Integrating gender transformative approaches into comprehensive sexuality education in the US: Preliminary findings from an RCT in Washington DC

• In Event: Promising Approaches in Gender Transformative Education

Proposal

Over the past two decades, a growing body of evidence has revealed how gender norms and attitudes influence power dynamics in romantic and sexual relationships, impacting use of violence and contraception use (Sanchez et al., 2012, Lefkowitz, 2014). In order to successfully reduce violence against women and girls and negative sexual and reproductive health (SRH) outcomes, interventions have aimed at shifting these harmful norms and promote more gender-equitable attitudes and behaviors. In 2002, a GTE intervention was designed to engage young men in Brazil and Mexico, which resulted in positive shifts in gender attitudes, decreased self-reported use of violence, increased couples’ communication on SRH and relationships, increased condom use, and decreased sexually transmitted infection (STI) symptoms.

Since then, this intervention has been adapted and contextualized across 36 countries, mostly in rural communities in the Global South, eventually also including a gender synchronized component targeting young women, and inspiring a similar program targeting fathers and expecting couples. Findings from 14 impact evaluations across 12 of these countries show the ways in which the intervention has brought forward attitudinal and behavioral change across multiple domains (Doyle and Kato-Wallace, 2021).

Most recently, it was adapted for Washington, DC - in partnership with a DC-based service provider - for youth of all gender identities, ages 15 to 19. This innovative GTE intervention is a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum grounded in critical thinking, gender role deconstruction, and interpersonal power dynamics (Author3 and Healthy Teen Network, 2022). This intervention contrasts with the majority of sex education in the US, that centers on fear-based, STI and pregnancy prevention, often ignoring contextual factors of identity, gender, and power that contribute to those health outcomes. The curriculum is 16 hours, offered in English or Spanish, and includes topics of interpersonal communication, caring and nonviolent relationships, sexual consent, risk reduction strategies for STI transmission and unplanned pregnancy, and accessing clinical SRH services. This intervention is part of a 5-year randomized control study (2022-2027) evaluating impact on adolescents’ attitudes and behaviors around consent, access to health services, and contraceptive use.

Based on formative research and early findings, recommendations for curricula developers and educators have emerged:
(1) Critical gender lens – even in a gender inclusive intervention, binary gender norms (man/woman) need to be explained, deconstructed and challenged, in order to create more equitable relationships.
(2) Intersectional representation – youth’s diverse lived experiences and intersectional identities need to be reflected, normalized, and celebrated in the curriculum. GTE need to address how gendered expectations are compounded by other identity factors – especially sexuality.
(3) Consent – youth uncertainty and inexperience in expressing their boundaries and asking for or giving consent, requires explicit practice with various conversation starters and scenarios to understand consent.
(4) Digital component – GTE and social behavior change methodologies should leverage digital components to increase impact, given youth’s widespread use of social media and the anonymity it allows for seeking information and asking questions.

Author

• Rachel Katz, Equimundo