Say Their Names
Jess Phillips spent seven minutes in Parliament reading the names of 108 women killed by men in the UK over the past year
Each year in Parliament, one moment brings the scale of violence against women into stark focus. For the 11th year running, Jess Phillips stood in the House of Commons and read aloud the names of women killed by men in the UK over the past year.
This year, there were 108 names.
MPs sat in silence as Phillips read them out for seven minutes - a tradition she has continued annually to ensure that the women behind the statistics are remembered as individuals, not numbers.
The list is compiled using data from the Femicide Census and its sister project Counting Dead Women, which records cases where the primary suspect or confirmed perpetrator is male. Among the 108 women named this year, the youngest was 17, and the eldest 93.
New analysis also revealed a striking statistic: 19 of the women were believed to have been killed by their sons - the highest rate of suspected matricide recorded in the 16 years of Femicide Census data. Phillips told Parliament that “words are not enough” to address the scale of violence against women and girls in the UK.
“Beyond these walls in every part of our country, women and girls are suffering,” she said. “They are being attacked, abused, harassed and stalked.”
The reading comes just weeks after the fifth anniversary of the murder of Sarah Everard - a case that prompted widespread national conversations about women’s safety in public spaces. According to the Femicide Census, on average, a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK.
For many listening, the moment is deeply affecting. Hearing the names spoken aloud - one after another - brings a pause that statistics alone rarely create. A reminder that behind every number is a life, a family, and a story that ended far too soon. And that remembering them is only the beginning.
