International Centre for Research on Women, 603, The Affaires, Sector 17, Sanpada, Palm Beach Road, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai, 400705, India.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Apr 10;18(1):471. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5347-3.
Harmful gender norms are known structural barriers to many public health and development interventions involving adolescent girls. In India, restrictions on girls' liberty to move freely in public spaces contribute to school dropout and early marriage, and negatively affect girls' health and wellbeing, from adolescence into adulthood. We report on mechanisms of change among female mentors 18 to 24 years old who contested discriminatory norms while implementing a sports-based programme for adolescent girls in a Mumbai slum.
We adopted a prospective qualitative research design. Our analysis is based on case studies derived from two rounds of face to face, in -depth interviews with 10 young women recruited to serve as mentors for the project's young female athletes. We combined both thematic and narrative analysis.
The programme created opportunities for collective action, increasing mentors' ability to think and relate in a collectivized manner, and challenged the traditional female identity constructed for young women, which centres on domestic duties. The mentors themselves negotiated freedoms both in and outside their homes, which required careful and strategic bargaining. They changed the nature of key day-to-day social interactions with parents and brothers, as well as with neighbours, parents of their groups of athletes and men on the streets. They formed a new reference group for each other in terms of what was possible and acceptable. Demonstrating greater negotiation skills within the family helped win parents' trust in the mentor's ability to be safe in public spaces. Parents became active supporters by not giving into social sanctions of neighbours and relatives thus co-producing a new identity for their daughters as respectable young women doing 'good work'. They effectively side stepped reputational risk with their presence in public spaces becoming de-sexualised.
Mentors contested mobility restrictions by taking risks as a group first, with collective agency an important step towards greater individual agency. This research provides important insights into addressing embedded social norms that perpetuate gender discriminatory practices and the social patterning of health inequalities.
有害的性别规范是许多涉及少女的公共卫生和发展干预措施的结构性障碍。在印度，对女孩在公共场所自由行动的限制导致辍学和早婚，并对女孩的健康和福祉产生负面影响，从青春期到成年期。我们报告了在孟买贫民窟实施一项基于体育的少女项目时，18 至 24 岁的女性导师改变歧视性规范的机制。
我们采用了前瞻性的定性研究设计。我们的分析基于两轮面对面深入访谈的案例研究，参与者是为该项目的年轻女运动员招募的 10 名年轻女性导师。我们结合了主题分析和叙事分析。
该项目为集体行动创造了机会，提高了导师以集体化方式思考和联系的能力，并挑战了为年轻女性构建的传统女性身份，这种身份以家务为中心。导师们自己在家内外争取自由，这需要谨慎和策略性的讨价还价。她们改变了与父母和兄弟以及邻居、运动员团体的父母和街上的男人的日常关键社会互动的性质。她们在什么是可能和可接受的方面为彼此形成了一个新的参考群体。在家庭内部展示更多的谈判技巧有助于赢得父母对导师在公共场所安全能力的信任。父母成为积极的支持者，不会屈服于邻居和亲戚的社会制裁，从而共同塑造他们女儿作为有尊严的年轻女性从事“有益工作”的新身份。她们通过在公共场所的存在使自己的形象去性别化，有效地回避了声誉风险。
导师们首先作为一个团体冒险，集体机构是迈向更大个人机构的重要一步，从而挑战了限制流动性的规范。这项研究为解决导致性别歧视做法和健康不平等社会模式的固有社会规范提供了重要的见解。
