Boys, girls enter teens with gender stereotypes — Study
Over the past six years, an international consortium of 15 countries has been working on a study to understand how gender norms are formed in early adolescence.
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Titled the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS), the researchers also studied how the gender norms formed predispose young people to subsequent sexual and other health risks.
The key finding from the groundbreaking study, a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO), was that as children move into early adolescence and start to develop into young men and women, they also start to take up social roles that are linked to masculinity and femininity. The roles they take on have huge implications for their own health and well-being and that of people around them.
Comprehensive interviews
The findings emerged from a series of comprehensive interviews conducted over the last four years with approximately 450 early adolescents matched with a parent or guardian (totalling nearly 900) in Bolivia, Belgium, Burkina Faso, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam.
“We found children at a very early age — from the most conservative to the most liberal societies — quickly internalise this myth that girls are vulnerable and boys are strong and independent,” the Director of the Global Early Adolescent Study, based at Johns Hopkins University, Robert Blum, said and added: “This message is being constantly reinforced at almost every turn, by siblings, classmates, teachers, parents, guardians, relatives, clergy and coaches.”
Blum said the work shows a need to rethink adolescent health interventions, which typically focus on youth 15 years or older, so that they target a much younger age group.
“Adolescent health risks are shaped by behaviour rooted in gender roles that can be well established in children by the time they are 10 or 11 years old,” Dr Kristin Mmari, an associate professor and lead researcher for the qualitative research at the Global Early Adolescent Study, said and added that, “Yet we see billions of dollars around the world invested in adolescent health programmes that don’t kick in until they are 15, and by then it’s probably too late to make a big difference.”
Gender Straitjacket
The conversations conducted by the researchers revealed that around the world, young boys and girls are outfitted with “gender straitjackets” at a very early age, with life-long negative consequences that are particularly perilous for girls. They found that gender-based restrictions rationalised as “protecting” girls actually made them more vulnerable by emphasising subservience and implicitly sanctioning even physical abuse as punishment for violating norms. They observed that “in many parts of the world” these stereotypes leave girls at greater risk of dropping out of school or suffering physical and sexual violence, child marriage, early pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
For example, the researchers found boys in both New Delhi and Shanghai talked about being encouraged to spend time outside of the home in unsupervised exploration of their environment, while girls said they were advised to stay home and do chores. In all but one city, Edinburgh, Scotland, both boys and girls were clear that it was the boy who had to take the initiative in any relationship. Across all settings, young girls reported a constant emphasis on their physical appearance and their bodies as their key asset.
The researchers noted that their findings bore out conclusions from previous work that “during adolescence, the world expands for boys and contracts for girls.”
Risk for boys
But the researchers note that boys do not emerge unscathed. They point out that the stereotypes they learn in early adolescence — the emphasis on physical strength and independence — make them more likely to be the victims of physical violence and more prone to tobacco and other substance abuse, as well as homicide.
The researchers report that “boys who challenge gender norms by their dress or behaviour were by many respondents seen as socially inferior.” Both boys and girls told researchers that the consequences for boys who were perceived as adopting feminine behaviour, such as painting their nails, ranged from being bullied and teased with harsh epithets to being physically assaulted.
Mmari noted that the fact that many of the gender stereotypes documented are so common across cultures and economic status — and ingrained in children at such a relatively young age — is unexpected. She said the research could help shape new initiatives that foster greater awareness of the health consequences of gender stereotypes and focus on the critical “transitional” years of early adolescence.
“Change can happen, but it requires political will and a variety of interventions,” Blum said. He added that, “It also requires the knowledge that children pick up on these gender mythologies at a very young age and they proceed to play out in a variety of ways — often damaging — for the rest of their lives.”
Courtesy: Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS), Baltimore, USA