Research glossary

Gaslighting involves (i) the attempt by the gaslighter to undermine his victim’s self-trust: her conception of herself as an autonomous locus of experience, thought, and judgment. The gaslighter's (ii) motivation is a strong desire to neutralize his victim’s ability to criticize him and to ensure her consent to his way of viewing things (specifically with regard to issues relevant to the relationship, perhaps in general), and thus to maintain control over her. The gaslighter (iii) pursues this goal by means of a strategy of manipulation, fabrication, and deception that (iv) specifically relies upon his victim’s trust in him as a peer or authority in some relevant sense.

Gender refers to the roles, behaviours, expressions, and identities that society have associated to girls, women, boys, men, and gender-diverse people. A society’s understanding of gender changes over time and varies from culture to culture. Gender influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, the distribution of power and resources in society, and people’s social, health and economic outcomes.

Gender discrimination is unfair treatment based on someone’s gender or gender expression. It can limit access to education, jobs, healthcare, safety, and justice.

It may show up as unequal pay, workplace harassment, exclusion, or dismissing someone’s voice because of their gender.

Gender equity recognises that people face different barriers and may need different support to achieve equal outcomes.

Equality means treating everyone the same. Equity means giving people what they need to have a fair chance.

The process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness, strategies and measures must often be available to compensate for the historical and social disadvantages that have kept women from enjoying equal opportunity. Equity contributes to equality.
Since “access to services, supports and opportunities and attaining economic, political and social fairness cannot be achieved by treating individuals in the same way equity work analyses and challenges unfair systems and practices” and works towards creating outcomes and access that are fair for everyone.

According to Women and Gender Equality Canada, Gender Expression “refers to the various ways in which people choose to express their gender identity. For example: clothes, voice, hair, make-up, etc. A person’s gender expression may not align with societal expectations of gender. It is therefore not a reliable indicator of a person’s gender identity.

Gender identity and gender expression are related, but they are not the same. Gender identity is a person’s internal sense of their own gender. Gender expression is how a person presents and expresses their gender. This can include their clothing, hairstyle, behaviour, and other outward characteristics.

While gender identity and gender expression are often linked, they do not always correspond. A person’s gender identity may not always be reflected in their gender expression. For example, a woman may choose to express their gender in a masculine way. Similarly, a man may choose to express their gender in a feminine way. And some peoples’ gender expressions can be between and/or beyond masculine, feminine, and androgynous.

The degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or
woman in society (Burke, et al., 1988).

A complex system of personal and social relations through which women and men are socially created and
maintained and through which they gain access to power and material resources or are allocated status within
society (IFAD, 2000).

Gender roles are socially learned expectations about how men and women “should” behave. These ideas are shaped by culture and often reinforced from childhood.

Rigid gender roles can support inequality and violence by promoting dominance, control, and silence.

Learned behaviors in a given society/community, or other special group, that condition which activities, tasks
and responsibilities are perceived as male and female. Gender roles are affected by age, class, race, ethnicity,
religion and by the geographical, economic and political environment. Changes in gender roles often occur in
response to changing economic, natural or political circumstances, including development efforts (UNDP and
UNIFEM, 2001).

Refers to the way children, boys and girls, are being taught how to become women and men. It is based on
assumptions of what it means to be a man or a woman, For example, the standards of masculinity define men
as strong, influential, heterosexuals, and successful

Shared views of personality traits often tied to one's gender such as instrumentality in men and expressiveness
in women (Spence and Helmreich, 1978). These one-sided exaggerated images are deployed repeatedly in
everyday life (Gordon, 1998-a)

Gender equality means that women and men enjoy the same status and the same conditions in which to fully realize their human rights and their potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social, and cultural development, as well as to benefit from the results of that development. Gender equality means that society values the similarities and differences between women and men and the various roles they play

A person’s internal, deeply held sense of their gender as being male, female, both, or neither. People whose gender identity matches the sex assigned to them at birth are cisgender. Transgender people are those whose internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices (see non-binary and/or gender queer below). Unlike gender expression, gender identity is not visible to others.

Gender is based on the expectations and stereotypes about behaviours, actions, and roles linked to being a ‘man’ or ‘woman’ within a particular culture or society. The social norms related to gender can vary depending on the culture, and can change over time.

The gender binary influences what society considers ‘normal’ or acceptable behaviour, dress, appearance and roles for women and men. Gender norms are a prevailing force in our everyday lives. Strength, action, and dominance are stereotyp­ically seen as ‘masculine’ traits, while vulnerability, passivity, and receptiveness are stereotypically seen as ‘feminine’ traits. A woman expressing masculine traits may be chastised as ‘overly aggressive,’ while a man expressing ‘feminine’ traits may be labelled as ‘weak.’ Gender norms can contribute to power imbalances and gender in equality in the home, at work, and in communities.

The socially constructed identities assigned to the biological characteristics of people in society. The concept of gender includes the values, attitudes, feelings, and behaviours as well as the interactions and relationships associated with being a woman (femininity) and being a man (masculinity) in a given culture and setting. These are also influenced by social, historical and cross-cultural factors.

Any act of violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm to a person
because of his or her gender or gender role in a society or culture, including threats of such acts, severe spousal
battery, including of female children; non-spousal violence; sexual violence related to exploitation; rape; sexual
harassment and intimidation at work, in school and elsewhere; trafficking in women; sexual abuse and forced
prostitution. Often times, a person has no choice to refuse or pursue other options without severe economic,
social, physical or psychological consequence (United Nations, 1993).
- Any harm that is perpetrated against a person’s will. In some cases men and boys may also be victims of
gender-based violence. Violence may be physical, sexual, psychological, economic, or socio-cultural.
Categories of perpetrators may include family members, community members, and/or those acting on behalf
of cultural, religious, or state institutions (RHRC, 2003).

Violence based on gender norms and unequal power dynamics, perpetrated against someone based on their gender, gender expression, gender identity, or perceived gender. It takes many forms, including physical, economic, sexual, as well as emotional (psychological) abuse.

Gender-based violence is a term that recognizes that violence occurs within the context of women’s and girl’s subordinate status in society and serves to maintain this unequal balance of power.

Gender-based violence is sometimes used interchangeably with “violence against women” although the latter is a more limited concept. The United Nations (UN) defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life
The UN also notes that “While gender-based violence can happen to anyone, anywhere, some women and girls are particularly vulnerable - for instance, young girls and older women, women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex, migrants and refugees, indigenous women and ethnic minorities, or women and girls living with HIV and disabilities, and those living through humanitarian crises.The existence and impact of gender-based violence are therefore often interconnected with other systems of inequality and/or vulnerability.

The general term used to capture violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with the gender (and sexuality) associated with the sex assigned to a person at birth, as well as the unequal power relations between the genders, within the context of a specific society. GBV includes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse or threats of such acts or abuse, coercion, and economic, social contact or educational deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life, in peacetime and during armed or other forms of conflict, and may cause physical, sexual, psychological, emotional or economic harm.