A. Taylor, C. Darius Gordon, A.A. Pereira (2023). This article examines the relationship between ... more A. Taylor, C. Darius Gordon, A.A. Pereira (2023). This article examines the relationship between Black social movements in Brazil and the United States through over a century of formations of struggle. Drawing from a review of Black periodicals in three time periods ranging from twentieth-century print press to contemporary digital social media, this article affirms the significance of the transnational Black struggle; demonstrates the ways in which knowledge and language about Black struggle has been circulated, exchanged, and produced within a dynamic and shifting relationship; and analyzes ways that US and Brazilian Black movements have served as educators for one another and their own societies. We argue that understanding the contemporary moment of antiracist struggles requires examining the longer and nuanced relationship between US and Brazilian Black activism. This deepening, critical relationship fortified the Black movement as educator of society and reframes how we understand the global Movement for Black Lives as a historical and transnational phenomenon.
Youth movements rose in Brazil in the past decade, fighting for equitable access to education alo... more Youth movements rose in Brazil in the past decade, fighting for equitable access to education alongside plural – anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and feminist – struggles. This article examines interactions by which Brazilian youth activists organise, politicise, and define who constitutes a movement. It focuses on a 2019 public hearing to defend race- and class-based affirmative action. Taking a discursive analytic approach situated within a broader ethnographic study, the findings highlight the collective nature of youth practices and identity. Youth activists shape a sense of belonging by emphasising ‘we’ and ‘us’ pronouns in a speech; develop audience co-authorship as they listen and chant together; and co-construct chants before initiating them in the crowd. The analysis contributes to understanding hybrid (on- and offline), multimodal educational practices and interactions in movements as youth articulate race, generation/age, class, and place. In doing so, youth construct collective identity and generate movement power.
Received May 21, 2018; Accepted December 11, 2018
Alice Y. Taylor, M.A., Erin Murphy-Graham, Ed.... more Received May 21, 2018; Accepted December 11, 2018
Alice Y. Taylor, M.A., Erin Murphy-Graham, Ed.D., M.Sc. Julia Van Horn, Bapu Vaitla, Ph.D., M.S., Ángel Del Valle, M.A., and Beniamino Cislaghi, Ph.D.
Purpose: Child marriages and unions can infringe upon adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH). Interventions increasingly promote strategies to transform social norms or foster the agency of adolescent girls. Recent empirical studies call for further understanding of how social norms and agency interact in ways that influence these practices, especially in contexts where girls' agency is central. Methods: A secondary cross-case analysis of three qualitative studies (in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras) was conducted to inform the investigation of how norms and agency may relate in sustaining or mitigating child marriage. Results: Social norms dictating how girls/young women and how men should act indirectly led to child marriages and unions. The data showed that (1) social norms regulated girls' acceptable actions and contributed to their exercise of "oppositional" agency; (2) social norms promoted girls' "accommodating" agency; and (3) girls exercised "transformative" agency to resist harmful social norms. Conclusions: Research should advance frameworks to conceptualize how social norms interact with agency in nuanced and context-specific ways. Practitioners should encourage equitable decision-making; offer confidential, adolescent-friendly AYSRH services; and address the social norms of parents, men and boys, and community members.
Considerable evidence shows that adolescent intimate relationships influence the course of adult ... more Considerable evidence shows that adolescent intimate relationships influence the course of adult relationships, that is, whether relationship experiences are characterized by abuse or violence, or healthy, equitable dynamics. Controlling behaviors (CBs)—a phenomenon related to intimate partner violence (IPV)—are pervasive in adolescent intimate relationships, yet there is a lack of consensus on how to conceptualize them and subsequently, limited research which explores the role of CBs, including their role as warning signs for other forms of harm and abuse. As such, there are gaps in integrating CBs in policy and program interventions that could prevent IPV from the earliest stages. This article presents findings from in-depth qualitative research on adolescent relationship violence conducted in under studied settings of Brazil and Honduras. Adolescents described using or experiencing CBs in at least one form in 147 interviews with girls/young women and boys/young men aged 14–24 in rural and urban sites. Drawing from these empirical findings and conceptual and theoretical aspects from the literature, this article analyzes CBs in adolescent relationships and how they relate to IPV. By doing so, it seeks to offer a conceptual framework on CBs that could better inform policies and programs by being reflective of adolescent experiences, and ultimately more nuanced in promoting healthy adolescent relationships.
Vaitla, B., Taylor, A., Van Horn, J., and Cislaghi, B. (2017). Social Norms and Girls’ Well-Being... more Vaitla, B., Taylor, A., Van Horn, J., and Cislaghi, B. (2017). Social Norms and Girls’ Well-Being: Linking Theory and Practice. Washington, D.C.: Data2X
The state of social norms theory and practice is strong. There is an emerging consensus on how to describe the phenomena central to social norms: group identity, expectations about typical and appropriate behavior, economic constraints, and personal capacities. Governments and civil society practitioners across the globe strive to implement policies and projects to change norms and catalyze improvements in girls’ lives. The linkage of theory and practice is, however, still in its nascent stages. Exploring these connections is the primary objective of this report. We first review the landscape of theory around social norms (“Theory”). We then investigate in detail two projects that have facilitated change around norms and practices of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage: Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in West Africa and Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”; AO) project in Latin America (“Practice”). We conclude by discussing the implications of both theory and practice for the future of social norms change (“The Way Forward”).
