Gender Norms
A Key to Improving Life Outcomes
for At-Risk Populations
Copyright 2012-3
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Table of Contents
1. National Council
2. Terms & Definitions
3. About Gender Norms
4. Masculinity, Reproductive Health & Partner Violence
5. Femininity, Reproductive Health & Partner Violence
6. Common Questions
7. Research & Policy Base
8. Disconnect in US
9. Growing Reconnection
10. Programs & Tools
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What We Do
Thought
Leadership
That
Brings a Gender
Transformative
Analysis
TrueChild
To Serving AtRisk Youth
In US Policies
& Programs
Because addressing gender norms and increasing gender equity
are keys to improving life outcomes for at-risk populations
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Terms & Definitions (1)
Gender: an “overloaded” word used many ways
Gender as “Sex”
Increasingly used by courts to mean biological sex
Gender Identity
An inner sense of being male or female
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Terms & Definitions (2)
Gender Expression
Displaying femininity/masculinity through clothing,
behavior, dress, adornment, hair style
Gender Traits
Physical or personal characteristics associated with
one or another sex (hairy chest, hourglass figure)
Gender Roles
Social norms for how each sex should behave
(females become nurses, males doctors)
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Terms & Definitions (3)
Gender Norms
Socially-constructed expectations, ideals and scripts
for female-male behavior, characteristics, and roles;
in sex and partner violence, determines who does
what, to whom, when and why
Allied terms
• “Femininity Ideology / Masculinity Ideology”
• “Hegemonic Masculinity”
• “Hetero-normativity.”
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Central to Improving Life Outcomes
For example:
“The foundation for any educational curriculum for
engaging young men in HIV prevention should be
critical reflections on societal constructions of
gender norms and sexuality,
including the impact of rigid masculine stereotypes
on young men’s behaviors and vulnerability.”
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Terms & Definitions (4)
Gender Transformative
Policies and programs that seek to
highlight, challenge and ultimately
change harmful gender norms
Geeta Gupta
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Masculine Norms
“We’re in this box, and in order to be in that box, you
have to be strong, you have to be tough, you have
to have lots of girls, you gotta have money, you
have to be a player or a pimp, you gotta to be
in control, you have to dominate other men, and
if you are not any of those things, then people
call you soft or weak or a p*ssy or a chump or
a f*ggot and nobody wants to be any of those things.
So everybody stays inside the box.”
Byron Hurt
www.bhurt.com
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Masculinity  Beliefs & Behavior
Higher Scores on Traditional Masculinity =
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Earlier sex
More sexual partners (incl. sex workers)
Stronger belief in sex as adversarial
Stronger belief in contraception is female’s responsibility
Stronger belief in pregnancy as validating manhood
Lower condom use
More likely to engage in male-on-male and homophobic violence
More likely to believe violence acceptable to control partner
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Feminine Norms
Women should be…
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Softer
Weaker
Submissive
Deferential
Pretty & Thin
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Sexually Naïve
Maternal
Nurturing
Emotional, sensitive
Social
Virginal
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Femininity – Beliefs & Behavior
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Less likely to develop skills, knowledge to negotiate safer sex
More likely to have lower sexual self-efficacy
More likely to objectify their own bodies
More likely to defer to male sexual prerogatives
More likely to have anal sex to preserve virginity
Less likely to publicly discuss sex condom use, especially w/ males
More likely to tolerate male infidelity, sexual coercion, violence
Some subcultures-- more likely participate in “booty calls,” “trains”
More likely to believe pregnancy validates womanhood
More likely to get pregnant to hold onto a man
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Gender Norms Are Learned
Copyright Boondocks – All Rights Reserved
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Gender Norms Are Relational
• Define by boys and girls, women and men
jointly
• Femininity is defined as absence of
masculinity and vice versa
• Can’t address harmful norms thru
single-sex approach
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Gender Norms Have Positive Aspects
Strong
Aggressive
Dominant
Tough
Loner
Good provider
Protective
Women & child first
Good in times of danger
Independent judgment
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Gender Intensification Period
Late Adolescence thru Early Teens
o Interest in gender norms accelerates
o Belief in traditional norms solidifies
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Under-Resourced Environments
• Gender codes especially narrow
• Strong peer pressure on “the street”
• Harsh punishment for transgression
• Fewer avenues for constructively
displaying masculinity or femininity
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A Gateway Belief System
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Common Questions
Aren’t boys born with certain amount of testosterone?
No straight line relationship between testosterone and normative beliefs
Won’t boys be boys?
Most boys want to be masculine but what is defined as masculinity?
Isn’t it mostly Nature, not nurture
Why such variation across cultures? Learning must be a part of it
Doesn’t our program already address harmful behavior?
Addressing harmful behavior (i.e., getting girls pregnant) is not the same as addressing the
belief systems that motivate it
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So It’s All Gender?
No! Reproductive health & partner violence
are complex multifaceted problems.
One way to think about it:
Gender norms not “biggest dog in the fight”
…but the biggest dog NOT yet in the fight
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Two Decades of Research
Rigid norms of femininity and
masculinity can depress health &
well-being of women, men, young
people in fundamental ways
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Strong Research Base (1)
Masculinity &
Reproductive
Health
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Strong Research Base (2)
Femininity
& R/H
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Strong Research Base (3)
Masculinity
& Partner
Violence
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Strong Research Base (4)
Masculinity &
Homophobic
Violence
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Extensive Literature Base
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Extensive Programmatic Base
Gender norms
are “central to
improving
both individual
and societal
R/H”
Gender norms “key to
effective HIV prevention
for MSMs
“Deconstructing
masculinity with
young men 13-19”
to eliminate
violence against
women and girls
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Extensive Literature Base
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A Domestic Disconnect (1)
“Astounding as it may seem, the central role
of… gender roles in [reproductive health] has
been largely ignored [in the US].”
We are “studying sex in a gender vacuum.”
Gender and Sexual Risk Reduction: Issues to Consider
H Amaro – 1996 - Proceedings of the National Latino HIV/AIDS
Love, sex, and power. Considering women's realities in HIV prevention
H Amaro - 1995 - Cited by 691 Am Psychol. 1995 Jun;50(6):437-47.
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A Domestic Disconnect (3)
Not mentioned in leading policy
prevention guides because not
enough data on gender
transformative programs to evaluate
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A Domestic Disconnect (2)
None of DEBIs have a
strong specific focus
on challenging
harmful gender norms
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A Domestic Disconnect (4)
No mention of harmful
gender norms in
priorities for effective
programs
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A Growing Reconnect!  Programs
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A Growing Reconnect  Tools
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Tools  Gender Integration Continuum
Gender Blind: Policies and programs with no consideration of gender norms
Gender Aware: Deliberately address gender in design and implementation
Gender Integration Continuum
Gender Exploitative: Achieve results by taking advantage of harmful norms
Gender Neutral: Don’t reinforce but also don’t challenge harmful norms
Gender Sensitive: Challenge gender norms only to achieve goals
Gender Transformative: Challenging norms throughout as central to work
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www.gendercouncil.org
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Resources
Research Clearinghouse
Suggested Programs
Latest Reports
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Copyright TrueChild, Inc. 2010
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