Definition of Gender-Based Violence - Essay Example

Gender-Based Violence By + Introduction Gender-based violence can be defined as violence against anindividual on the basis of their gender. In 1993, the United Nations general assembly adopted a declaration charged with eradicating acts of violence ascribed to women. Gender based violence results in and enhances the inequalities between men and women that already exist (Roy, 2008). Gender-based violence has been a long-standing problem in different societies across the world. The term gender-based violence is in most cases used interchangeably with violence against women. This is because; in most cases, it is women that suffer violence. However, this is not to say that there is no violence against men, although it happens on a lower scale. Violence against women takes many forms including physical abuse, forced sex, sexual abuse, female genital mutilation, rape, among other forms. In most cases, the persons that inflict this abuse and violence are individuals that are known to the concerned women. It is often the husbands that are the perpetrators of this violence, especially as concerns wife battering. Discourse The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were milestones that were put in place in order to help the poorest nations to have some achievable objectives that would serve as a guide and a blueprint for their developmental efforts (World Bank, 2007). The MDGs include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the achievement of universal primary education, to promote gender equality and to empower women, to reduce child mortality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and the formation of a global partnership for development (Jensen, 2010). These are the pillars that were identified by the United Nations as the drivers of development and economy if they were addressed. It is therefore quite clear that Gender based violence and more in particular violence against women is an impediment to development if not addressed by the relevant authorities (World Bank, 2007).Violence based on gender is a universal occurrence and happens regardless of class, culture and any other factor. Gender based violence can occur on different levels in the community. There is violence at the home level where it is mainly the husbands and other close family members that are the main perpetrators of this violence. The main form of violence that occurs against women at this level is wife battery, where the man beats his spouse. There are other forms of violence at this level including female genital mutilation where the victim is forced to undergo this practice, marital rape, incest and also in some cases violence that is non-spousal for example a lady that is being mistreated and abused by the in-laws. The next level of violence that occurs against women is on the general community level. This involves intimidation of the women, sexual harassment at work places and other settings, rape, battery ant the commercialization of the woman’s body leading to activities such as prostitution and sex slavery. Violence against women also takes place on the national stage. This may be manifested in a number of ways such as limited employment opportunities for the women, wage discrepancies against the women, unfair employment practices that favour men over the women. It also involves forced prostitution and in some very extreme cases sex slavery. The consequences of Gender- based violence include significant effects on the reproductive health of the women. These include but are not limited to the following; increased sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV due to sexual violence against the women, increased abortions and occurrences of unwanted pregnancies, lack of access to maternal healthcare and family planning devices. Gender violence also results into psychological damage for the victims (Simister, 2012). Gender based violence has no doubt had negative effects in the community and there is an urgent need to reduce its occurrence and if possible to eliminate it all together. The following steps can be undertaken in order to eliminate this hideous crime. Firstly women should have access to legal services and representation. This will empower women to take the correct measures against their perpetrators without any fear or intimidation. The second step that can be undertaken is creating publicity about gender violence and bringing attention to it. This should go hand in hand with the discouraging of its occurrence and informing the victims of such violence on the various centres that they can go to in order to get assistance. The third step may involve promotion of equality among both men and women. This will stop the portrayal of women as the weaker sex and will therefore stop the violence against them as they will now be considered as equals with their male counterparts. The fourth step that can be undertaken may involve the revision of the laws of the land in order to place harsher penalties for those that will be found guilty of violence against women (Simister,2012). This will act as a deterrent. The institutional laws can also be amended on order to eliminate any bias that may exist towards men over women especially as relates to employment opportunities and remuneration. The fifth step that can be undertaken may involve the economic empowerment of the women. This is because the economic empowerment of the women will give thee a sense of income security and this economic independence will free them from exploitation by their husbands and other male relatives. This will bring to an end practices such as forced prostitution and sex slavery. A sixth step that can be undertaken is the promotion of equal education opportunities to the groups involved. By educating both sexes the women will be empowered to become economic independent and hence reduce their