Book chapter in Portuguese: Ser Menina no Brasil Contemporâneo: Marcações de Gênero em Contexto d... more Book chapter in Portuguese: Ser Menina no Brasil Contemporâneo: Marcações de Gênero em Contexto de Desigualdades.
A sexualidade das meninas durante a infância e a pré-adolescência permanece um tema tabu, embora a sua construção e vivência tenham implicações fortes para sua saúde, educação e bem-estar. Entre os anos de 2013 e 2015, o Promundo coordenou duas pesquisas, em colaboração com a Plan Internacional Brasil e outros parceiros, sobre casamento na infância e adolescência e violência em relacionamentos de namoro entre adolescentes no Brasil. Com base nessas pesquisas, este capítulo visa apresentar uma discussão sobre as vivências e percepções sobre a sexualidade por parte de meninas entre 6 e 14 anos, a mesma faixa etária da pesquisa “Por ser Menina”, estudo coordenado por Plan Brasil. Assim, a partir desse recorte etário,pretende-secontribuir com a pesquisa “Por Ser Menina”, ampliando nosso entendimento das vidas das meninas no Brasil. Tais pesquisas oferecem referências sobre como uma menina éensinada a “ser menina”, incluindo a regularização e controle de sua sexualidade por parte de pais e familiares, atores da rede de proteção, parceiros e maridos. Discute-se quatro temas a partir dos resultados: as normas sociais e a construção de sexualidade das meninas, incluindo como a sexualidade das meninas é influenciada pela sexualidade dos meninos; a virgindade e a iniciação sexual com parceiros; e as implicações da regulação da sexualidade, no contexto de casamentos na infância e a adolescência. Propomos abrir debates sobre a sexualidade das meninas, com vistas a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de programas de intervenção que não apenas reduzam violências e desigualdades de gênero, mas promovam seus direitos sexuais de forma mais ampla e positiva.
Book available in Spanish & English - This chapter presents preliminary findings from research th... more Book available in Spanish & English - This chapter presents preliminary findings from research that examines gender and masculinities as critical dimensions for analyzing urban violence. Part of an adaptation of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) to low-income settings of urban violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the complementing qualitative portion of this study featured 45 in-depth life history interviews. The research focuses on factors that support men (e.g., members of drug gangs, police) – surrounded by inequalities, high exposure to violence, and incentives to use violence—in avoiding, abandoning or lessening use of violence in complex urban settings. Central to the analysis are transfers between ‘public’ forms of violence and violence experienced by women and family members in the lives of men. Understanding these gendered forms of urban violence and non-violent trajectories hold multiple implications for inclusive policies and programming aimed at reducing urban violence in Brazil and other Latin American cities.
The report “This isn’t the life for you”: Masculinities and Nonviolence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil... more The report “This isn’t the life for you”: Masculinities and Nonviolence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil presents the results of an adaptation of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) in Rio de Janeiro. The study focuses on gender, masculinities, and nonviolent trajectories in the context of urban violence, discussing the interactions between (non)-violence in public and private spheres.
Brazil – like the rest of Latin America – has been absent from many global discussions and action... more Brazil – like the rest of Latin America – has been absent from many global discussions and actions around child and adolescent marriage, which largely focus on hotspot areas such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The available evidence within the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, however, shows prevalence levels of child marriage are highest in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Brazil and that absolute numbers are highest in Brazil.
This study, the first identified on this subject in Brazil, explores attitudes and practices around child and adolescent marriage in Pará and Maranhão, two Brazilian states with highest prevalence of the practice. The results confirm the mostly informal and consensual nature of unions involving girls under the age of 18 in the settings studied.
The research also contributed to a) further understandings of the complexity of agency and social norms within in child marriage decisions/pathways and experiences - and how that agency interacts with human rights and development frameworks; and b) expanded notions of the settings and conditions in which child marriage take place and how girls, partners, and other actors navigate it amidst constraints. It has contributed to advocacy and policymaking efforts; further studies (by graduate students, organizations, etc.) on child marriage; publications; and news coverage in 200+ media outlets nationally and to some extent globally.
