To expand our understanding of gender inequality and violent crime, this study provides an assessment of the relationship between gender inequality and lethal violence against women. The authors use a cross-sectional design with racially disaggregated census data for 158 large U.S.cities in 1990 to assess the degree to which women's absolute status and their status relative to men affect their risk of homicide victimization. Overall, the findings suggestthat although certain measures of women's absolute and relative socioeconomic status are related to female homicide victimization rates, when race-specific measures are used, theeffects hold only for White women.
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