Summary

In this study session, you have learned that:

• Sex is the biological characteristic that defines humans as female or male, while gender refers to socially and culturally defined roles for males and females.
• Gender-based violence is any form of deliberate physical, psychological, or sexual harm or threat of harm directed against a person on the basis of their gender.
• The consequences of gender-based violence could include increased risk of STIs including HIV, unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortions, physical injuries, and psychosocial trauma including fear, anxiety and depression.
• The community should be mobilised and educated; and males and females should be equally engaged in the fight against GBV.
• Anyone who has experienced GBV, particularly rape, should be counselled, referred to higher health facilities or hospitals and supported to report to the police.