Com base na literatura sobre o tema e em uma pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto Promundo3 em dois ... more Com base na literatura sobre o tema e em uma pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto Promundo3 em dois estados brasileiros, este artigo busca discutir a relação entre a vivência da sexualidade das meninas e o casamento na infância e adolescência. A pesquisa mostrou que o controle da sexualidade das meninas é influenciado por vários fatores: desde a sociedade (por exemplo: percepções de moradores das mesmas comunidades dos casais entrevistados, e relatos sobre a influência da mídia e a religião), pares, parentes e maridos. O casamento surgiu no discurso dos entrevistados como “solução” para evitar o que esses atores consideram “riscos” nas vidas das meninas, associados à uma vida sexual mais livre. A decisão pelo casamento, assim, está muitas vezes associada com o controle da sexualidade das meninas. Tem implicações diretas nos direitos sexuais e reprodutivos das meninas, e promovem as relações desiguais de gênero. // Based on the literature and a study conducted by Promundo Institute in two Brazilian states, this article discusses the relationship between experiences of sexuality and marriage involving girls during childhood and adolescence. The research shows that control of girls’ sexuality is influenced by multiple actors: from society (i.e., perceptions of community members, and based on reports about the influence of media and religion), to peers, family members and husbands. Research participants described marriage as a “solution” to avoid what they consider “risks” in girls’ lives in terms of sexual behaviors. These findings suggest decisions to marry are closely linked to societal desires to control girls’ sexuality. Such decisions also shape girls’ sexual and reproductive rights and they promote unequal gender relations.
This briefing prepared in collaboration with MenEngage, Promundo, Rutgers WPF and MenCare+, explo... more This briefing prepared in collaboration with MenEngage, Promundo, Rutgers WPF and MenCare+, explores how programs for men who have used IPV can be part of comprehensive approaches to ending IPV but that they must be implemented with considerable caution. It reviews the literature on approaches and common program components; summarizes the emerging evidence, including evaluation trends; and discusses the challenges with implementing such programs as well as alternative models for holding men accountable for violence. A section dedicated to implications for Global South settings follows, and the final section presents considerations for the field.
Promundo - A Toolkit based on 10 years of evidence and experience of Program H|M around the world... more Promundo - A Toolkit based on 10 years of evidence and experience of Program H|M around the world for engaging youth in gender equity, including promoting respect for sexual diversity and achieving gender and social justice
Chapter on Brazil; co-authors of the report: Aguayo, F., Sadler, M., Das, A., Singh, S., Figuer... more Chapter on Brazil; co-authors of the report: Aguayo, F., Sadler, M., Das, A., Singh, S., Figueroa, J. G., Franzoni, J., Flores, N., Jewkes, R., Morrell, R. “Men Who Care” is a five-country (Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa) qualitative study that sought to explore roles and experiences of men who are involved in non-traditional forms of care work in the domestic and professional realms. The study sought to understand how men came to participate to a greater extent in care work than their male peers and how men describe and navigate their care work.
Urban men and women experience violence differently. They also experience and perceive protection... more Urban men and women experience violence differently. They also experience and perceive protection and safety differently. By analysing these differences, we can begin to address women’s safety in urban areas. In most countries, men are more likely than women to be killed by urban violence, especially by people unknown to them. Women are more likely to suffer violence at the hands of people they know, but also experience violence committed by strangers. Women report being more afraid than men, and are socialised from an early age not to go out alone into public spaces (Women and Habitat Network of Latin America, in Rivas, 2010). Women’s fear of violence restricts their movement, limiting their use of public spaces and movement from their homes to public or other private spaces. The ActionAid research offers a look into the lives of groups of women whose knowledge and views of their urban realities have previously not been drawn upon to create safer cities. These include women garment workers from urban factory areas in Cambodia, women attending universities in Liberia, and women informal vendors in Ethiopia, to name a few. This report presents findings about women’s safety and mobility in five countries:
• Brazil – women living in poor neighbourhoods in three cities of the state of Pernambuco: Recife, Cabo de Santo Agostinho, and Mirandiba
• Cambodia – women garment factory workers in the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh
• Ethiopia – women engaged in informal vending in Addis Ababa
• Liberia – women university students from three campuses in Monrovia and Gbarnga
• Nepal – women using public transport in Kathmandu Valley.
In each of the five countries, ActionAid country teams and local partners identified a target group of women and/or focus area. The teams were provided with a Toolkit from which they selected approaches and tools to capture women’s safety experiences. Country teams were encouraged to adapt tools so as to capture the information they sought in ways that were culturally and contextually appropriate.
In Colombia, a remarkable number of leaders have emerged among internally displaced persons (IDPs... more In Colombia, a remarkable number of leaders have emerged among internally displaced persons (IDPs), despite experiences of violence, uprooting, and on-going risks. The risks associated with socio-political activism in Colombia are well known, including that of IDP leaders. Less, however, is understood about the specific ways in which these risks transform the kinds of activism and leadership practiced. Drawing on fieldwork in Colombia, this article discusses in particular the phenomenon of IDP women’s leadership and the implications of this leadership for policy and protecting the rights of women leaders as well as other IDPs.
