Since March 2014, 71 individuals have been charged with Islamic State-related activities, 56 were arrested in 2015 alone, a record number of terrorism-related arrests for any year since 9/11 according to the report from George Washington University's Program on Extremism. 

Although a majority of Islamic State recruits and supporters tend to be male, an alarming number of women are joining the extremist group and helping to carry out its jihadist agenda. 

Researchers identified 300 American and/or U.S.-based Islamic State sympathizers who use social media to radicalize new recruits. About one third of those accounts were operated by women, according to the report. 

"A handful of studies have attempted to identify the reasons why ISIS's ideology attracts a growing number of Western women. While some of these motivations are identical to that of their male counterparts (i.e. the search for a personal identity and the desire to build a strict Islamic society), others are specific to women," the report says.

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