WUNRN
ICRW - International Center for
Research on Women
INDIA - BOYS' ATTITUDES SHIFT ON
MANHOOD, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
By Gillian Gaynair - 07/18/2012
New International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
findings show that Indian boys’ views about manhood and women’s roles in
society became less patriarchal and more equitable after participating in an
ICRW program that aimed to shift norms about gender equity.
The program, called Parivartan,
drew in boys from Mumbai through the popular sport of cricket and
challenged them to question traditional notions of manhood present in many
societies, including their own. Results from ICRW’s
evaluation provided proof that sensitizing boys to gender issues can
potentially change stereotypes they hold and their attitudes about violence
against women.
Unfolding over three years among boys ages 10 to 16, Parivartan
capitalized on cricket coaches’ role in the young athletes’ lives to impart the
program’s key messages. It required the coaches, too, to shift their own ideas
about expectations of men and women in society.
“Parivartan demonstrated that role models for youth – in
this case, sports coaches – hold great potential as conduits for helping to
address and change seemingly indomitable societal norms,” said Madhumita Das,
an ICRW senior technical specialist who directed Parivartan. “What we don’t
know yet is if the changes that took place among program participants will
remain with them into adulthood.”
Parivartan’s
athletes hailed from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum: middle-
and upper-class youth from Mumbai schools who had paid coaches and practiced
their game in their cricketer’s white on a manicured field near a country club
in downtown Mumbai; and boys from Mumbai’s slum community of Shivaji Nagar,
who were coached by mentors close in age and practiced on dirt or asphalt,
where they used recycled equipment and sometimes ran in sandals or barefoot.
Modeled after the Coaching Boys into Men program by Futures Without Violence
(formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund), ICRW sought to test whether the
influence of coaches and the sports setting could serve as a venue – like home
and school – to learn about gender roles and relationships. Experts aimed to
document how attitudes, perceptions and behaviors did or did not change among
athletes – as well as their coaches.
“Coaches are more than just instructors of sports
techniques. They’re also role
models,” Das said. “So we wanted to value this unique relationship of
coaches’ with their athletes, to have them channel positive messages to young
men about manhood and respect for women.”
The study sample consisted of 168 athletes in 26 Mumbai
schools who were exposed to the Parivartan curriculum, and 141 athletes from 19
schools where the program was introduced later. This design provided a means of
comparison, to gauge the effectiveness of the program. Similarly, 168 athletes
from Shivaji Nagar took part in the program, while 133 athletes from another
community served as the comparison group.
Researchers sought to answer three questions: (1) What
changes occurred in gender and violence-related attitudes, perceptions and
behaviors among the Parivartan athletes? (2) What effects did participation in
the training and the overall program have on the coaches? and (3) What changes
did the wives, mothers or daughters of the coaches perceive as a result of the
men’s participation in the program?
In general, ICRW found that attitudes about gender equity
and violence
against women shifted for the better among the young cricketers. The
coaches’ mindset and behavior also evolved positively.
ICRW determined the changes by asking the athletes to
respond to a series of statements centered on stereotypes around manhood and
roles for girls and women. This included questions such as, “A wife should
always obey her husband” and “Only men should work outside the home.” The
participants were asked at the beginning and end of the Parivartan program to
indicate on a 5-point scale whether or not they agreed. ICRW compared responses
among athletes from the school setting, the slum community and the groups who
did not receive the Parivartan curriculum.
Among ICRW’s findings was that most young cricketers
supported a more traditional view of manhood when the program started – a view
where boys are not expected to be faithful to girlfriends, where they must
always act tough and where they believe they’ll lose respect if they talk about
their problems. “This suggested that despite their young age, many boys had
already been exposed to and internalized the idea that real men are tough,
unfaithful and unemotional,” Das said.
Those perceptions had changed for most by the end of the
program. However, many participants said they still believed that only men can
work outside of the home – one of the more deeply-engrained cultural
expectations.
When ICRW looked at changes across the three
areas researchers studied – boys’ controlling behavior, manhood and masculinity
and girls’ and women’s roles – it found
that Parivartan participants’ attitudes about gender roles had changed
significantly, compared to those who did not participate in the program.
An important transformation took place in the Shivaji
Nagar athletes’ opinions physical abuse of girls: they became less supportive
of it. Such violence is not uncommon; many girls in
“Particularly in poor communities, girls are often seen
as a big support to handle household chores and look after their younger
siblings,” Das said. “More importance is placed on that role in the home,
regardless of how young they are, than in getting an education.”
It’s unclear whether the positive changes in attitudes
and behavior that ICRW found will stick as the young men grow into adults. To
guarantee such an outcome, ICRW recommends that Parivartan be institutionalized
into the settings to which teenagers connect and learn, so that its messages
are consistently reinforced.
While the formal program in Mumbai is no longer,
Parivartan is expanding its focus and working with a new group of youth in a
rural area: Now, it will be Parivartan-Plus, and part of the U.K. Department
for International Development’s STRIVE
effort to address social inequities that continue to fuel the AIDS epidemic.
The program will take place in rural Karnataka, in southern