A. Taylor, C. Darius Gordon, A.A. Pereira (2023). This article examines the relationship between ... more A. Taylor, C. Darius Gordon, A.A. Pereira (2023). This article examines the relationship between Black social movements in Brazil and the United States through over a century of formations of struggle. Drawing from a review of Black periodicals in three time periods ranging from twentieth-century print press to contemporary digital social media, this article affirms the significance of the transnational Black struggle; demonstrates the ways in which knowledge and language about Black struggle has been circulated, exchanged, and produced within a dynamic and shifting relationship; and analyzes ways that US and Brazilian Black movements have served as educators for one another and their own societies. We argue that understanding the contemporary moment of antiracist struggles requires examining the longer and nuanced relationship between US and Brazilian Black activism. This deepening, critical relationship fortified the Black movement as educator of society and reframes how we understand the global Movement for Black Lives as a historical and transnational phenomenon.
Youth movements rose in Brazil in the past decade, fighting for equitable access to education alo... more Youth movements rose in Brazil in the past decade, fighting for equitable access to education alongside plural – anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and feminist – struggles. This article examines interactions by which Brazilian youth activists organise, politicise, and define who constitutes a movement. It focuses on a 2019 public hearing to defend race- and class-based affirmative action. Taking a discursive analytic approach situated within a broader ethnographic study, the findings highlight the collective nature of youth practices and identity. Youth activists shape a sense of belonging by emphasising ‘we’ and ‘us’ pronouns in a speech; develop audience co-authorship as they listen and chant together; and co-construct chants before initiating them in the crowd. The analysis contributes to understanding hybrid (on- and offline), multimodal educational practices and interactions in movements as youth articulate race, generation/age, class, and place. In doing so, youth construct collective identity and generate movement power.
Received May 21, 2018; Accepted December 11, 2018
Alice Y. Taylor, M.A., Erin Murphy-Graham, Ed.... more Received May 21, 2018; Accepted December 11, 2018
Alice Y. Taylor, M.A., Erin Murphy-Graham, Ed.D., M.Sc. Julia Van Horn, Bapu Vaitla, Ph.D., M.S., Ángel Del Valle, M.A., and Beniamino Cislaghi, Ph.D.
Purpose: Child marriages and unions can infringe upon adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH). Interventions increasingly promote strategies to transform social norms or foster the agency of adolescent girls. Recent empirical studies call for further understanding of how social norms and agency interact in ways that influence these practices, especially in contexts where girls' agency is central. Methods: A secondary cross-case analysis of three qualitative studies (in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras) was conducted to inform the investigation of how norms and agency may relate in sustaining or mitigating child marriage. Results: Social norms dictating how girls/young women and how men should act indirectly led to child marriages and unions. The data showed that (1) social norms regulated girls' acceptable actions and contributed to their exercise of "oppositional" agency; (2) social norms promoted girls' "accommodating" agency; and (3) girls exercised "transformative" agency to resist harmful social norms. Conclusions: Research should advance frameworks to conceptualize how social norms interact with agency in nuanced and context-specific ways. Practitioners should encourage equitable decision-making; offer confidential, adolescent-friendly AYSRH services; and address the social norms of parents, men and boys, and community members.
Considerable evidence shows that adolescent intimate relationships influence the course of adult ... more Considerable evidence shows that adolescent intimate relationships influence the course of adult relationships, that is, whether relationship experiences are characterized by abuse or violence, or healthy, equitable dynamics. Controlling behaviors (CBs)—a phenomenon related to intimate partner violence (IPV)—are pervasive in adolescent intimate relationships, yet there is a lack of consensus on how to conceptualize them and subsequently, limited research which explores the role of CBs, including their role as warning signs for other forms of harm and abuse. As such, there are gaps in integrating CBs in policy and program interventions that could prevent IPV from the earliest stages. This article presents findings from in-depth qualitative research on adolescent relationship violence conducted in under studied settings of Brazil and Honduras. Adolescents described using or experiencing CBs in at least one form in 147 interviews with girls/young women and boys/young men aged 14–24 in rural and urban sites. Drawing from these empirical findings and conceptual and theoretical aspects from the literature, this article analyzes CBs in adolescent relationships and how they relate to IPV. By doing so, it seeks to offer a conceptual framework on CBs that could better inform policies and programs by being reflective of adolescent experiences, and ultimately more nuanced in promoting healthy adolescent relationships.
Vaitla, B., Taylor, A., Van Horn, J., and Cislaghi, B. (2017). Social Norms and Girls’ Well-Being... more Vaitla, B., Taylor, A., Van Horn, J., and Cislaghi, B. (2017). Social Norms and Girls’ Well-Being: Linking Theory and Practice. Washington, D.C.: Data2X
The state of social norms theory and practice is strong. There is an emerging consensus on how to describe the phenomena central to social norms: group identity, expectations about typical and appropriate behavior, economic constraints, and personal capacities. Governments and civil society practitioners across the globe strive to implement policies and projects to change norms and catalyze improvements in girls’ lives. The linkage of theory and practice is, however, still in its nascent stages. Exploring these connections is the primary objective of this report. We first review the landscape of theory around social norms (“Theory”). We then investigate in detail two projects that have facilitated change around norms and practices of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage: Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in West Africa and Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”; AO) project in Latin America (“Practice”). We conclude by discussing the implications of both theory and practice for the future of social norms change (“The Way Forward”).
