What is violence against women?

Violence against women can take many forms. Some examples of what this violence can look like include:

• A man tracking his partner on her mobile phone or limiting access to credit cards
• A partner using a woman’s immigration status to control her
• A colleague making sexual comments at work
• Threatening to withhold medication or health care in order to control a woman
• A stranger sending unwanted sexual images on social media
• A partner or family member threatening to ‘out’ or ’shame’ a person because of their gender identity, sexual orientation or HIV status.

Violence against women can occur in the home, at work, online or in public. It can happen within the family – like intimate partner violence – or outside it, like street harassment.

The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women and girls, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. Violence against women and girls encompasses, but is not limited to, physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family or within the general community and perpetrated or condoned by the State.”