Newman Anneke
Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Front Sociol. 2023 Jul 19;8:1196068. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1196068. eCollection 2023.
This brief argues that "grandmother-exclusionary bias" - or the side-lining of female elders as change agents within FGM/C programmes - represents a major obstacle to eradication of these practices. Grandmother-exclusionary bias is prevalent within FGM/C policy and programming. Yet, it goes against evidence of the extensive authority and decision-making roles that grandmothers wield in relation to FGM/C in sub-Saharan Africa, and insights from systems theory and meta-evaluations of FGM/C eradication efforts which stress that sustained change requires engaging those who wield authority over gender and social norms. We use postcolonial and decolonial theory to explain the assumptions about grandmothers which underpin grandmother-exclusionary bias. Finally, we provide recommendations for designing grandmother-inclusive, intergenerational community-led programmes based on a strategy empirically proven to shift social norms underpinning FGM/C.
本简报认为，“排斥祖母偏见”——即在女性生殖器切割/残割项目中将老年女性排斥在变革推动者之外——是根除这些习俗的主要障碍。在女性生殖器切割/残割政策和项目中，排斥祖母偏见普遍存在。然而，这与撒哈拉以南非洲地区祖母在女性生殖器切割/残割方面拥有广泛权力和决策作用的证据相悖，也与系统理论以及对女性生殖器切割/残割根除努力的元评估结果相左，这些评估强调持续变革需要让那些对性别和社会规范有影响力的人参与进来。我们运用后殖民和去殖民理论来解释支撑排斥祖母偏见的对祖母的种种假设。最后，我们基于一项经实证证明能改变支撑女性生殖器切割/残割的社会规范的策略，为设计包含祖母、由社区主导的代际项目提供建议。