Book chapter in Portuguese: Ser Menina no Brasil Contemporâneo: Marcações de Gênero em Contexto d... more Book chapter in Portuguese: Ser Menina no Brasil Contemporâneo: Marcações de Gênero em Contexto de Desigualdades.
A sexualidade das meninas durante a infância e a pré-adolescência permanece um tema tabu, embora a sua construção e vivência tenham implicações fortes para sua saúde, educação e bem-estar. Entre os anos de 2013 e 2015, o Promundo coordenou duas pesquisas, em colaboração com a Plan Internacional Brasil e outros parceiros, sobre casamento na infância e adolescência e violência em relacionamentos de namoro entre adolescentes no Brasil. Com base nessas pesquisas, este capítulo visa apresentar uma discussão sobre as vivências e percepções sobre a sexualidade por parte de meninas entre 6 e 14 anos, a mesma faixa etária da pesquisa “Por ser Menina”, estudo coordenado por Plan Brasil. Assim, a partir desse recorte etário,pretende-secontribuir com a pesquisa “Por Ser Menina”, ampliando nosso entendimento das vidas das meninas no Brasil. Tais pesquisas oferecem referências sobre como uma menina éensinada a “ser menina”, incluindo a regularização e controle de sua sexualidade por parte de pais e familiares, atores da rede de proteção, parceiros e maridos. Discute-se quatro temas a partir dos resultados: as normas sociais e a construção de sexualidade das meninas, incluindo como a sexualidade das meninas é influenciada pela sexualidade dos meninos; a virgindade e a iniciação sexual com parceiros; e as implicações da regulação da sexualidade, no contexto de casamentos na infância e a adolescência. Propomos abrir debates sobre a sexualidade das meninas, com vistas a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de programas de intervenção que não apenas reduzam violências e desigualdades de gênero, mas promovam seus direitos sexuais de forma mais ampla e positiva.
Book available in Spanish & English - This chapter presents preliminary findings from research th... more Book available in Spanish & English - This chapter presents preliminary findings from research that examines gender and masculinities as critical dimensions for analyzing urban violence. Part of an adaptation of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) to low-income settings of urban violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the complementing qualitative portion of this study featured 45 in-depth life history interviews. The research focuses on factors that support men (e.g., members of drug gangs, police) – surrounded by inequalities, high exposure to violence, and incentives to use violence—in avoiding, abandoning or lessening use of violence in complex urban settings. Central to the analysis are transfers between ‘public’ forms of violence and violence experienced by women and family members in the lives of men. Understanding these gendered forms of urban violence and non-violent trajectories hold multiple implications for inclusive policies and programming aimed at reducing urban violence in Brazil and other Latin American cities.
The report “This isn’t the life for you”: Masculinities and Nonviolence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil... more The report “This isn’t the life for you”: Masculinities and Nonviolence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil presents the results of an adaptation of the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) in Rio de Janeiro. The study focuses on gender, masculinities, and nonviolent trajectories in the context of urban violence, discussing the interactions between (non)-violence in public and private spheres.
Brazil – like the rest of Latin America – has been absent from many global discussions and action... more Brazil – like the rest of Latin America – has been absent from many global discussions and actions around child and adolescent marriage, which largely focus on hotspot areas such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The available evidence within the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, however, shows prevalence levels of child marriage are highest in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Brazil and that absolute numbers are highest in Brazil.
This study, the first identified on this subject in Brazil, explores attitudes and practices around child and adolescent marriage in Pará and Maranhão, two Brazilian states with highest prevalence of the practice. The results confirm the mostly informal and consensual nature of unions involving girls under the age of 18 in the settings studied.
The research also contributed to a) further understandings of the complexity of agency and social norms within in child marriage decisions/pathways and experiences - and how that agency interacts with human rights and development frameworks; and b) expanded notions of the settings and conditions in which child marriage take place and how girls, partners, and other actors navigate it amidst constraints. It has contributed to advocacy and policymaking efforts; further studies (by graduate students, organizations, etc.) on child marriage; publications; and news coverage in 200+ media outlets nationally and to some extent globally.
