Lifetime Spiral of Gender Violence

The Lifetime Spiral of Gender Violence

The Lifetime Spiral of Gender Violence, as depicted in the referenced graphic, serves as a powerful illustration of how gender violence operates as a pervasive and systemic issue, deeply rooted in intersecting forms of oppression, such as patriarchy, racism, colonialism, ableism, classism, and heteronormativity. It demonstrates that gender violence is an umbrella term, encompassing a vast array of abuses and structural inequalities that disproportionately target women and marginalized groups throughout their lives.

Key Insights from the Spiral with Intersectional Feminist Analysis

1. Multifaceted and Intersecting Forms of Violence

The spiral highlights the diverse forms of violence women experience, such as:

• Physical violence (domestic abuse, assault).
• Emotional and psychological abuse (coercive control, isolation).
• Sexual violence (rape, trafficking, harassment).
• Economic violence (financial control, wage theft, economic dependency).
• Cultural and institutional violence (colonial practices, harmful traditions, systemic discrimination).

From an intersectional perspective, these forms of violence are not independent but deeply interconnected. For example, Indigenous women face unique risks from colonial violence, including disproportionate rates of sexual and physical violence, compounded by systemic neglect such as inadequate police responses and lack of resources in rural areas. Similarly, Black women often experience the dual burdens of racialized and gendered violence, such as higher rates of incarceration after defending themselves against abusive partners.

2. Lifespan Perspective and Systemic Oppression

• In childhood, girls may endure gendered violence through child marriage, abuse, or neglect, often exacerbated by poverty or disability.
• In adolescence, experiences of dating violence, sexual harassment, and reproductive coercion escalate, with LGBTQ+ girls facing heightened risks of violence from peers and family members.
• In adulthood, intimate partner violence, workplace harassment, and economic exploitation intersect with structural barriers, such as inaccessible shelters for women with disabilities or undocumented women’s fear of seeking help due to immigration status.
• In older age, violence often becomes more invisible, as elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation disproportionately affect aging women, particularly those without financial security or strong support networks.

This framework exposes how gender violence is not episodic or random but deeply tied to structural oppressions that shift over the course of a woman’s life.

3. Structural and Cultural Roots of Violence

• Patriarchal norms dictate that women are subordinate to men, excusing male entitlement to control women’s bodies, labor, and lives.
• Racism exacerbates this, as seen in the dehumanization and hypersexualization of Black women, the erasure of violence against Indigenous women, or the commodification of immigrant and refugee women in exploitative labor systems.
• Ableism and ageism render violence against disabled and elderly women particularly invisible, leaving them at greater risk of harm without intervention.

4. Invisibility and Silencing as Tools of Oppression

• The silencing of missing and murdered Indigenous women across settler-colonial states like Canada normalizes their erasure and reflects the ongoing violence of colonialism.
• Trans women, particularly Black and Latina trans women, are disproportionately killed, but their deaths are often misreported or ignored due to intersecting biases against trans and racialized communities.

This invisibility is not accidental but a deliberate mechanism of systems designed to render women, particularly those marginalized by race, class, sexuality, and ability, less visible and less protected.

5. Compounding Impacts Over Time

Gender Violence as an Umbrella Term

Through this intersectional lens, gender violence must be understood as an umbrella term that encompasses:

• Individual acts of harm (physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse).
• Systemic oppressions that reinforce and perpetuate these harms (racism, colonialism, ableism, heteronormativity).
• Cultural norms that normalize and sustain violence (patriarchal expectations, victim-blaming, and dehumanization of marginalized groups).

The spiral underscores that addressing gender violence requires dismantling these interconnected systems, advocating for holistic solutions that are inclusive of all women, and centering the experiences of those most marginalized.

A Call to Action

The Lifetime Spiral of Gender Violence reinforces the need for policies, practices, and movements that are rooted in intersectional feminism. Solutions must go beyond surface-level interventions to address the structural causes of violence—patriarchy, racism, classism, and beyond. We must create a world where every woman and girl, regardless of identity or circumstance, can live free from the threat of violence at any stage of her life.

Learn more about The Facts on Gender-Based Violence and What is Violence Against Women.