Violence against women and girls is rooted in gender - based discrimination and social norms and ... is to prevent it from happening in the first place by addressing its root and structural causes . ... back ; Americas and the Caribbean - Regional and Country Offices ... Ready to start your own “ Voices against Violence " journey ?
Gender violence , also known as gender - based violence or gendered violence , is the term used to denote harm inflicted upon individuals and groups that is connected to normative understandings of their gender . [ 1 ] This connection can be in the form of cultural understandings of gender roles , both institutional and structural forces that endorse violence based on gender and societal influences that shape violent events along gender lines . While the term is often used synonymously with ' violence against women ' , gendered violence can and does occur for people of all genders including men , women , male and female children and gender diverse individuals . Activities heavily associated with violence are overwhelmingly shaped by understandings of gender and gender roles . War , for example , in contemporary understandings is divided between civilian and combatants with a general understanding that men make up the vast majority of combatants and women and young children the majority of civilians . In cases like the Srebenica massacre , in which 8,000 men and male children were killed , the basis of their murder was a gendered understanding that they had the potential of being , or becoming combatants in the Bosnian war .
In discussing gender and violence at regional levels , the experiences of people who exist in transition between spaces or who are not counted within regional data can potentially be omitted from this discussion ; these include displaced persons , people seeking asylum and refugees .