Com base na literatura sobre o tema e em uma pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto Promundo3 em dois ... more Com base na literatura sobre o tema e em uma pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto Promundo3 em dois estados brasileiros, este artigo busca discutir a relação entre a vivência da sexualidade das meninas e o casamento na infância e adolescência. A pesquisa mostrou que o controle da sexualidade das meninas é influenciado por vários fatores: desde a sociedade (por exemplo: percepções de moradores das mesmas comunidades dos casais entrevistados, e relatos sobre a influência da mídia e a religião), pares, parentes e maridos. O casamento surgiu no discurso dos entrevistados como “solução” para evitar o que esses atores consideram “riscos” nas vidas das meninas, associados à uma vida sexual mais livre. A decisão pelo casamento, assim, está muitas vezes associada com o controle da sexualidade das meninas. Tem implicações diretas nos direitos sexuais e reprodutivos das meninas, e promovem as relações desiguais de gênero. // Based on the literature and a study conducted by Promundo Institute in two Brazilian states, this article discusses the relationship between experiences of sexuality and marriage involving girls during childhood and adolescence. The research shows that control of girls’ sexuality is influenced by multiple actors: from society (i.e., perceptions of community members, and based on reports about the influence of media and religion), to peers, family members and husbands. Research participants described marriage as a “solution” to avoid what they consider “risks” in girls’ lives in terms of sexual behaviors. These findings suggest decisions to marry are closely linked to societal desires to control girls’ sexuality. Such decisions also shape girls’ sexual and reproductive rights and they promote unequal gender relations.
This briefing prepared in collaboration with MenEngage, Promundo, Rutgers WPF and MenCare+, explo... more This briefing prepared in collaboration with MenEngage, Promundo, Rutgers WPF and MenCare+, explores how programs for men who have used IPV can be part of comprehensive approaches to ending IPV but that they must be implemented with considerable caution. It reviews the literature on approaches and common program components; summarizes the emerging evidence, including evaluation trends; and discusses the challenges with implementing such programs as well as alternative models for holding men accountable for violence. A section dedicated to implications for Global South settings follows, and the final section presents considerations for the field.
Promundo - A Toolkit based on 10 years of evidence and experience of Program H|M around the world... more Promundo - A Toolkit based on 10 years of evidence and experience of Program H|M around the world for engaging youth in gender equity, including promoting respect for sexual diversity and achieving gender and social justice
Chapter on Brazil; co-authors of the report: Aguayo, F., Sadler, M., Das, A., Singh, S., Figuer... more Chapter on Brazil; co-authors of the report: Aguayo, F., Sadler, M., Das, A., Singh, S., Figueroa, J. G., Franzoni, J., Flores, N., Jewkes, R., Morrell, R. “Men Who Care” is a five-country (Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa) qualitative study that sought to explore roles and experiences of men who are involved in non-traditional forms of care work in the domestic and professional realms. The study sought to understand how men came to participate to a greater extent in care work than their male peers and how men describe and navigate their care work.
Urban men and women experience violence differently. They also experience and perceive protection... more Urban men and women experience violence differently. They also experience and perceive protection and safety differently. By analysing these differences, we can begin to address women’s safety in urban areas. In most countries, men are more likely than women to be killed by urban violence, especially by people unknown to them. Women are more likely to suffer violence at the hands of people they know, but also experience violence committed by strangers. Women report being more afraid than men, and are socialised from an early age not to go out alone into public spaces (Women and Habitat Network of Latin America, in Rivas, 2010). Women’s fear of violence restricts their movement, limiting their use of public spaces and movement from their homes to public or other private spaces. The ActionAid research offers a look into the lives of groups of women whose knowledge and views of their urban realities have previously not been drawn upon to create safer cities. These include women garment workers from urban factory areas in Cambodia, women attending universities in Liberia, and women informal vendors in Ethiopia, to name a few. This report presents findings about women’s safety and mobility in five countries:
• Brazil – women living in poor neighbourhoods in three cities of the state of Pernambuco: Recife, Cabo de Santo Agostinho, and Mirandiba
• Cambodia – women garment factory workers in the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh
• Ethiopia – women engaged in informal vending in Addis Ababa
• Liberia – women university students from three campuses in Monrovia and Gbarnga
• Nepal – women using public transport in Kathmandu Valley.
In each of the five countries, ActionAid country teams and local partners identified a target group of women and/or focus area. The teams were provided with a Toolkit from which they selected approaches and tools to capture women’s safety experiences. Country teams were encouraged to adapt tools so as to capture the information they sought in ways that were culturally and contextually appropriate.
In Colombia, a remarkable number of leaders have emerged among internally displaced persons (IDPs... more In Colombia, a remarkable number of leaders have emerged among internally displaced persons (IDPs), despite experiences of violence, uprooting, and on-going risks. The risks associated with socio-political activism in Colombia are well known, including that of IDP leaders. Less, however, is understood about the specific ways in which these risks transform the kinds of activism and leadership practiced. Drawing on fieldwork in Colombia, this article discusses in particular the phenomenon of IDP women’s leadership and the implications of this leadership for policy and protecting the rights of women leaders as well as other IDPs.
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Papers
Alice Y. Taylor, M.A., Erin Murphy-Graham, Ed.D., M.Sc. Julia Van Horn, Bapu Vaitla, Ph.D., M.S., Ángel Del Valle, M.A., and Beniamino Cislaghi, Ph.D.
