The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 3 women have experienced or will experience gender-based violence (GBV) during their lifetimes.
A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 38% of women have personally experienced online violence and 85% of women know someone who has been targeted for online violence.
GBV prevention and response is central to the U.S. government’s commitment to advancing human rights and gender equality around the world, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Geeta Rao Gupta said at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali in July.
“Gender-based violence is not just holding women and girls back, with severe consequences for their health and well-being, and economic prospects,” Rao Gupta said, noting that GBV occurs in every country and level of society. “It is holding our global economy back, and it is holding our society back.”
What is gender-based violence?
According to the United Nations, gender-based violence includes sexual, physical, mental and economic harm inflicted in public or in private. It can also include coercion, manipulation and threats of violence.
Intimate partner violence; child, early and forced marriage; female genital mutilation or cutting; sex trafficking; female infanticide; and “honor” killings are all forms of gender-based violence.
The WHO reported in March 2021 that incidents of intimate partner violence are highest in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, though this form of GBV remains persistently high across all regions of the world.
“Individuals who face overlapping forms of discrimination are at an increased risk of experiencing GBV, so we really try to take an intersectional approach to our work,” Katrina Fotovat, principal deputy director in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, tells ShareAmerica. “For example, women with disabilities are four times more likely than other women to experience sexual violence.”
Working to address root causes of GBV
In addition to updating the United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, the State Department works with government agencies and the private sector to implement a survivor-centered approach to GBV, which includes:
- Providing legal resources to survivors of gender-based violence abroad.
- Coordinating with experts to allocate resources to gender-based violence survivors at a community level.
- Jointly supplying (with the U.S. Agency for International Development) $250 million to prevent and respond to GBV between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.
The State Department also supports efforts to educate community leaders to be advocates for eliminating gender-based violence.
“An essential part of both our foreign policy and assistance efforts is to address the structural inequities and social norms,” Fotovat says. “Our approach includes engaging men and boys in both short- and longer-term prevention efforts, and equipping youth to become advocates in their communities to challenge harmful gender norms and create a more just and peaceful society.”
And as a part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence — an annual international campaign to educate about GBV — the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues encourages everyone to be a gender champion in daily life and research local organizations to support.
“We need people from all backgrounds and all communities to stand up for gender equality,” Fotovat said. “GBV really is a human rights issue that affects all of us.”
A version of this story was originally published November 21, 2022.