1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Women and Countering Violent Extremism Act of 2019 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Women play diverse roles in violent extremist organizations, including as victims, perpetrators, and preventers. (2) Extremist groups benefit strategically and financially from the subjugation of women. Terrorist groups violate the rights of women and girls, from sexual enslavement and forced marriages to limiting their access to education and public life. Violent extremist groups have used women and girls as rewards for new recruits and as part of their recruitment efforts. According to the 2016 U.S. State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism, In 2015 and 2016, ISIS abducted, systematically raped, and abused thousands of women and children [in Iraq and Syria], some as young as eight years of age. Women and children were sold and enslaved, distributed to ISIS fighters as spoils of war, forced into marriage and domestic servitude, or subjected to physical and sexual abuse. . In northern Nigeria, Boko Haram has kidnapped and subjected thousands of women and girls to physical abuse, forced labor, forced marriage and sexual abuse. (3) As perpetrators of violent extremism and terrorism, women adopt all roles, including as informants, facilitators, recruiters, and suicide bombers. Empowering women may diminish their support for violent extremist organizations by increasing their sense of agency. (4) Seeing women as partners empowers them to detect early signs of radicalization, intervening before individuals become violent and delegitimizing violent extremist narratives. Analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations concluded that, Anti-terrorism messages are disseminated quite effectively throughout families and communities by women, who can challenge extremist narratives in homes, schools and social environments, and have particular influence among youth populations. . (5) Extremist groups take strategic advantage of the relative absence of women in police and military