By Dawn Wilcox, Founder & Executive Director, Women Count USA: Femicide Accountability Project
In a country saturated with data, statistics, and real-time information, the invisibility of certain forms of violence is striking. Among the most overlooked is femicide—the killing of women and girls because of their gender, most often at the hands of men. While individual cases briefly dominate headlines, the broader pattern of this form of male violence against women is often ignored, or quickly fades from public consciousness and concern. In 2016, I discovered U.S. femicide data was fragmented, incomplete, or missing altogether, and that motivated me to create Women Count USA: Femicide Accountability Project.
Women Count USA is a grassroots initiative dedicated – most importantly – to remembering and humanizing victims. In addition to memorializing the photos, stories, and hopes and dreams of these women and girls, I began documenting qualitative and quantitative data about their deaths and the men who killed them. It is my goal to attempt to document all women and girls murdered by men and boys in the United States from 1950 to present in our nation’s first comprehensive femicide database.
Understanding Femicide
Collecting femicide data is vitally important to understanding the gendered nature of violence against women. It encompasses killings rooted in misogyny, control, domestic abuse, and systemic inequality. According to global research, many women are killed not by strangers – but by intimate partners or family members, often after a history of abuse. Alongside documenting domestic violence femicides, circumstances where women are killed by other men they know and trust, as well as serial sexual femicides are documented.
In the United States, this issue is both persistent and under-recognized. Thousands of women are killed each year, and many of these deaths follow predictable and preventable patterns—escalating violence, failed interventions, and missed warning signs. Yet without centralized tracking, the true scale of the problem remains difficult to grasp.
The Birth of Women Count USA
Women Count USA was created out of my frustration with that invisibility. I understood from my background in healthcare that you cannot address a public health crisis without first measuring it. I compile cases through media reports, public records, and community submissions, creating a detailed and compassionate archive of victims. And I have been doing this difficult and emotionally fraught work unpaid for ten years, in addition to my full-time job as a registered nurse.
At the heart of my work is a growing, painstakingly assembled record of precious lives lost. Each entry represents more than a statistic; it is a woman or girl with a name, a story, and a network of grieving loved ones left behind.
My approach is intentional. Too often, discussions of violence rely on numbers that can feel distant or impersonal. By documenting individual cases, and including photos and details about each person, I am seeking to restore humanity to victims and challenge the tendency to view such deaths as isolated incidents.
Challenging Media Narratives
Another key aspect of my work is critiquing how media outlets report on male violence against women. News coverage frequently frames femicide in ways that obscure systemic issues—focusing on sensational details, portraying perpetrators sympathetically, or implying that victims were somehow responsible for their own deaths.
I actively work to challenge these narratives. By compiling cases and identifying patterns, I seek to highlight how common these incidents are and how often warning signs are ignored. I consider challenging media narrative as crucial, because public perception shapes policy. If femicide is seen as unstoppable or rare, there is little pressure for systemic change. If it is recognized as widespread and preventable, and not “an isolated incident” then the conversation might shift toward accountability and reform.
Data as a Tool for Change
One of my aims is to use data as advocacy. By creating a comprehensive femicide database, I hope to provide a foundation for researchers, policymakers, and activists to be able to find data more easily to better study and understand the scope of the problem.
The data also reveals patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed—such as the prevalence of intimate partner violence, the role of prior abuse, and the systemic failures that often precede these killings. These insights can inform prevention strategies, from improved risk assessment to stronger legal protections for victims.
The Broader Context
This work is very fraught and taxing, but it does not exist in isolation. It is part of a global movement by other women to recognize and combat femicide. Similar initiatives, such as femicide observatories and censuses in other countries, reflect a growing awareness that gender-based killings require our specific attention.
Globally, the issue is staggering. Tens of thousands of women are killed each year, many in their own homes where they should be safest. The lack of consistent data collection has long been a barrier to addressing the problem—a gap that projects like mine aim to close.
Why This Work Matters
At its core, Women Count USA is about visibility and accountability. It insists that every woman and girl who is killed deserves to be counted, remembered, and acknowledged as part of a larger pattern—not dismissed as an isolated tragedy or fodder for a True Crime podcast.
I hope my work also serves as a reminder that data is not neutral. What we choose to measure reflects what we value. By documenting femicide, I am challenging a system that has historically minimized or overlooked violence against women.
How You Can Help
The impact of this important work is amplified through public engagement. You can contribute by submitting cases to shecounted@gmail.com, supporting the initiative financially at www.womencount.org, or by simply raising awareness about Women Count USA: Femicide Accountability Project.
I hope to spark meaningful change. By documenting women and girls lost to gender-based violence, I want to transform invisibility into evidence and silence into a call for action.
