Shifting Gender Norms in Nepal to Improve Health and Development of Very Young Adolescents

Traditional views of gender have a negative effect on children's health and development in Nepal. Girls' educational opportunities are limited, early marriage and childbearing are common place and women lack decision-making power. Shifting gender norms is challenging when traditional culture prescribes restrictive gender roles for girls. Challenging gendered attitudes and behaviors of boys can ultimately change the way girls are treated in Nepal, improving all children's health and wellbeing.

To address this inequity, Save the Children provides alternative views of masculinities while working with boy and girls, 10 to 14 years old, from a relational perspective. Working with young adolescents – a time when they have not yet fixed their social norms and identities– can help children redefine gender roles in constructive ways that will have a positive effect on their health and development. To achieve this, a behavior change curriculum called “Choices” was designed to empower children to make more gender-equitable choices in their lives which would ultimately improve the lives of girls and women. The emotion-based curriculum includes eight fun, age-appropriate and participatory activities designed to stimulate discussion between adolescents. They explore gender inequity and power, how small actions can lead to gender equity and earn you respect while discovering how social norms restrict boys from treating girls as equals and results in negative health outcomes.

A quasi-experimental evaluation using age appropriate qualitative and quantitative research techniques suggests children participating in the “Choices” curriculum resulted in more gender equitable attitudes and behaviors compared to a control group.