{"id":15114,"date":"2022-10-11T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.equimundo.org\/?p=15114"},"modified":"2022-11-14T12:22:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T16:22:01","slug":"international-day-of-the-girl-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equimundo.org\/es\/international-day-of-the-girl-child\/","title":{"rendered":"International Day of the Girl Child: \u200bWorking with Boys to End Child Marriage and Empower Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work on changing gender inequality is inspirational, but it is hard to get away from the jargon sometimes, and explain how powerful it is to people not working in our field. Could you explain it to someone in your family? A neighbor? Let\u2019s see if we can explain in commonsense and compelling language why working with boys and men to end child marriage is so important, as presented in our recent report \u201c<\/span>Matrimonios y uniones precoces, forzados y de la ni\u00f1ez: una revisi\u00f3n de la evidencia<\/a>\u201d in partnership with UNFPA.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are all subject to the influence of norms, the expectations of everyone around us for how we behave, and our own expectations. These \u201cinvisible guardrails\u201d are effective at making us do certain things, avoid others, and form opinions about what is good and bad, right or wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

Research has found that child marriage<\/span><\/a> is a harmful practice that often takes girls \u2013 and some boys \u2013 out of school at an early age, separates them from their families, and often subjects them to heavy labor, the risk of early pregnancy and delivery, and intimate partner violence. The families of girls who marry as children would identify the good things they see of this norm, which they value as a way of ensuring girls\u2019 virginity outside of marriage and guaranteeing girls\u2019 futures in their marital households.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marriage is a near universal experience for women, with over 90% eventually marrying; the percentage of women who had <\/span>no <\/span><\/i>married by age 45-49 rose only from 3.1% in 1990 to 4.3% in 2010.<\/span>\u00a0 The marital home is the place where women (and men) spend most of their years of life, making it important to ensure a healthful and safe environment. Ideally, married life would not start before a person has finished school or job training, or before their body is mature; and you\u2019d want to be sure that the young woman and her husband had the understanding and skills to care for and be generous toward each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Why shouldn\u2019t we prepare boys for the most demanding and long-lasting job of their entire lives: being husbands?”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Since marriage involves two people, and since boys and men often have more power in the relationship, and in the decisions about when women in their households marry , they need to be a part of work to prevent child marriage. <\/span>Equimundo\u2019s new review on working with boys and young men<\/span><\/a> to end child marriage showed that few programs target boys with strong messages about gender equality or prepare them to be loving, equitable and supportive partners.<\/span> The review also showed that programs are concentrated in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (where most child marriage occurs but not all) and did not identify a single program to prevent the practice among boys and support child grooms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By definition, what we call \u201cgender-transformative programming\u201d to benefit girls needs to work not just with them, but with those around them who contribute to upholding \u2013 and dismantling \u2013 harmful norms around child marriage. Because of this, the report recommends <\/span>implementing coordinated \u201cgender-synchronized\u201d programming with girls, boys, men and women.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second recommendation is that, like it or not, <\/span>we need to talk more about sexuality, and to overcome the barriers to talking about it<\/b>, given the central role that child marriage plays in controlling girls\u2019 sexuality. When people don\u2019t talk about something important, their silence becomes dangerous, sometimes leading them to actions based on assumptions about what the other person wants. Talking about sexuality will center young peoples\u2019 desires, their autonomy, and their rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

El <\/span>International Day of the Girl Child<\/span><\/a>\u2019s focus on the theme, \u201cour time is now \u2013 our rights, our future,\u201d makes child marriage a logical focus of our work toward gender equality. War, displacement, Covid-19 and the climate crisis have created numerous stresses on the world\u2019s poorest families and undermined girls\u2019 rights.\u00a0 Achieving full rights for the world\u2019s most vulnerable girls requires us to work with boys, girls, men and women to shift harmful social norms and practices, and to speak about sexuality and sexual rights and about the ongoing inequalities too many face.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read our recent report \u201cBoyhood and Child, Early, and Forced Marriages and Unions: An Evidence Review\u201d <\/span>aqu\u00ed<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This blog post was authored by Margaret E. Greene, PhD, Equimundo Senior Fellow and Director of GreeneWorks.<\/em><\/p>\n

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