Because I am a girl: The State of the World's ... - Plan Deutschland

themselves believe their education
is less important than that of their
brothers. More than 50 per cent
of girls and almost 68 per cent
of boys in India agree with the
statement ‘If resources are scarce,
it is better to educate a boy instead
of a girl’. Boys also get their fair
share of negative messages from
society. According to our survey,
78 per cent of girls and 76 per cent
of boys in Rwanda either partially
or totally agree with the statement
‘Boys don’t cry’, while in India only
65 per cent of girls and 73 per cent
of boys agree with this statement.
These rigid ideas of masculine behaviour continue
throughout adolescence and are further reflected in
boys’ and girls’ attitudes toward relationships. Sixtyfive
per cent of boys and 66 per cent of girls from
India and Rwanda think ‘males should ask females to
start a relationship, not the other way around’.
Violence in the home
“When I know that I have made a mistake and my
parents beat me, I assume they are right and it
doesn’t make me angry.”
Girl, 9, Benin
Domestic violence is highly prevalent across the
globe. One in four women will experience domestic
violence in her lifetime and studies in the UK
estimate that domestic violence costs the economy
£5.8 billion each year. 6 According to US studies,
this phenomenon also has a severe impact on
children there:
• Witnessing violence between one’s parents
or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of
transmitting violent behaviour from one generation
to the next
• Boys who witness domestic violence are twice
as likely to abuse their own partners and children
when they become adults
• 30 to 60 per cent of perpetrators of intimate
partner violence also abuse children in the
household. 7
In our survey we found that 40 per cent of
participants in India and 50 per cent of participants
in Rwanda are normally insulted by at least one
member of their family. Half of the participants
in both Rwanda and India said their siblings are
insulted and hit either sometimes or very often.
Per cent
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Children reporting violent incidents that happen either sometimes or very often
Insulted
your sibling
Hit your
sibling
Insulted
your mother
Of the two countries, Rwanda showed higher
prevalence of both physical (41 per cent) and verbal
(49 per cent) violence.
Domestic violence affects more girls than boys
across the globe – a fact that is verified in our study.
Girls reported being more often affected by insults
(44 per cent in India and 51 per cent in Rwanda)
than boys (36 per cent in India and 48 per cent in
Rwanda). However, more boys than girls report
being subject to physical violence in Rwanda (43
per cent of boys compared to 38 per cent of girls).
While in India this trend reverses, with 43 per cent
of girls and 35 per cent of boys reportedly ‘being
hit’. This violence will continue to affect these girls
throughout their lives. In fact, three out of 10 girls
in India and Rwanda reported that their mothers are
insulted or hit by someone at home.
Rigid gender norms serve not only to perpetuate
power imbalances between the sexes but also to
bolster deviant behaviours, making them acceptable.
This is evidenced by the large percentage of children
– 65 per cent of participants from India and Rwanda
– who totally or partially agreed with the statement
‘A woman should tolerate violence in order to keep
her family together’. Indeed, a further 43 per cent
agreed with the statement: ‘There are times when a
woman deserves to be beaten.’
Conclusion
Hit your
mother
Insulted you
Hit you
India district boy India district girl Rwanda district boy Rwanda district girl
Although the countries selected for Plan’s study are
vastly different in terms of economic, social and
geographical location, many of the rigid gender
norms that continue to disempower girls and boys
are equally shared across the study. In the areas of
violence against women, domestic responsibility,
and the stereotyping of boys as hard and tough,
many of the 12 to 18 year olds interviewed hold
views that might be described as traditional. A
significant proportion of both girls and boys in
India and Rwanda, for example, thought that a
woman should tolerate violence if that would keep
the family together, and the majority in those
countries also agree that a woman’s most important
role is her domestic one. In the UK, where equal
opportunities legislation has been in place for some
years, only 49 per cent of boys agreed that it would
be good to have the same number of women as
men leading top companies. It is girls in the UK
who are the most likely to challenge traditional
roles, though interestingly in Rwanda there is a
robust rebuttal from both girls and boys of the
stereotype that ‘to be a man you have to be tough’.
Methodology
Due to time restraints and the availability of
services, it was not feasible to collect nationwide
representative data in India and Rwanda. For
these reasons, we selected one district in each
country. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for both
selection processes prioritised population diversity,
availability of child protection mechanisms and
travel costs. To increase the variability in the
sample, randomisation of schools was carried out
after stratification on socio-geographical criteria
of the selected district. This list was provided by
the Ministry of Education. The selection of schools
inside the stratums was shaped by school (random),
grade (five grades assuming mean ages of 12 to 16)
and whole-class groups.
UK participants were recruited through their
parents – who are members of an online research
panel managed and incentivised to comply with
ESOMAR and the MRS (UK) standards. For our
study, the proportions of participants match those
of the wider UK population. More specifically, at
95 per cent confidence level, the margin of error
for the whole sample is 3.5 per cent. Due to the
format, the questionnaire used in the UK was
shorter than in the other two countries. For this
reason, some of the results shown in the next
section do not include the UK.
As an international child-centred community
development organisation whose work is
underpinned by the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Plan is committed
to promoting the rights of children, including their
right to be protected from harmful influences,
abuse and exploitation.
Aiming to preserve the well-being of all
While we must understand that these findings
reflect the views and experiences of a relatively
small group of children, their attitudes and
behaviours for the most part support the analysis
in this report – both in terms of the stereotypes
assigned to girls and boys, and in terms of their
harmful implications.
It is also interesting to note, however, that the
children interviewed for this study would prefer to
live in less traditional families, with jobs and roles
shared out more equally. It is this that should point
the way forward. The younger generation may be
affected by the stereotyping that surrounds them
but they would prefer not to be. They have a vision
of a different way of life that could be built on.
participant children, Plan refined an earlier childfriendly
methodology based on the input of a
number of colleagues as well as WHO (2005b) and
Population Council (2005) guidelines. 8
The quantitative component collected the
opinions of 3,810 children from three countries:
India (825 boys and 747 girls), Rwanda (677 boys
and 550 girls) and the UK (506 boys and 505 girls).
Their ages range from 12 to 18. Sixty-five per cent
of them are between 14 and 16 years old. In terms
of religious groups, 96 per cent of all participants
from India are Hindu; 85 per cent of the children in
the UK are Protestant, Catholic or other Christian;
and 69 per cent of participants from Rwanda are
either Catholic or Protestant.
Aims
The study aimed to explore how children from
different countries describe their life experiences,
as well as their personal and family views on:
• Attitudes and behavioural intentions towards
gender equality and parenting
• Masculine gender norms
• Use of time
• Different types of violence
• Life satisfaction
Research instruments
This study used qualitative and quantitative
instruments which greatly benefited from the
following instruments and scales: the Gender-
Equitable Men (GEM) Scale 9 and the International
Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) 10 that is
part of the Men and Gender Equality Policy Project
(MGEPP) project. 11
52 the s tate of the world’s girls 53