Violence and Women’s Mental Health

Abstract

All women deserve a healthy life without violence, and freedom of violence is a prerequisite for global development. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a serious violation of human rights revealed by different configurations throughout the life of a woman. Since the transgenerational occurrence of sexual offenses in incestuous families to violence intimate partner violence (IPV), and in different conditions such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, trafficking in human beings and financial abuse, the violence is always present. Violence is an early mark permeating woman’s childhood with family members’ aggressions, bullying by peers and exploitation of child labour. Adolescence loses its charm by unwanted sexual experiences and painful decisions between early pregnancy and abortion. In adult life the violence extends its domestic and school boundaries to present inequity of opportunities, disadvantage in wages and harassment on the streets and in the workplace. This cycle of escalating discrimination leads to the most terrible form of gender violence: femicide. To understand connections and associations between violence and women’s mental health, this chapter presents several routes, with intriguing individual (hormonal, genetic, metabolic) and social aspects, which aim to stimulate the study and reflection.