Term used to describe violence perpetrated against women and girls because they are women or girls. It is underpinned by the patriarchal system and male chauvinism, which generate and justify men’s behaviour and abuse of power over women. The concept recognizes women’s rights as human rights and includes physical, economic or psychological violence that may result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.
It is a type of systemic violence that occurs in situations of unequal power, favouring certain social groups beyond the interaction between perpetrator and victim. It can take various forms, namely physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, sexual abuse, economic violence, digital violence, institutional violence, obstetric violence, second-order violence, vicarious violence and symbolic violence.