Purpose: Child marriages and unions can infringe upon adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH). Interventions increasingly promote strategies to transform social norms or foster the agency of adolescent girls. Recent empirical studies call for further understanding of how social norms and agency interact in ways that influence these practices, especially in contexts where girls' agency is central. Methods: A secondary cross-case analysis of three qualitative studies (in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras) was conducted to inform the investigation of how norms and agency may relate in sustaining or mitigating child marriage. Results: Social norms dictating how girls/young women and how men should act indirectly led to child marriages and unions. The data showed that (1) social norms regulated girls' acceptable actions and contributed to their exercise of "oppositional" agency; (2) social norms promoted girls' "accommodating" agency; and (3) girls exercised "transformative" agency to resist harmful social norms. Conclusions: Research should advance frameworks to conceptualize how social norms interact with agency in nuanced and context-specific ways. Practitioners should encourage equitable decision-making; offer confidential, adolescent-friendly AYSRH services; and address the social norms of parents, men and boys, and community members.
The state of social norms theory and practice is strong. There is an emerging consensus on how to describe the phenomena central to social norms: group identity, expectations about typical and appropriate behavior, economic constraints, and personal capacities. Governments and civil society practitioners across the globe strive to implement policies and projects to change norms and catalyze improvements in girls’ lives. The linkage of theory and practice is, however, still in its nascent stages. Exploring these connections is the primary objective of this report. We first review the landscape of theory around social norms (“Theory”). We then investigate in detail two projects that have facilitated change around norms and practices of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage: Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in West Africa and Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”; AO) project in Latin America (“Practice”). We conclude by discussing the implications of both theory and practice for the future of social norms change (“The Way Forward”).
A sexualidade das meninas durante a infância e a pré-adolescência permanece um tema tabu, embora a sua construção e vivência tenham implicações fortes para sua saúde, educação e bem-estar. Entre os anos de 2013 e 2015, o Promundo coordenou duas pesquisas, em colaboração com a Plan Internacional Brasil e outros parceiros, sobre casamento na infância e adolescência e violência em relacionamentos de namoro entre adolescentes no Brasil. Com base nessas pesquisas, este capítulo visa apresentar uma discussão sobre as vivências e percepções sobre a sexualidade por parte de meninas entre 6 e 14 anos, a mesma faixa etária da pesquisa “Por ser Menina”, estudo coordenado por Plan Brasil. Assim, a partir desse recorte etário,pretende-secontribuir com a pesquisa “Por Ser Menina”, ampliando nosso entendimento das vidas das meninas no Brasil.
Tais pesquisas oferecem referências sobre como uma menina éensinada a “ser menina”, incluindo a regularização e controle de sua sexualidade por parte de pais e familiares, atores da rede de proteção, parceiros e maridos.
Discute-se quatro temas a partir dos resultados: as normas sociais e a construção de sexualidade das meninas, incluindo como a sexualidade das meninas é influenciada pela sexualidade dos meninos; a virgindade e a iniciação sexual com parceiros; e as implicações da regulação da sexualidade, no contexto de casamentos na infância e a adolescência. Propomos abrir debates sobre a sexualidade das meninas, com vistas a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de programas de intervenção que não apenas reduzam violências e desigualdades de gênero, mas promovam seus direitos sexuais de forma mais ampla e positiva.
This study, the first identified on this subject in Brazil, explores attitudes and practices around child and adolescent marriage in Pará and Maranhão, two Brazilian states with highest prevalence of the practice. The results confirm the mostly informal and consensual nature of unions involving girls under the age of 18 in the settings studied.
The research also contributed to a) further understandings of the complexity of agency and social norms within in child marriage decisions/pathways and experiences - and how that agency interacts with human rights and development frameworks; and b) expanded notions of the settings and conditions in which child marriage take place and how girls, partners, and other actors navigate it amidst constraints. It has contributed to advocacy and policymaking efforts; further studies (by graduate students, organizations, etc.) on child marriage; publications; and news coverage in 200+ media outlets nationally and to some extent globally.
“Men Who Care” is a five-country (Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa) qualitative study that sought to explore roles and experiences of men who are involved in non-traditional forms of care work in the domestic and professional realms. The study sought to understand how men came to participate to a greater extent in care work than their male peers and how men describe and navigate their care work.
• Brazil – women living in poor neighbourhoods in three cities of the state of Pernambuco: Recife, Cabo de Santo Agostinho, and Mirandiba
• Cambodia – women garment factory workers in the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh
• Ethiopia – women engaged in informal vending in Addis Ababa
• Liberia – women university students from three campuses in Monrovia and Gbarnga
• Nepal – women using public transport in Kathmandu Valley.
In each of the five countries, ActionAid country teams and local partners identified a target group of women and/or focus area. The teams were provided with a Toolkit from which they selected approaches and tools to capture women’s safety experiences. Country teams were encouraged to adapt tools so as to capture the information they sought in ways that were culturally and contextually appropriate.
Alice Y. Taylor, M.A., Erin Murphy-Graham, Ed.D., M.Sc. Julia Van Horn, Bapu Vaitla, Ph.D., M.S., Ángel Del Valle, M.A., and Beniamino Cislaghi, Ph.D.
