Repeated impacts to the head, the stress and trauma of living in fear—these leave lasting neurological damage that affects cognition, emotional regulation, and functioning for years.
A child witnesses their parent being controlled and learns that love looks like domination. A teenager experiences harassment and internalizes shame. An adult survivor struggles with trust and safety in every relationship. The trauma passes down, generation to generation, until someone decides it stops with them.
The Digital Frontier: A Growing Threat
Gender-based violence is evolving. One in five Canadian women, girls and gender-diverse people report experiencing online hate and harassment.¹ This is a growing issue and can include nonconsensual sharing of intimate images, cyberstalking, online harassment and insults.
For young women like Maya, online violence often precedes or accompanies physical violence. A controlling partner monitors her texts and social media. Someone shares intimate photos without consent. Strangers online tell her she deserves to be hurt. The line between online and offline abuse blurs. The threat feels everywhere.
Why This Matters—And Why Now
If the statistics feel overwhelming, pause here: awareness is the entry point to change.
When we see the numbers, we stop dismissing gender-based violence as something that happens to other people, in other places, or as the result of individual choices. We begin to understand it as a systemic issue rooted in inequality—and systemic issues require systemic responses.
This recognition opens doors.
For individuals: Understanding that violence and harassment are widespread—and not your fault—is liberating. It shifts the narrative from shame to action. When you know you're not alone, you're more likely to seek help, speak up, and take steps to protect yourself. Maya learns self-defense and discovers that her body belongs to her. She practices setting boundaries and finds her voice. She realizes that the man's comment says nothing about her and everything about a culture that hasn't taught him respect.
For communities: Awareness builds collective accountability. When we all understand the scope of the problem, we become more likely to intervene as bystanders, support survivors, and challenge the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate violence. Someone at that café witnesses what happened to Maya. Instead of looking away, they check in with her. They tell her it wasn't okay. They report the man's behavior. They help shift the culture, one interaction at a time.
For organizations: Data-driven awareness motivates institutional change. Workplaces, schools, and community organizations that understand the prevalence of gender-based violence are more likely to invest in prevention training, support services, and policy reform. Universities implement consent training. Corporations create real accountability for harassment. Schools teach healthy relationships, not just the mechanics of reproduction.
For policy makers: Statistics make the case for action. Femicide needs to be named in law. Resources need to flow to prevention. Funding needs to shift from response to prevention—and in the safety, dignity, and economic participation of millions of people.
The Costs: Beyond Statistics
Gender-based violence doesn't just harm individuals. It fractures families, destabilizes workplaces, and drains public resources at every level.
Consider what happens behind closed doors. A woman stays late at work to avoid going home because her partner's mood is unpredictable. A teen misses school because she's covering bruises. A man loses his job because he's too distracted by anxiety and fear. These invisible costs ripple outward into our economy and our communities.
The Economic Impact Is Staggering
Gender-based violence costs BC residents $1.12 billion every year in direct and indirect costs.¹ This includes healthcare expenses, justice system responses, lost productivity, lost wages, and long-term social services. It's a price paid by everyone—in taxes, in reduced economic growth, in human potential never realized.
The financial impacts on survivors are devastating. Financial abuse can include an inability to work and loss of wages, lengthy and costly court battles, loss of housing and property, and counselling and health care costs.¹ These aren't small expenses—they're often catastrophic for survivors trying to rebuild their lives.
But here's the reality that should drive policy change: we spend billions responding to gender-based violence. Imagine what we could achieve if we invested even a fraction of that in prevention.
The Neurological and Psychological Cost
But the cost isn't only financial. The psychological and neurological impacts are profound. As many as 92 percent of women who have experienced intimate partner violence demonstrate signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury.² Think about that: nearly all survivors of intimate partner violence are experiencing brain injury. Repeated impacts to the head, the stress and trauma of living in fear—these leave lasting neurological damage that affects cognition, emotional regulation, and functioning for years. A woman who escapes an abusive relationship doesn't just carry emotional trauma; she carries physical damage to her brain.
The Intergenerational Cost
A child witnesses their parent being controlled and learns that love looks like domination. A teenager experiences harassment and internalizes shame. An adult survivor struggles with trust and safety in every relationship. The trauma passes down, generation to generation, until someone decides it stops with them. This is what intergenerational trauma looks like—a cycle that costs us all.
From Awareness to Action
Numbers alone don't change things. But numbers plus action do.
Personal awareness leads to personal agency. Learning self-defense, understanding consent and boundaries, and practicing assertiveness aren't just skills—they're acts of reclamation. They're ways of saying, "My safety matters. My body is mine. I get to decide." When you learn to physically defend yourself, something shifts psychologically. You walk taller. You speak clearer. You take up space.
Community awareness builds community accountability. When we see the numbers, we become more likely to challenge harassment, intervene safely when we witness potential harm, and support survivors in our circles. Instead of staying silent when a friend makes a rape joke, you call it out. When you notice someone's partner is controlling and isolating them, you check in. You show up. You make it clear that your community doesn't tolerate this.
Organizational awareness creates systemic change. Workplaces, schools, and institutions that truly understand the scope of gender-based violence invest in prevention training, create accountability mechanisms, and build cultures where safety isn't an afterthought—it's a foundation. HR doesn't just process complaints; they prevent harm. Managers are trained to recognize the signs. Policies have teeth.
What Arise Does
At Arise Self-Defense, we know that awareness without tools leaves people vulnerable. That's why we exist.
We offer empowerment-based self-defense classes and workshops that teach physical skills, boundary-setting, and confidence-building. We provide community education initiatives that help parents, educators, and organizations understand gender-based violence and respond effectively. And we deliver workplace safety and violence prevention programs tailored to organizations serious about cultural change.
Our approach isn't about blame or shame. It's about agency. We believe everyone deserves to feel safe in their body and in their world—and that confidence, skills, and knowledge are pathways to that safety. When a woman walks out of our Friday evening class, she doesn't just know how to throw a punch. She knows her voice matters. She knows she can say no. She knows she's not alone.
The Statistics Are a Call
The numbers behind gender-based violence in BC and Canada are staggering. But they're not destiny. They're a baseline—and a call to action.
Every statistic represents a person. Every percentage reflects a community. And every community has the power to shift these numbers by talking openly about what gender-based violence is and isn't, building skills in self-defense and consent and bystander intervention, holding ourselves and others accountable to higher standards of respect and safety, and supporting survivors without judgment or shame.
You don't have to be a statistician to understand the call: we need to do better. And we can.
Ready to Take Action?
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Interested in training? Our women's self-defense classes run Friday evenings (6:15–7:30pm in Vancouver) and are designed to build confidence, skills, and community. No prior experience necessary.
Are you an educator, parent, or organizational leader? We offer customized workshops and training programs on gender-based violence prevention, bystander intervention, and creating safer spaces.
Looking for resources? Explore our free guides on conversations about safety, boundary-setting, and prevention.
The statistics are real. The risks are real. But so is your power to protect yourself and stand up for others. Safety isn't something that happens to us—it's something we build, together. And it starts with seeing the truth.
Citations
Women and Gender Equality Canada. (2025). Facts, stats and WAGE's impact: Gender-based violence. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/gender-based-violence/facts-stats.html (and links from there)
YWCA BC. (2026). Ending Gender-Based Violence. Retrieved from https://ywcabc.org/advocacy/end-gender-based-violence (and links from there)
Arise Self-Defense offers empowerment self-defense programs for women and teens, kids, schools, and workplaces across Metro Vancouver. Our work begins long before any physical technique — with voice, boundaries, and the knowledge that safety starts with you.
