Gender-based Violence

SIPU ITP, 2011

Material developed for Sida through NCG/KL by C Wennerholm, A Nordlund and J Förberg

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Towards a definition• GBV, VAW, Sexual violence - used

interchangeably

• No single internationally accepted definition for GBV See handout!

• Critique: too narrow focus, focuses on VAW, women as victims

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Focus on women vs gender

Women• For long time VAW

considered in terms of outside the home.

• Domestic violence, occurring in the home, “private business”

(still argument not to interfere).

• Women as the victims.

Gender• Centrality of gender relations

in the violence; societal and relational context of GBV

• Women and men

• Issue of power relations

• Social variables as ethnicity, nationality, poverty, class, age, sexual orientation, other

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Reality

• GBV is violence directed at individuals on the basis of their gender: – Women, men, girls, boys – Strong link to sexuality

• Women and girls tend to be the majority of the victims.

• GBV is indiscriminate - cuts across racial, ethnic, class, economic, religious divides.

• See handout!

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Different ways of organising/ analyzing GBV, types

Sexual violence

• harassment, rape, incest, trafficking..

Physical violence

• battering, female infanticide, child beating…

Psychological violence

• threats, insults, blackmailing, humiliation, oppression…

Socio-economic violence

• discriminatory access to basic health care, inadequate shelter and food, armed conflict…

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Different ways of organising/analizing GBV,i.e. risk factors (context specific) (Ecological

approach, Ellsberg (WB 2008)

• Intimate partner violence as a child, abuse or witness to violence as a child, HIV status, absent or rejecting father…

At individual level

• Association with gang members, delinquent or patriarchal peers, male control over HH, multiple partners of the husband, economic hardship, male alcohol/substance abuse…

At relationship level

• Lack of economic opportunities for men, high neighborhood crime rate…

At social/ community level

• Cultural norms supporting violence, or male dominance and women’s obedience and sexual availability, discriminating policies and laws, women’s access and control over resources…

At institutional/state level

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Causes/Risk factors to GBV (main)

Gender roles and unequal power

structures

Poverty, ignorance and social unrest

Stress (by change)

Sense of insecurity

Conflict

Drugs, alcohol

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Gender normsViolence often about

men seeking what they believe is

rightfully theirs.

The need to demonstrate they

are “real men”, particularly in

times of conflict

Men with more traditional views on

manhood - more likely to have participated in

delinquency, been arrested or used VAW

He beats me, he loves me…

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Men - not only perpetrators

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Indirect targets of GBV Rape in public or in front of family, or as threat, or institutional (mass rape in war)

Socialised into violent behaviour Do not cry, be strong, defend your family and country...

Witness or victim of violence - more likely to reproduce violence

Gender norms – some protective factors

• 90 societies world wide: family violence (Levinson1989): – Characteristics of societies were family violence is less likely to occur – Co-operation, commitment, sharing and equality

• Reduced personal exposure to violence

• 74 programs targeting gun perpetrators in 38 countries:

– 2/3 less prone to violence in programs including: – masculinity,

– intimate partnership,

– non-violent conflict resolution

• Social, economic and political empowerment of young men and women, particularly in conflict

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Acts of violence committed

GBV

Against women because they are

women

Against men because they are

menAgainst LGBT persons

because they are LGBT persons

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Based on roles and expectations in a certain society

And because of unequal power structures

Impacts on all sectors in society…

GBV an issue of

GBV

Human rights

Gender equality

Health

Economy

Develop-ment

Conflict

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How does GBV impact on the different sectors?

Level of impact/ sector

Health Education Economic Development

Law and justice

Individual

Family

Community

National

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