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The purpose of this paper is to explore the causes, forms, extent, and consequences of sexual harassment and sexual violence at public sector workplaces in Tanzania.

A total of 1,593 civil servants participated in the survey, which was conducted in the Mtwara Region of Tanzania. The quantitative data were complemented with the results from eight focus group discussions.

The study revealed that 21 percent of women and 12 percent of men had experienced sexual harassment personally. Overall, rural-based public servants had less knowledge of relevant policies, and experienced more sexual harassment than their urban colleagues. The majority of perpetrators were identified as men in senior positions; the majority of victims were recognized to be young female employees. Frequently reported behaviors included sexual bribery with regard to resource allocation, promotions, allowances, and other benefits.

Despite the existence of conducive legal and policy frameworks aimed at protecting employees from sexual harassment and violence, their implementation and effects were found to be limited. Only half of the study population was aware of the existing regulations. The study found that the majority of public servants who had knowledge on the issue had learned about sexual harassment in the context of an HIV/AIDS workplace program. This finding indicates that well-designed workplace interventions can play an important role in creating awareness, addressing gender stereotypes, and informing employees about their personal rights and responsibilities.

Sexual harassment and gender-based violence at the workplace has never been studied before in Tanzania. The study provides practical recommendations for future preventive interventions.

This introduction sets forth the main themes of the volume, reviews the methods employed by the contributors, and demonstrates the relationships among the chapters.

The chapters in the volume exemplify current research approaches to the subject matter: gender-based violence. The introduction identifies both trends and gaps that might be filled by future research.

Worldwide attention is being drawn to examples and forms of gender-based violence. These are currently major topics in the media, both factual and fictional. Public policies are under discussion and programs to deal with them are developing. However, because the discussions and the programs are often not research-based or intersectionally inclusive, gender-based violence persists and victims are sometimes ignored, blamed, or subjected to further violence.

The chapter serves as an overall introduction to the volume and the subject matter more generally.

Gender-based abuses (GBAs; more frequently referred to as ‘violence against women’) have been a concern of current day feminists and their predecessors, dating back centuries, but only came under broader scrutiny in the latter half of the twentieth century. The goal of this chapter is to provide a historical overview of the emergence of feminist concerns and activism that led to a largely global identification and recognition of the prevalence and ramifications of GBA. The chapter includes a range of GBAs, such as sexual harassment, stalking, sex trafficking, and forced marriage, but focusses primarily on intimate partner abuse and rape. It is beyond the scope of one chapter, or even one book, to adequately address the efforts to respond to GBA across the world. Instead, the authors hope to describe the work by feminist activists and scholars to identify GBA as a serious and prevalent social problem, the various and often overlapping types of GBA, and the work to design and implement a range of responses to deter GBA, advocate for GBA survivors, hold gender-based abusers accountable, and provide safer communities. In addition to the early attempts to assess and respond to GBA, this chapter covers some of the most original and innovative documentations and responses to GBA from across the globe.

The prevalence of domestic violence in Nigeria may be described as epidemic. To address this scourge, several pieces of legislation have been enacted in the past decade at state and federal levels in Nigeria. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the emerging legislation on domestic violence. This paper thus examines the contents of these laws in a bid to determine the potential of these laws to prevent domestic violence, deter perpetrators from further incidents, punish perpetrators, compensate survivors and provide them with the necessary interventions for their rehabilitation.

The approach adopted is a content analysis of the provisions of the legislation, using salient parameters that have been drawn from documented best practices, specifically the key components for framing of domestic violence legislation around the world.

The author finds that while there is significant attempt in extant legislation to ensure that women are protected within domestic relationships, there are still gaps. Further, the protections are uneven across the states. In addition, there are systemic and contextual challenges that hamper the effectiveness of existing legislation in Nigeria in providing the necessary protections to women.

This study analyses the provisions of some of the legislation currently in place to protect persons from domestic violence. The impact, potential effect and overall utility of these pieces of legislation continue to require examination.

This introduction sets forth the main themes of Part B of the two-part volume, reviews the methods employed by the contributors, and demonstrates the relationships among these chapters and those of Part A.

The chapters in the volume exemplify current research approaches to the subject matter: gender-based violence. The introduction identifies trends and themes.

Worldwide attention is being drawn to examples and forms of gender-based violence. These are currently major topics in the media, both factual and fictional. Public policies are under discussion and programs to deal with them are developing. However, because the discussions and the programs are often not research-based or intersectionally inclusive, gender-based violence persists and victims are sometimes ignored, blamed, or subjected to further violence.

The chapter serves as an overall introduction to the volume and the subject matter more generally.

The purpose of the chapter is to overcome interpretative dualism on migrant and native women’s victimization by proposing a Bourdieusian approach to the continuities of symbolic violence within post-patriarchal regimes of women’s freedom.