Purpose: Child marriages and unions can infringe upon adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH). Interventions increasingly promote strategies to transform social norms or foster the agency of adolescent girls. Recent empirical studies call for further understanding of how social norms and agency interact in ways that influence these practices, especially in contexts where girls' agency is central. Methods: A secondary cross-case analysis of three qualitative studies (in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras) was conducted to inform the investigation of how norms and agency may relate in sustaining or mitigating child marriage. Results: Social norms dictating how girls/young women and how men should act indirectly led to child marriages and unions. The data showed that (1) social norms regulated girls' acceptable actions and contributed to their exercise of "oppositional" agency; (2) social norms promoted girls' "accommodating" agency; and (3) girls exercised "transformative" agency to resist harmful social norms. Conclusions: Research should advance frameworks to conceptualize how social norms interact with agency in nuanced and context-specific ways. Practitioners should encourage equitable decision-making; offer confidential, adolescent-friendly AYSRH services; and address the social norms of parents, men and boys, and community members.
The state of social norms theory and practice is strong. There is an emerging consensus on how to describe the phenomena central to social norms: group identity, expectations about typical and appropriate behavior, economic constraints, and personal capacities. Governments and civil society practitioners across the globe strive to implement policies and projects to change norms and catalyze improvements in girls’ lives. The linkage of theory and practice is, however, still in its nascent stages. Exploring these connections is the primary objective of this report. We first review the landscape of theory around social norms (“Theory”). We then investigate in detail two projects that have facilitated change around norms and practices of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage: Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in West Africa and Population Council’s Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”; AO) project in Latin America (“Practice”). We conclude by discussing the implications of both theory and practice for the future of social norms change (“The Way Forward”).
A sexualidade das meninas durante a infância e a pré-adolescência permanece um tema tabu, embora a sua construção e vivência tenham implicações fortes para sua saúde, educação e bem-estar. Entre os anos de 2013 e 2015, o Promundo coordenou duas pesquisas, em colaboração com a Plan Internacional Brasil e outros parceiros, sobre casamento na infância e adolescência e violência em relacionamentos de namoro entre adolescentes no Brasil. Com base nessas pesquisas, este capítulo visa apresentar uma discussão sobre as vivências e percepções sobre a sexualidade por parte de meninas entre 6 e 14 anos, a mesma faixa etária da pesquisa “Por ser Menina”, estudo coordenado por Plan Brasil. Assim, a partir desse recorte etário,pretende-secontribuir com a pesquisa “Por Ser Menina”, ampliando nosso entendimento das vidas das meninas no Brasil.
Tais pesquisas oferecem referências sobre como uma menina éensinada a “ser menina”, incluindo a regularização e controle de sua sexualidade por parte de pais e familiares, atores da rede de proteção, parceiros e maridos.
Discute-se quatro temas a partir dos resultados: as normas sociais e a construção de sexualidade das meninas, incluindo como a sexualidade das meninas é influenciada pela sexualidade dos meninos; a virgindade e a iniciação sexual com parceiros; e as implicações da regulação da sexualidade, no contexto de casamentos na infância e a adolescência. Propomos abrir debates sobre a sexualidade das meninas, com vistas a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de programas de intervenção que não apenas reduzam violências e desigualdades de gênero, mas promovam seus direitos sexuais de forma mais ampla e positiva.
This study, the first identified on this subject in Brazil, explores attitudes and practices around child and adolescent marriage in Pará and Maranhão, two Brazilian states with highest prevalence of the practice. The results confirm the mostly informal and consensual nature of unions involving girls under the age of 18 in the settings studied.
The research also contributed to a) further understandings of the complexity of agency and social norms within in child marriage decisions/pathways and experiences - and how that agency interacts with human rights and development frameworks; and b) expanded notions of the settings and conditions in which child marriage take place and how girls, partners, and other actors navigate it amidst constraints. It has contributed to advocacy and policymaking efforts; further studies (by graduate students, organizations, etc.) on child marriage; publications; and news coverage in 200+ media outlets nationally and to some extent globally.
“Men Who Care” is a five-country (Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa) qualitative study that sought to explore roles and experiences of men who are involved in non-traditional forms of care work in the domestic and professional realms. The study sought to understand how men came to participate to a greater extent in care work than their male peers and how men describe and navigate their care work.
• Brazil – women living in poor neighbourhoods in three cities of the state of Pernambuco: Recife, Cabo de Santo Agostinho, and Mirandiba
• Cambodia – women garment factory workers in the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh
• Ethiopia – women engaged in informal vending in Addis Ababa
• Liberia – women university students from three campuses in Monrovia and Gbarnga
• Nepal – women using public transport in Kathmandu Valley.
In each of the five countries, ActionAid country teams and local partners identified a target group of women and/or focus area. The teams were provided with a Toolkit from which they selected approaches and tools to capture women’s safety experiences. Country teams were encouraged to adapt tools so as to capture the information they sought in ways that were culturally and contextually appropriate.