It’s officially the spookiest day of the year: Halloween. Instead of celebrating with scary movies or ghost stories, we’re diving into one of the scariest topics we know: stats about gender equality.

• At its current pace, it’s going to take the United States 208 years to close the gender gap. The world average is 108 years.
• American women still do not have equal pay for equal work, with Asian women earning 97¢, white women earning 79¢, Black women earning 67¢, and Hispanic women earning 58¢ to a white man’s $1.
• While women make up 51% of the US population, only 27.3% of Congress is women: 25% of the Senate and 23.4% of the House of Representatives. The representation numbers are even lower for women of color, who make up only 9% of Congress.
• Although the face of leadership in the US is changing, when watching local political shows, Americans are twice as likely to hear a man’s views on politics as they are a woman’s views.
• Across the Democratic primary debates that we’ve had so far, there have been 600+ questions asked but only 7% of those related directly to “women’s issues.” Again, 51% of the population, 7% of the questions. That doesn’t quite add up.

We know those numbers look pretty grim. So, even though it’s #SpookySeason, we’ll leave you with some better news to take into November:

• More than half of American voters believe that there is a gap in pay equity in the US, and that the US government needs to do more to address it.
• 81% of voters see sexual harassment in the workplace as a serious problem, and 51% of voters agreeing that they would never vote for someone who didn’t make addressing sexual harassment a priority.
• Of the top polling Democratic campaigns in the 2020 presidential race, over half of the senior leadership positions are held by women.
• The upcoming Democratic primary debate will feature four women moderators, only the second all-female panel for a major debate. We’re hoping this will help diversify the types of questions asked of the candidates on stage.
• 78% of voters reject the idea that the country isn’t ready to elect a female president.

Sorry if we scared you, but Happy Halloween!