This conceptual chapter examines the Bourdieusian approach to some empirical research and continues with questions for feminist thought. The author discusses sociological research in Italy and in European contexts, and highlights the many “gazes” which can reveal the illusio of universal gender rights and the neo-colonial discourse on migrant women.

Research finds that the participant objectivation attitude and concern for disturbing dissonances in the habitus and body hexis of “others” produces tools for revealing the misrecognition of domination. At the theoretical level, the chapter shows how the plurality of hegemonic discourses on symbolic violence endorses not only social forces reproducing neo-colonial stratifications of gender, sense of belonging and class positions, but also ambivalent experiences of domination and freedom for women.

The chapter aims to motivate the encounter between Bourdieu’s view of male domination and classical feminist constructs as lived body experience, sexual contract, and traffic in women.

The chapter provides an innovative analysis intersecting Bourdieu’s constructs and feminist thought in re-considering “gender-women” as a privileged locus for feminist discourse. Gender dualism under the lens of symbolic violence is viewed as both an appearance and a structural field within the dynamics of domination.

Gender-based violence (GBV) has negative impact on the health and well-being of the survivors. The initial response can lessen the magnitude of the effect, and thus the health care sector's readiness to respond to GBV cases is important. This study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude and its association to practice regarding GBV response among health care personnel.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 48 public hospitals in Yangon, Myanmar, involving 398 participants including doctors and nurses, by a self-administered structured questionnaire.

Among 398 participants, most of the participants had moderate level of knowledge, attitude and supportive environmental factors. Only 12.8% had experienced GBV management. The respondents with a bachelor's degree were more likely to practice on health care management towards GBV cases than those who finished with a diploma degree. The medical officers and senior medical officers were more likely to practice than the junior nurses. The participants who had already attended the trainings had more practice than those who had not. Those who work in the regional hospitals were less likely to practice than those who work in the station-level hospital.

This paper explored the associated factors to health care personnel's practice of health care management towards GBV survivors in Myanmar which contains information about knowledge, attitude and supportive environmental factors. The study results can be used for a supportive data for health system strengthening the response of GBV cases in Myanmar.

This chapter interrogates the practice of gender-based asylum as a window to the problem of gender-based violence (GBV) as a driver of migration, with a focus on Southeast Europe, reporting on one instance of the intersection between the more private matter of gender and the realms of “high politics.”

The research is based on qualitative methods, primarily drawn from existing (written) sources, including legal cases, government and NGO reports, and other documents, supplemented by information gathered through in-depth interviews.

This research found that the region is a source of migrants escaping GBV, and that migrants from this region have been agents in moving the practice of gender-based asylum forward in recent years. That migration is increasingly multidirectional. Further, the “West” offers gender-based asylum inconsistently.

Political and policy change on these matters across this region were transitioning rapidly when this chapter was written; there will be a need, therefore, for updates based on any new developments.

Policy progress should be based on recognition of Southeast Europe’s varied roles as receiving, transit, and destination countries as the region’s viability and visibility increase.

The chapter analyzes a legal terrain that is rarely done outside of the field of law. It offers the most recent analysis of current developments in gender-based asylum with a Southeast Europe focus. Finally, it contributes empirical research to the evolving theoretical discussions of the privatization of the public sphere, particularly for emerging democracies.

Gender inequality in New Zealand, and globally, remains a social justice and human rights issue despite decades of feminist activism and scholarship as well as social and political interventions. This chapter outlines the strides in gender equality in New Zealand, and the continued manifestations of gender inequality within the country. It argues that to address persistent patterns of gender inequality, a primary prevention approach that deals with gender polarity and then sexism is needed before it takes hold. New Zealand considers best practice from other countries in implementing gender equality education and better media literacy in schools. Drawing on existing Scandinavian policies and other empirical work, this chapter explores how such gender equality education policy is outlined.

Goal 5 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prioritises gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. Key to achieving this is addressing violence against women (VAW; see SDG target 5.2) and, we believe, understanding the role of technology in both enacting and combating VAW. In this chapter, we outline how technology-facilitated VAW threatens women's use of technology and discuss policies and practices of support workers and practitioners that aid safe use of digital media. We consider features of technology-facilitated VAW advocacy which differ from traditional VAW advocacy, using examples from the Global North and South. Information communication technologies (ICTs) are used by VAW advocates in a range of ways; to provide information and education about domestic violence, safe use of technology and negotiating the legal and criminal justice systems; collect evidence about abuse; provide support; and pursue social change. As the capabilities and prevalence of ICT and devices increase and access costs decrease, these channels offer new and innovative opportunities capitalising on the spacelessness, cost-effectiveness and timelessness of media. Nonetheless, technological initiatives are not perfect or failsafe. Throughout the pages that follow, we acknowledge the limitations and challenges of technology-facilitated advocacy, which could hinder application of the SDG.