Gender violence
What is gender-based violence Definitions 'Gender-based violence' and 'violence against women' are terms that are often used interchangeably as most gender-based violence is inflicted by men on women and girls. However, it is important to retain the 'gender-based' aspect of the concept as this highlights the fact that violence against women is an expression of power inequalities between women and men.
Forms of gender-based violence
Direct violence Direct violence against women includes physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence. Some forms of gender-based violence against women are:
violence in close relationships
sexual violence (including rape, sexual assault and harassment in all public and private spheres of life);
trafficking in human beings, slavery, and sexual exploitation;
harmful practices such as child and forced marriages, female genital mutilation, and crimes committed in the name of so-called ‘honour’;
emerging forms of violations, such as online harassment, various forms of sexual abuse instigated or facilitated through the use of information and communication technologies, stalking, and bullying.
Psychological violence includes ‘threats, humiliation, mocking and controlling behaviours’. Economic violence involves denying access of the victim to financial resources, property, healthcare, education, or the labour market, and denying them participation in economic decision-making. The relationship between the victim and the perpetrator of acts of violence against women is also of great relevance. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the most widespread forms of direct violence against women, and includes a range of sexual,
psychological and physical coercive acts used against adult and adolescent women by a current or former intimate partner.
Direct violence against women must be understood through the lens of unequal power relations between women and men. Violence against women is often normalized and perpetuated due to these structural inequalities. Hence, the historical and contemporary subordination of women in economic, social and political life must be acknowledged when attempting to explain the prevalence of direct violence against women in our societies. This means shifting the focus from an actor-oriented perspective which examines individual motivations for acts of violence, to a structure-oriented perspective which looks at the structural gender inequalities that support and justify gender-based violence against women. The structural dimension of violence against women can also be described as direct violence.
Indirect violence It’s any form of structural inequality or institutional discrimination that maintains a woman in a subordinate position, whether physical or ideological, to other people within her family, household or community.
Indirect violence can be understood as a type of structural violence, characterized by norms, attitudes and stereotypes around gender in general and violence against women
in particular. Indirect violence operates within a larger societal context; institutions, and the individuals within and outside these institutions, are all engaged in the production and reproduction of attitudes which normalize violence against women (United Nations 1992). Looking at these attitudes can provide insight into the way in which these indirect forms of violence are created and sustained, and even more importantly, how they contribute to and support direct forms of violence against women. Inequalities - and the forms of violence connected to them - are intersectional. They are the result of an interplay between multiple power structures that produce and reproduce hierarchical distinctions, for example regarding race, (dis)ability, age, social class, and gender. This means that while all women face discrimination based on gender, some women experience multiple forms of discrimination, of which gender is only one component.
O
ne in three women around the world
have been subject to violence. Women face physical, sexual, and psychological violence in both public and private. Taking forms such as violence in the intimacy of a relationship, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation, gender violence is an issue that affects women in all countries. Only two-thirds of countries have outlawed domestic
violence, leaving millions of women unprotected from abuse including from marital and de facto partners in many cases. Additionally, through human trafficking countless women are subjected to sexual exploitation and sexual violence, including horrific acts such as genital mutilation. Today many actors from individuals, to multinational organizations work to address these issues.
Financial abuse Financial abuse happens where a perpetrator uses financial means to control you and may include any of the following:
stopping the victim working
controlling the household finances including wages, benefits and bank accounts
forcing the victim to hand over wages and money
persuading or forcing the victim to take out loans and credit in her/his name.
Honour-based abuse Honour-based abuse is defined as an incident or crime which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and or community. Honourbased abuse happens where a person is punished by their family or community for doing things that are not in keeping with the traditional beliefs of their culture. For example, you may suffer honour-based abuse because you:
resist an arranged marriage
resist a forced marriage
have a partner from a different culture or religion
live a westernised lifestyle
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want a divorce.
Honour-based abuse may include domestic abuse, sexual or psychological abuse, assault, forced marriage or sending someone back to their country of origin.
Forced marriage A forced marriage is where you are pressurised into it against your will. You may be emotionally blackmailed or physically threatened usually by your family. It is not the same as an arranged marriage where both parties agree to get married. In England and Wales, forced marriage is a criminal offence. If someone forces you into marriage, they could go to prison for up to seven years.
Harassment and stalking Harassment happens when you receive unwanted behaviour from another person which alarms or distresses you. Examples of harassment include malicious phone calls, threatening texts, threatening and insulting language and damage to property. Stalking is a form of harassment and may include behaviour such as following, contacting or attempting to contact you, monitoring your email and internet, watching and spying on you and other similar behaviour. It is a criminal and civil offence for another person to harass or stalk you. You can report the matter to the police. Many police forces have a specialist police officer who deals with harassment or stalking.
You may also be able to get an injunction in the civil courts to stop the harassment or stalking taking place and claim damages. If an harasser breaches an injunction, it is a criminal offence.
Trafficking Human trafficking involves moving adults or children from one place to another into exploitative conditions such as prostitution or other sexual exploitation and forced labour using threats, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception or abuse of power. Victims are often trafficked to a foreign country where they cannot speak the language, have their travel and identity documents removed and are told that if they try to attempt an escape, they or their families will be harmed.
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