Contesting gender norms that oppress marginalized girls and their education – lessons from the Girls’ Education Challenge

• In Event: Protesting Societal Norms for Sustainable Girls’ Empowerment through Education

Proposal

Much is known about gender norms and how they perpetuate and sustain gender inequality in and through education. For example, when all social identity markers (such as ethnicity, poverty, rurality, etc.) are similar to male counterparts, unequal gender norms will further disadvantage and constrain girls and their opportunities to learn. These norms and constraints can be seen through unequal household chore/care burdens, boy preference in family investments in education, early marriage/dowry to offset family poverty, and vulnerability to sexual violence by teachers and community members, amongst others. Although much is known about how unequal gender norms affect girls’ education, less is known about how to shift these norms in a meaningful and sustained way.

This paper provides a synthesis of interventions aiming to contest and change unequal gender norms within the FCDO-funded Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC). The GEC is a 12-year, £855m programme comprised of 41 projects across 17 countries in Africa and Asia, all aiming to improve the educational opportunities of the world’s most marginalized girls. Poverty, rurality and ethnic exclusion often form the basis for these girls’ marginalization, but pernicious gender norms magnify their constraints and disadvantage them in ways that are not experienced by boys of a similar background. A majority of GEC projects included interventions aiming to shift these gender norms, and this paper will provide a cross-portfolio analysis of: 1) the different types/degrees of intersecting gender norms that affected girls and their education; 2) the different types of interventions that were implemented to address these norms; 3) the characteristics of interventions that demonstrated traction in shifting norms (and the differing degrees of traction that occurred); and 4) characteristics of interventions and approaches that didn’t show meaningful change and why.

The analyses are based on external impact evaluations conducted for each project, and findings will be located within broader theorizations and research surrounding social and gender norms change. Findings will also problematize many assumptions that underpin interventions aimed at changing gender norms, such as the implicit theory of change that raising knowledge and awareness about norms and their effects is enough, that focusing on girls and their embodiment of norms is sufficient, and that sustaining attitude or behavior shifts within broader societal norms is easy for parents or teachers to do.

In sum, this paper will contribute to the knowledge and understanding of how to meaningfully shift the unequal gender norms that affect the behavior and outcomes of teachers, parents, education system actors, community members and most importantly, marginalized girls. This pragmatic synthesis of intervention design and implementation will highlight what needs to be done first to ensure that education actors stop reproducing gender inequality, so that gender transformative education can truly become a reality.

Author

• Sharon Tao, Girls' Education Challenge