gender norms and changing childhoods:
TRANSCRIPT
Gender norms and changing childhoods: evidence from Young Lives multi-country study tracking inequalities in girls’ and boys’ trajectories
Gina Crivello, Senior [email protected]
Conference on Gender equality norms and the politics of development cooperation, Copenhagen, 18-20 May
2016
Human rights framework:
• CRC embodies an idealised vision - childhood refashioned globally in line with ‘modern’ norms:o Children, inherently vulnerable, require adult
protectiono Childhood, a period of dependenceo Parents, families, the state = duty bearers
• SDG 5 on gender: o End discrimination, harmful practices against
women and girls, as well as promoting their rights, participation etc.
INTERNATIONAL POLICY
INCREASING INTEREST IN 2ND DECADE OF LIFE• Demographic rationale: 1.2 billion young
people between the ages of 10 and 19 in the world today
• Developmental rationale: critical transition point and window for intervention
• Build on investments focused in early childhood and avoid undoing the achievements made
GENDER EQUALITY IN CHILDHOOD: ACTUALLY ABOUT GIRLS?
SOCIAL NORMS PERPETUATING RISK & VULNERABILITY
World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior
• Tackling poverty and gender inequality in childhood through social norms change
• Focus on individual risks associated with particular, separable practices/sources of vulnerability (fgm/c, child marriage, child labour, street-based working, orphanhood, etc.).
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1999) commits governments to:
‘take all appropriate measures to eliminate harmful social and cultural practices affecting the welfare,
dignity, normal growth and development of the child.’
ABOUT YOUNG LIVES
EXPANSION OF EDUCATION & RISING ASPIRATIONS
In Peru, 12 year-olds surveyed: ‘Imagine you don’t have any constraints and could stay at school as long as you like, what level of formal education would you like to complete?’
90% wanted either university (78%) or technical college (12%)
Parents: 92 % wanted either university or technical school for their children.
And they expected to be able to achieve their aspirations too.
CLOSING GENDER GAPS IN PRIMARY ENROLMENT
• Gender parity in primary school enrolment• Gender differences widen in adolescence• Primary schooling no longer enough
For any job they require you to have finished secondary school, and I think that to be a driver, or whatever, you need to have finished your secondary schooling… (If I left school) I wouldn’t be able to keep myself in the future. With studies I can be something.
(Susan, age 16, Lima, Peru)
In India, parents report lower aspirations for their daughters at age 12. By age 15, girls have lower ambitions for themselves too.
Some people say that girls are just like boys and they should be educated well. And others say, ‘What are they going to do with higher education, since they will be going to somebody else’s house?’ They also say, ‘Since we can’t benefit, why spend money on a girl’s education?’
(Father, rural Telangana, India)
DIFFERING ASPIRATIONS FOR SONS AND DAUGHTERS
GENDER NORMS INFLUENCE EMPLOYMENT & FURTHER EDUCATION CHOICES
Example of ‘My’
We study the same things with the boys, we study everything, but the boys get to be outside, and we stay inside to do paperwork, everyone can do paperwork, I don’t like it.
E.g., marriageGENDER DIFFERENCES WIDEN IN
ADOLESCENCE
Age 19, married
Ethiopia India Peru Vietnam
Girls 13% 37% 25% 19%
Boys 0.6% 1.9% 6.7% 4.9%
• In India and Ethiopia, many young women who had married had done so well before the legal age of 18.
• Girls from poorer households and rural areas are most likely to marry or have their first child at a young age (except in Peru).
Marrying after 16 or 17 is not good. We live in corrupt and dangerous times… Many children have already fallen into bad ways. For instance, one girl I know, who is still a child, has had a baby on her own. She suffered a lot… When you see these kinds of things, it is better that a girl marries early.
(Mother, rural Oromia, Ethiopia)
In Peru, the poorest young women have the lowest enrolment rate of all, whereas the wealthier young women have the highest enrolment, even when compared to wealthier boys.
Poor boys are more likely than poor girls to drop out of school by age 15 (Ethiopia, Peru and Vietnam)
In India, young women are less likely than boys to be studying, no matter wealth level, across all points of their school trajectory.
GENDER COMBINES WITH OTHER SOURCES OF INEQUALITY
It was done at her request. After she witnessed a girl insulting another who was not circumcised, my daughter came home and asked me to organize her circumcision. She told me she does not want to be insulted in the same way … We did the circumcision in the evening for the fear of the local officials who could punish us… Despite being prohibited by the local officials, everybody circumcises their daughter.
(Mother, Ethiopia)
LOCAL RESISTANCE TO GLOBAL NORMS
I don’t want to marry, I want to be like my aunt … She is 27 and she is single. My aunt enjoys herself. I want to be like that… she is a professional. My mother also tells me: ‘Stay single, don’t look for a husband, be a professional, look at your aunt who is alone… [n]obody stops her, nobody tells her what to do.’ So I want to be like that, like my aunt, have fun and then marry, at 30 years old.
(Luz, 17 years old, Peru)
‘I got married at her age, 14. It was common to take the bride without thinking wisely…… When I tell my 14 year-old granddaughter to marry, she gets angry and threatens to report me to the authorities. Children today are very wise.’ (rural grandmother)
‘Our parents used to give us to somebody we did not know and collect their bride wealth…. Now, if I marry off my daughter without her being interested, she will refuse and oblige me to pay back any bride wealth I take.’ (rural mother)
‘[B]ecause of education, my daughter knows a lot. In the past it was our parents who were making decisions for us. Now, we may advise them, but they decide on what is important for them.’ (mother)
REPERCUSSIONS ON GENERATIONAL RELATIONS
• Changes in gender norms are intertwined with changes in the meaning of childhood
• Tackling poverty must go hand in hand with tackling inequality based on gender.
• We need to strengthen our gender approach (which includes boys) and attention to intergenerational change and relations.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
www.younglives.org.uk• methodology and research papers• datasets (UK Data Archive)• publications• child profiles and photos• e-newsletter
FINDING OUT MORE
Thank you