Conclusions

If we seek to eliminate VHCW then quality research and theoretical work must substantiate its underpinnings. Our findings, although not conclusive, support the need to consider gender as a dimension when conducting research on VHCW. If we do not do so, gender will continue to be an invisible and ignored dimension of intervention strategies to prevent VHCW.6
This is particularly important in a context where there is a growing feminization of the health workforce in lower-middle- and upper-middle-income countries, as well as differences between male and female physicians’ engagement with the profession, potentiating exposure to violence in the workplace.7
If research supports the hypothesis that VHCW can be construed as GBV, then the observed prevalence of VHCW might be the result, as referred above of the “stereotypes, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations” associated to gender inequalities in society that underly such violence. This will indicate the need to frame policies and strategies against VHCW within a broader framework to tackle the social, cultural and political contexts that sanction this type of violence.8-15