A Conceptual and Contextual Background for Gender-based Violence and Depression in Women

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the central concepts in this text before a more in-depth exploration in later chapters. The central concepts are gender-based violence against women; the notion of gender; depression in women; human rights and public health frameworks; critical feminist theories; the concept of intersectionality and its contribution to critical feminist theoretical understandings and the links between violence against women and the subsequent development of depression in women. This overview also provides a context within which an understanding of the central concepts and of the rationale and underpinnings of the Women’s Journaling Group Programme model can be situated.