Understanding how discriminatory social norms operate in different forms and at different levels is important for both strategic and practical policy and programme development, as is an understanding of potential entry points for positive change.
In this paper, a multi-year, multi-country study is undertaken to explore the complex ways in which adolescent girls’ capabilities are shaped and/or constrained by gender discriminatory social norms, attitudes and practices. The paper also looks at how other overlapping and intersecting experiences of poverty, deprivation and exclusion serve to intensify and perpetuate vulnerabilities.
The conceptual framework for year 1 research was informed by the capabilities approach to development and underpinned by current thinking around gender justice and entitlements. Field research was carried out between 2012 and 2013 in Viet Nam, Uganda, Nepal, and Ethiopia.
Key findings:
- The study investigated key capabilities in the following domains: education, household and family relations; economic empowerment/access to resources; physical safety and health; psychosocial well-being; and political/civic participation.
- The framework illustrates how both the drivers of positive change in social norms and forces maintaining discriminatory gender norms may be mediated by a variety of factors, operating through a variety of institutions and sites to affect adolescent girls’ capability domains.
- Fieldwork in each country highlights the depth of interconnectedness between and among the different capability domains, which is of vital importance for policy considerations. Hence, for example, exploring the reasons why adolescent girls drop out of school often confronts issues of early marriage and household roles and expectations, while early marriage not only restricts girls’ educational and economic opportunities but also has a negative impact on their physical integrity and reproductive health.
- Field studies found the household/family to be ‘foundational’ as a pivotal site where socialisation takes place and gendered processes and limitations are embedded for a lifetime. Household and family structures and ideologies often conspire to constrain the full realisation of adolescent girls’ capabilities.
- Most of the country studies clearly showed that the capabilities of adolescent girls are affected by the prevailing gender norms as well as by wider contextual features of the community or society – such as geography, urban/rural location, or socioeconomic status.
- The country studies highlight significant gaps between policy and practice in terms of implementation on the ground of the broad array of formal laws, policies and programmes that exist at national level to promote gender equality and gender-responsive services.
- All country studies indicate that while some norms seem to have changed over time, others remain particularly ‘sticky’ and resistant to change. Moreover, some behavioural patterns might change faster than the attitudes governing them or vice versa and some segments of society or even individuals may hold different perceptions of existing social norms and the need for change or continuity.
- The fieldwork found that, communities defined life trajectories for girls in a number of different ways – not always, or even usually, in terms of age, but more often in terms of physical characteristics (particularly the stage at which they developed breasts) marking the debut of womanhood that would be fully defined (irrespective of age) by either marriage or pregnancy. These differences in cultural conceptualisations of age groups and the social norms governing their characteristics are important, as they are linked to policy and programme considerations that need to be made in the establishment of appropriate services or support.
- Support girls to complete secondary education.
- Expand access to non-gendered vocational training and economic opportunities including self-employment, and reform discriminatory employment and property laws to create more equitable access to productive assets and resources.
- Strengthen adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health information and services so that girls can gain greater autonomy over their bodies and physical well-being.
- Create ‘safe spaces’ where girls can gather without fear, socialise with peers, and discuss concerns with trusted adults as a means of building both horizontal and vertical social capital.
- Develop programmes for mentoring and support and enlist role models to serve as positive examples of change and success to which adolescent girls can aspire.
- Strengthen systems of protection and access to justice for adolescent girls, and support them in voicing their claims to such entitlements.
- Reform family codes, including formal and informal laws related to marriage and inheritance and family well-being, so that gender justice in the reproductive realm is inscribed in law.
- Promote opportunities for civic engagement, participation in clubs, and leadership positions for girls in their schools and communities.
- Conduct well-designed and targeted communications and awareness-raising activities.
- Supplement the above with social mobilisation efforts and the nurturing of both grassroots and national constituencies of girls and women, boys and men, engaged in a broad-based movement for social transformation.
Recommendations: