Gender-based Violence and Health

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a persistent human rights and public health crisis rooted in gender inequality, power, and other forms of oppression. It disproportionately affects women, one-third of whom have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. We will study the causes and prevalence of GBV, the adverse health/social consequences, the policy and programmatic response to GBV, and the crucial role feminists and activists have played in calling attention to this problem. We will focus on weekly cases, including prevention work on U.S. college campuses, health policy and system response to intimate partner violence in Mexico, how reproductive coercion is being addressed in family planning clinics in Kenya, and GBV and the political agenda in Nepal.



Sophie Morse, PhD, MPP (Middlebury '11), is a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco trained in public health and public policy. She has worked on gender-based violence and health for over ten years as a researcher and advocate./