Because I am a Girl - Plan USA

• There are 75 million girls out of primary
and lower secondary school. 4
• A girl in Southern Sudan is more likely
to die in childbirth than finish primary
school. 5
• As many as 150 million girls and young
women under 18 have experienced forced
sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual
violence involving physical contact. 6 The
first experience of sexual intercourse in
adolescence for a large number of girls is
unwanted and even coerced. 7
• Globally, young women aged 15 to 24
account for 64 per cent of HIV infections
among young people. In sub-Saharan
Africa young women aged 15 to 24 are
more than twice as likely to be infected as
young men in the same age group. 8
• Girls who give birth before the age
of 15 are five times more likely to
die in childbirth than women in their
twenties. 9 Pregnancy and childbirth
are an important cause of mortality for
girls and young women aged 15 to 19
worldwide. 10
• Girls continue to be raised in households
where they are expected to shoulder the
burden of household labour alongside
their mothers: they spend between 33
and 85 per cent more time on unpaid care
work than boys. 11
• Thousands of girls marry at a very young
age, before their bodies are fully formed.
For example, in Bangladesh, the Central
African Republic, Chad, Guinea and Niger
the figure is over 60 per cent. 12
Ensuring that girls and young women are
free from discrimination is a matter of justice.
It is also a basic human right promoted by
the United Nations Convention on Human
rights, the Convention on the rights of
Children (CRC) and the Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW). International
legal standards like these, and those at a
national level, are crucial if girls and young
women are to be protected.
But they are not enough. This treatment
does not happen in a vacuum. It happens
within an established system of power where
violence against women and girls is all too
frequent – and is often condoned by society.
So why do men behave in this way towards
J a n e H a h n
women? And how can women and men
work together to prevent it?
Part of the answer lies in understanding
why men and boys do what they do, and by
working with boys and young men as their
behaviour and perceptions of themselves –
and of the opposite sex – are being formed.
How can we ensure that a 15 year-old
or 10 year-old or even a six year-old boy
sees his sisters and mothers and aunts and
friends who are girls as equals? How would
this begin to make a difference to gender
inequality?
This report will demonstrate that one way
of doing this is to work with boys and young
men directly. This can begin to break the
cycle of inequality and violence that moves
down the generations from father to son.
Irma, from Pueblo Nuevo in the Dominican
Republic, is part of a violence prevention
programme in her community. She points
out: “Men who have been victims as children
go on to abuse their kids. We want to break
this cycle.” 13
This cycle does not just harm women
and girls, it also damages men and boys.
Concepts of ‘traditional’ masculinities
force them to behave in ways that make
them uncomfortable. They may not dare
to express their emotions, or they may
experience violence themselves and then
take it out on others; or they may have to
pretend to be heterosexual or homophobic
when they are not.
But gender inequality is not just about
individual attitudes and behaviours. It
permeates our structures and institutions,
where for the most part men are the primary
authority figures. Women continue to have
Girls at work
in Ghana.
less power than men in almost all societies
and situations around the world – from
parliament to business, from the home to
the workplace. And both men and women
continue to accept notions of masculinity
that contribute to this imbalance of power.
Working with young men and boys
for gender equality and women’s rights
means challenging how this power operates
between the sexes, and then reconstructing
it for the benefit of all. Boys and young
men need to have the time and space to
be able to define what being a man means
for them. Meaningfully engaging boys and
young men in reframing healthy and nonviolent
definitions of masculinity is critical
in promoting the rights of girls and young
women – and ensuring that the goal of
gender equality is reached.
Gender equality: all about trust
Nikki van der Gaag talks to young people
in El Salvador about gender equality,
homosexuality – and who does the
washing up.
Most conversations with young people
about gender in El Salvador seem to
start with a discussion about who cleans
the toilet and washes the dishes. Young
people see domestic labour as something
that impacts directly on their lives. It is
also a symbol of change in what both
sexes acknowledge is a very ‘machista’
society.
Jenny, aged 17, from Opico, says
indignantly that she does all the work,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
N i k k i v a n d e r G a a g
while her brother just watches TV. But
Juan Carlos, from Cuidad Arce, says that
if he does the housework or looks after
his siblings his friends sometimes tease
him and say that he is gay. The young
men and women all agree that there is
discrimination against gay and lesbian
people in their society, and they link this
directly to ‘machismo’. In the traditional
way of looking at it, there is only one
way of being a man – being tough, strong
and probably violent. And certainly not
wielding a broom or a dishcloth.
Jenny and Juan Carlos have been able
to talk about these issues as part of a
wider debate that Plan is generating
among young people in El Salvador about
parenting, about what it means to be
a man or a woman, about equal rights,
equal opportunities – and ultimately
about how to build a more equal society,
free of discrimination and violence.
El Salvador has a long way to go when
it comes to gender equality. It is fourth
from the bottom of the gender index in
Defining ages and stages
Much of the work with young people does not distinguish by sex or by age: it is work with
‘women’ or with ‘children’ and sometimes with ‘youth’. We argue that differentiation by
age and sex is crucial. Although there are other important distinctions – race, ethnic origin,
religion, class – a 10 year old is very different from an 18 year old and often girls’ and
young women’s needs are very different from those of boys and young men.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as anyone
under the age of 18, unless the age of majority is lower.
For the purposes of this report, a girl or boy is anyone up to the age of 18 and a young
woman or man up to 25 years.
The common age labels applied to children and young people
Children
Youth
Young people
Adolescents
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Juan Carlos
12 the s tate of the world’s girls 13