exploitation. the men will be informed and appreciate more the role played by women in the society and thereby reducing and eventually eliminating the occurrence of violence against women. The United Nations adopted a resolution numbered 1325 on the date of 31 October 2000 during its 4231st meeting (Popovich, 2010). The resolution concerned peace, security and women. It dealt with the impact of conflicts on children and women and stressed in need of women involvement in peace building and the prevention of conflicts. It was hailed as a breakthrough document as relates to the empowerment of women and there have been numerous calls for its full implementation from various quarters. The resolution made a number of request and policy recommendations that were expected to be followed and implemented by the member states of the United Nations (Popovich, 2010). These requests can be summarised as follows; it recommended that there should be increased number of women involved in the decision-making process at all levels both national and regional and also in the international stage, the different needs of women must be taken into consideration when designing a refugee camp among many more. All these requests were aimed at involving more women in the decision making process, it was a means of gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming can be defined as a strategy that is employed in the achievement and promotion of gender equality. It ensures that gender equality is achieved in all aspects of day to day running of an organization such as allocation of resources, the planning and implementation of various programmes and even in legislation. Gender mainstreaming has the advantage of treating all individuals equally regardless of their sex and removing any bias that may exist towards any side. It is an effective tool for combatting hyper masculinity. Hyper masculinity can be defined as the exaggeration of the masculine features especially as relates to strength and other aspects. Hyper masculinity brings about a skewed view as relates to the role the men and women play in favour of the men. Hyper masculinity for example may try to portray men as better leaders due to their strength and fearless nature while in reality this may actually not be the case at all. Gender based violence in some cases is caused by some exogernic factors. A major factor is that of poverty (Simister, 2012). High levels of poverty in most cases go hand in hand with high levels of gender-based violence. There may be different explanations for this. Frustrations as a result of poverty may result into the man venting out his frustrations on his wife through violence. Also the occurrence of high levels of poverty may force some women to get into prostitution as a means of earning a living. In some cases this is not done voluntarily and the woman may be forced to do this by the husband or a close relatives. In some cases young girls are sold by their own families to become sex slaves and the money that is made off of them is remitted back to their families (Terry, 2007). These occurrences are especially common in nations that have extreme poverty levels such as India, Indonesia and other different parts of the world. Such situations can be corrected through the empowerment of women. The women empowerment index measures the inclusion of women in a particular sector or economic activity, their empowerment and the women agency. Women’s agency can be defined as women acting as agents on the behalf of other women. This especially applies to those women that are in positions of power and authority, that they use their positions in order to uplift and make a way for their fellow women. Women agency focuses on the women acquiring the necessary skills for them to excel in a specific environment of operation and as well as to provide a means of uplifting their fellow women (Roy, 2008). The women empowerment index uses different parameters in the determination if the women have truly been empowered in the particular sector or organization. These parameters include the number of women that are involved in that particular industry, the policies that have been put in place regarding women in that particular industry, the levels of remuneration of women as compared to those of their male counterparts in that industry and also the number of women that are in high-level management positions within that particular industry. Where there is a large number of women being involved then that sector can be considered to have achieved women empowerment. If there is a low index then it means that women participation is down and therefore corrective measures have to be undertaken in order to achieve some parity. Bibliography Arcidiacono, C. 2013. Daphne and the centaurs: overcoming gender based violence. Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich. Global monitoring report 2007 millenium development goals : confronting the challenges of gender equality and fragile states.. 2007. Washington, DC: World Bank. Jensen, L. 2010. Millenium development goals report. New York: United Nations. Popovic, N., & Lyytikäinen, M. 2010. Planning for action on women and peace and security national-level implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). New York: United Nations. Roadmap to 1325: resolution for gender-sensitive peace and security policies. 2010. Opladen: Barbara Budrich Publishers. Roy, K. C. 2008. Institutions and gender empowerment in the global economy. Singapore: World Scientific. Ryan, M. K. 2013. The Sage handbook of gender and psychology. Los Angeles: Sage. Simister, J. 2012. Gender based violence: causes and remedies. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Terry, G. 2007. Gender-based violence. Oxford: Oxfam. Whitzman, C. 2008. The handbook of community safety, gender and violence prevention: practical planning tools. London: Earthscan. Read More