Violence: Gender

Abstract

In recent years, organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control have deemed gender violence more broadly and violence against women more specifically a global public health epidemic and an urgent public health priority. One in three women worldwide has experienced violence (mental, physical, and sexual) inflicted by an intimate partner or non‐partner. In 2020, when COVID‐19, remote work, social distancing measures, and quarantine occurred, gender‐based violence rates skyrocketed, with scholars noting that COVID‐19 spurred a “shadow pandemic” resulting in increased rates of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, psychological distress, and separation from social support networks. Reports from the United Nations stress that the COVID‐19 pandemic intensified violence against women, especially given national and international urges to address and mitigate the pandemic, not necessarily the gender violence located within the pandemic. This entry first defines gender violence, then discusses critical health communication approaches to gender violence and the role of contemporary events in shaping research approaches to gender violence.