Summary of Study Session 6

In Study Session 6, you have learned that:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. The community should be mobilised and educated; and males and females should be equally engaged in the fight against GBV.
5. Anyone who has experienced GBV, particularly rape, should be counselled, referred to health centres or hospitals and supported to report to the police.