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Adolescent girls, social norms and
social institutions:
What do we mean? What do we know?
Caroline Harper, ODI
April 2013
Early marriage
FGM
‘ gendercide’/ foeticide
girls out of school
child/gendered child labour
gendered restrictions on movement
gendered civil liberties
discriminatory inheritance practices
gendered societal violence
discriminatory land ownership
lack of political participation
lack of voice
Education
Standard Approach provision
of educational services;
financing; curriculum
development; infrastructure
and buildings; teacher
training;
Issues to be addressed: Son
bias and under-investment in
girls; domestic duties;
restrictions on mobility;
inability to reap benefits due
to restrictions in workplace;
early marriage and pregnancy;
fears for morality and safety;
limited aspirations;
stereotypes of girls roles.
Photo used in Stemming Girls’ Chronic Poverty report © Yannis Kontos/ Panos Pictures
Productive/ Economic
Standard Approach: Primary and secondary education; skills training; employment schemes; access to credit; savings schemes; land rights (but often not gendered)
Issues to be addressed: Gendered Economic insecurity:
Mobility restrictions; financial illiteracy; inability to open a bank account; lack of inheritance and land rights; lack of control over dowry; exclusion from labour markets based on sex; unpaid household labour and time poverty; lack of support from natal family;
Photo used in Stemming Girls’ Chronic Poverty report © Jmark Henley/ Panos Pictures
Social Institutions and Norms in Development
• Social institutions seen as fixed and largely untouchable and not central to development action
• Reinforced by a tendency in poverty research to focus on material manifestations of poverty (measured by income and basic human development indicators)
• Only comparatively more recently have social risks and vulnerabilities become more considered factors
• Amartya Sen (in 2004) suggests that this neglect or what he terms ‘comparative indifference’ to the importance of ‘the social,’ needs remedying.
• Increasingly recognised that these laws, norms and practices that make up social institutions are not an untouchable and permanent fixture. Rather, they are always in flux and contested, constantly being shaped by human interaction (Rao and Walton, 2004).
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Social ‘institutions’
• Discriminatory Family Codes – Parental authority; inheritance practices; marriage practices;
• Son Bias
– Unequal investments in care, nurture and resources allocated to sons and daughters within the household
• Limited Resource Rights and Entitlements
– Access to and control over land, finance and property and natural resources
• Physical Insecurity
– Laws, norms and practices which condone or fail to challenge gender based violence
• Restricted Civil Liberties
– Freedom of movement, freedom of association and participation in collective action
Emerging Capabilities Framework
• Political
• Economic/ productive
• Educational
• Physical/ reproductive
• (Psycho-social)
• Psycho-emotional
• Managing intra-household relations
While rarely giving reasons for doing so, social scientists apply the
term social institution to an amazing array of phenomena,
including, for example:
Taxation and handshakes (Bellah et al., 1991), schools (Dae et al., 2003),
socialism (Parboteeah & Cullen, 2003), mental hospitals (Goffman 1962),
courtship (Clark, 1997), community and property (Nisbet 1953), healing
(Johnson 2000), sports (Anderson & Taylor, 2000); Messner 1992),
appellate courts (March & Olsen, 1989), religion and marriage (Waite &
Lehrer 2003), universities (Benschop & Brouns, 2003), heterosexuality
(Rogers & Garret, 2001)
patterned behaviours and practices; social relations and interactions;
cultural beliefs, norms and expectations; rules and procedures; ideology;
social policies; organizations; legal systems and statuses; constraints,
hierarchies and power, to name but a few (Martin, 2004).
Social Institutions
• Institutions as social norms, values, rules and beliefs/ sometimes also considered alongside the actual processes, practices and practitioners. Some framed the institutions only as the norms, values and beliefs. But without consideration of the actors, the institutions are not dynamic and change cannot be considered.
• Substantive domains as institutions - family, government and polity, economy, education, religion. And additionally now legal systems, communication/ media, medicine, language – cross cutting or seen as institutions themselves
• Institutions as distinct from other social forms – institutions may encompass organisations or be distinct from them
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Approaches to Social Norms
• A sanctions based approach based on the idea that others approval is ultimately important and that individuals will comply based on a cost benefit analysis of a situation
• An approach based on individual psychology and how rational people are seen to behave and conform – where conformity to the norm is seen as the ultimate driver
• An approach which focuses on social relations between peoples, the importance of identity and power dynamics
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Questioning approaches
• Do norms mean conformity?
• What about positive norms
• What about history?
• What about human rights…………
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Some conclusions
• What we mean by social institution and social norm is perhaps more then we currently understand
• It is important to understand what something is in order to change it
• So it is helpful to have an understanding of the institutional space within which one is operating and its constituent parts and actors
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Some conclusions
• It is helpful to understand how norms operate and are constructed whether they are successfully avoided or unsuccessfully resisted; whether they are false perceptions of practice or unproven perceptions of others expectations
• It is helpful to have some theory of how change happens in relation to a particular norm operating at an individual or group level; – driven by identity or social relations factors
– driven and maintained by perceptions of normative behavior
– driven by power acquisition, group or asset control
– drivers are not mutually exclusive – but they are certainly entry points.
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Embedded gender bias
‘With one son you have a descendant, with 10 daughters you have nothing’ (Vietnamese proverb)
‘Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbour’s garden’ (Punjabi proverb)
‘When a son is born, Let him sleep on the bed, Clothe him with fine clothes, And give him jade to play […] When a daughter is born, Let her sleep on the ground, Wrap her in common wrappings, And give broken tiles to play’ (China Book of Songs, 1000-700 BC) ‘The birth of a boy is
welcomed with shouts of joys and firecrackers but when a girl is born the neighbours say nothing’ (Chinese saying)
‘The birth of a girl grant elsewhere, here grant a son’ (Indian ancient text – Atharva Veda)
‘Oh God I beg of you, I touch your feet time and again, Next birth don’t give me a daughter, Give me Hell instead’ (Uttar Pradesh folk song)
‘May you die’ (approximate translation for an ‘endearment’ in parts of Pakistan)
‘She is a true wife who has borne a son’ (Indian scripture – Manu Smriti)
‘Abu-banat [father of daughters]’ (Arabic insult)
Caroline Harper
ODI is the UK’s leading independent think tank on
international development and humanitarian issues.
We aim to inspire and inform policy and practice to
reduce poverty by locking together high-quality
applied research and practical policy advice.
The views presented here are those of the speaker,
and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI or
our partners.
Overseas Development Institute
203 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NJ
T: +44 207 9220 300
www.odi.org.uk
Definition
Negative outcomes of social institutions a result of discriminatory, formal and informal laws, norms and practices which have an effect on human capabilities by limiting individual and collective agency.
Framework
Considered linkages between discriminatory norms and practices and group perceptions of social identity……… ……themselves driven by collectively agreed upon understandings and belief systems…………. ……..surrounding group membership (such as gender, age, class, ethnicity, religion)and related systems of power relations (whether it be patriarchy, age-based hierarchies, capitalist modes of production, etc.).
Outcomes
• Norms, values and attitudes can have positive, neutral or negative effects
• If negative ultimately they result in reduced capabilities and exclusion
• Limited potential, restricted development and disempowerment
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Addressing Outcomes and
Drivers The overarching aim of policy and practice actions are intended to address both the manifestations or outcomes of such social institutions as well as the driving forces of discrimination - the norms, values and attitudes and the practices derived from them, which lead to negative outcomes
