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Abstract
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Worldwide, it is estimated that approximately 30% of women have experienced violence (WHO, Citation2021a) and that the prevalence of violence against women and girls increases significantly once broader social inequities are taken into account such as Indigeneity, disability, race and ethnicity, 2SLGBTIQ+ status, socio-economic status and age (WHO, Citation2021b). Interaction with the healthcare system can provide an opportunity for a coordinated response to be enacted that provides critical care to women (Fitts et al., Citation2022). While there have been decades of advocacy for action to address the rates of violence against women, the breadth of minority and marginalised women's experiences, including sexuality and gender-diverse women, in accessing healthcare following violence are only gradually becoming known (see Grand'Maison, Citation2024).
Globally, there are examples of significant advocacy and investment by governments, advocates and services to develop national plans to end gender-based violence for women and their children. While these national plans and frameworks are critically important, research forms part of the critical next steps to mobilise the intentions of these national plans into policy and practice. To support the work occurring across diverse national policy landscapes, the aim of this special issue was to assemble a collection of scholarly work that contributes to our understanding of minority and marginalised women's access to healthcare following gender-based violence. The call sought to garner a collective body of scholarship that offered the potential to move our understanding of healthcare accessibility for minority and marginalised women experiencing violence forward theoretically, empirically, and practically. Each article in this special issue recognises the role the healthcare system can play in the early intervention and prevention of violence against women and girls. The collective set of papers may provide some of the necessary evidence to advance healthcare policy and strategy, programs and interventions, that identify and respond to violence against women and girls in various contexts, including programs, policy and supports that promote healing and recovery.
It is important to note that while gender-based violence is defined differently across cultures, for the purpose of this special issue, violence against women and girls is defined as intimate partner violence, domestic violence, family violence and sexual violence (see Carlson et al., Citation2021). The purpose of adopting this broad sociological framework was to propel potential contributors to think through the situated practices of research that afforded engaged epistemic and empirical insights in relation to the diverse nuance of health system responses at the local scale. The collection of papers thus offers a rich theoretical grounding to situate the papers' empirical engagement with communities of minority and marginalised women and girls who experience gender-based violence and what this means for their healthcare accessibility at this critical moment. As the set of papers confers, a diverse understanding of gender-based violence facilitates critical engagements with the gendered relations of healthcare for minority and marginalised - across its continuum from policy, institutional structures, healthcare professional practice and service delivery. ...
Language: en |