Across all social classes, races, ages, religions, and national borders, gender-based violence (GBV) is a major public health and human rights concern (Sanjel, 2015; United Nations, 1993). People experience GBV at home, at work, in markets, on buses, in hotels, in offices, on campuses, and even in legal and judicial systems (Sanjel, 2015; Heise, Ellsberg, & Gottmoeller, 2002). It is referred to as “gender-based” because such violence is influenced by gender norms and social standing. In addition to being solidly rooted in patriarchal systems, GBV also reinforces people, especially female subordination through media representations (Russo & Pirlott, 2006). GBV can take many different forms, such as physical, sexual, psychological/emotional. For effective intervention, policymaking, and victim care, it is essential to comprehend GBV. The following text mentions and illustrates the different forms of gender-based violence from all over the world with concrete examples.
Framing & Perspective
According to the United Nations (1995), “violence against people” refers to any act of gender-based violence that causes or is likely to cause physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to them, including threats of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of a person’s freedom. The majority of global research focuses on women and girls. However, transgender and gender nonconforming (trans) populations, as well as larger groups of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) populations, are frequently left out of this reference. In light of these circumstances, stigma and discrimination against trans populations, as well as targeted violence, are basically gender-based (Wirtz et al., 2018).
Sanjel (2015) states that gender-based violence is characterized by a number of fundamental ideas and can take many different forms, each with unique traits and consequences:
- Physical abuse: Any act of physical injury or compulsion, such as striking, slapping, biting, pushing, destroying their belongings, threatening or hurting them with a weapon or other objects, or preventing them from seeing a doctor, is considered physical abuse. Physical violence usually occurs together with sexual violence.
- Sexual abuse: It includes preventing them from having sex or coercing them into unwelcome sexual actions, forcing her to become pregnant or have an abortion, and infecting them with sexually transmitted infections.
- Psychological/emotional abuse: This category of abuse includes stalking or harassing them, controlling their time and activities, isolating them from family and friends, threatening to harm someone they care about, or threatening to take the children away from them altogether.
- Verbal abuse: Name-calling and other verbal attacks on their self-worth are examples of verbal abuse, which also include making them feel ashamed in public.
- Spiritual abuse: It includes belittling their religious beliefs and denying her access to the worship center of her choosing.
- Financial abuse: Financial control is denying them access to money or family funds, which limits their autonomy and decision-making power.
Relevance
Gender-based violence is a crucial topic in international debates about social justice, human rights, and public health. Women are killed for honor in Asia and the Middle East; girls in West Africa are subjected to genital mutilation as part of a harmful custom; migrant and refugee women in Western Europe are attacked for not fitting in with their host society; and young girls in southern Africa are raped and infected with HIV/AIDS because the perpetrators think that having sex with virgins will cure them of their illness (Amnesty International, 2004). Women are beaten to death by their partners even in the wealthiest, most developed nations on earth (Amnesty International, 2004). Recent epidemiologic studies indicate that trans communities also have a high prevalence of GBV. According to reports, between 2008 and 2016, 165 transgender people were murdered in the US (Wirtz et al., 2018).
The legitimacy and concealment of such abuse were effectively challenged with the emergence of what has grown into a global women’s movement. Gender-based violence against women is now acknowledged on a global scale as a human rights, economic, and health issue that has to be addressed right away (Amnesty International, 2004). However, gender-based violence is still considered a private matter and is implicitly—and occasionally explicitly—accepted in many parts of the world. It will take a sophisticated and all-encompassing strategy that responds to cultural differences and intervenes at the individual, interpersonal, and structural levels in order to comprehend, anticipate, and prevent gender-based violence (Russo & Pirlott, 2006).
Keywords: Abuse, Human Rights, Intervention, LGBTQ+, Misogyny, Patriarchy, Violence
Connected Terms: Sexual Misconduct, Sexism, Benevolent Sexism, Hostile Sexism, Internalized Sexism, Victim Blaming, Body Liberation, Bodily Autonomy, Incel, “Toxic” Masculinity, Yes Means Yes
References
Amnesty International (2004). It’s in our hands: Stop violence against women. Osney Mead, Oxford, United Kingdom: Alden Press.
Heise, L., Ellsberg, M., & Gottmoeller, M. (2002). A Global Overview of Gender-Based Violence. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 78(1), S5–S14.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7292(02)00038-3
Russo, N. F., & Pirlott, A. (2006). Gender-Based Violence: Concepts, Methods, and Findings. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1087(1), 178–205.https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1385.024
Sanjel, S. (2015). Gender-Based Violence: A Crucial Challenge for Public Health. Kathmandu University Medical Journal, 11(2), 179–184. https://doi.org/10.3126/kumj.v11i2.12499
United Nations. (1993). Declaration on the elimination of violence against women proclaimed by general assembly resolution 48/104 of 20 december 1993 (p. 2). United Nations.https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.21_declaration%20elimination%20vaw.pdf
United Nations. (1995). Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women.https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/pdf/Beijing%20full%20report%20E.pdf
Wirtz, A. L., Poteat, T. C., Malik, M., & Glass, N. (2018). Gender-based violence against transgender people in the United States: A call for research and programming. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 21(2), 152483801875774. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018757749
