This post explains “Gender Based Violence And Its Types. What is gender based violence (GBV) or violence against women (VAW)? What are the types of gender based violence?”

Gender Based Violence And Its Types

Gender based violence (GBV) means any act that harms a person because of their gender or disproportionately affects people of a particular gender. GBV includes physical harm, sexual harm, psychological abuse, and denial of rights or opportunities and is a global problem found in both developed and developing countries.

Causes Of Gender Based Violence

Why GBV matters

• GBV violates human rights and damages health, safety, and dignity. It causes physical injuries, mental health problems, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, loss of income, social isolation, and sometimes death
• Large international organizations report that a substantial share of women experience GBV in their lifetime, making it one of the most common human rights violations worldwide

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Main types of Gender Based Violence

Physical violence

Physical violence is the use of force that causes bodily harm. Common acts include beating, slapping, punching, choking, burning, pushing, using weapons, and other forms of assault. Physical harm may be visible immediately or lead to long-term disability or death.

Sexual violence

Sexual violence covers any non-consensual sexual act or behavior. Examples include rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, sexual slavery, trafficking for sexual exploitation, incest, forced exposure to pornography, and female genital mutilation.

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Economic violence

Economic or financial violence happens when a person is denied access to money, prevented from working or studying, forced to hand over income, or otherwise made financially dependent and powerless. Economic control traps survivors and makes it harder to leave abusive situations.

Structural and Socio-economic violence

Structural violence is the systematic inequality built into laws, institutions, and social systems that give one group greater access to resources, rights, or opportunities than others. Examples include unequal access to education, employment, healthcare, legal protection, and decision-making power based on gender.

Effects Of Gender Based Violence

Cultural violence

Cultural violence includes harmful norms, customs, or practices that justify or normalize discrimination and unequal treatment between genders. Examples are practices that limit women’s mobility, justify unequal dress codes, insist on harmful rites, or support early and forced marriages

Digital and online violence

Digital violence uses technology to harass, stalk, shame, expose private images, threaten, or otherwise harm someone because of their gender. Online harassment and image-based abuse are growing problems that extend other forms of GBV into digital spaces.

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Psychological Violence

There are different forms psychological assaults against women. Some of them are;

• Using Coercion And Threats: threats of hurting, threats of leaving alone, threats of gaining the custody of children.
• Emotional Abuse: Include bad names calling, humiliating her, mind games and making her feel guilty
• Using Isolation: Control her times, activities and contact with others
• Using Children: Threats of gaining the custody of children, physical attack on children to emotionally hurt her, sexual use of children
• Economic Violence: Control her access to family resources such as clothing, shelter, food, insurance and money.
• Using Male Privilege: Insist his position as head of the family and thus has every right to make decisions about all family members.

How GBV appears in daily life (short examples)

• Intimate partner violence in a marriage or relationship includes physical, sexual, psychological, and financial abuse.
• Workplace sexual harassment and coercion that cause fear, shame, or career damage.
• Trafficking and sexual exploitation where people are forced into sexual acts for profit.
• Laws or customs that deny girls education or women property rights, limiting their life choices.

Signs a person may be experiencing GBV

• Unexplained injuries or frequent “accidents.”
• Sudden withdrawal from social life, school, or work.
• Anxiety, depression, sleep problems, or fear of someone close.
• Lack of access to money, medical care, or legal help.
• Reluctance to speak about their partner or family and visible control over their actions.

What can be done (short actions)

• Recognize GBV is a public and legal problem, not a private matter. Nations and communities must act together to change laws, services, and social norms.
• Improve access to safe medical care, counselling, shelters, legal support, and economic assistance for survivors.
• Teach respectful gender norms, consent, and non-violent conflict resolution in families, schools, and workplaces.
• Strengthen laws against all forms of GBV and ensure they are enforced fairly and safely.

Conclusion

Gender based violence is multi‑faceted and widespread, affecting physical safety, mental health, economic stability, and human dignity. Ending GBV requires coordinated legal, social, health, and educational actions at local, national, and international levels

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