Changing cultural attitudes towards female genital cutting

Vogt, Sonja; Zaid, Nadia Ahmed Mohmmed; Ahmed, Hilal; Fehr, Ernst; Efferson, Charles

doi:10.1038/nature20100

Cited by 72 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In a companion study (Vogt et al, 2016) the authors show how heterogeneity within communities and families can be exploited to change the attitudes towards FGC. They run an experiment where movies dramatizing diverging opinions on FGC within an extended family are used as treatment in some villages of South Sudan.…”

Section: Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Eradicating women-hurting customs: What role for social engineering?

Platteau¹,

Camilotti²,

Auriol

2017

WIDER Working Paper

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Social engineering refers to deliberate attempts, often under the form of legislative moves, to promote changes in customs and norms that hurt the interests of marginalized population groups. This paper explores the analytical conditions under which social engineering is more or less likely to succeed than more indirect approaches when it comes to suppress genderbiased customs. This implies discussing the main possible interaction frameworks leading to antiwomen equilibria, and deriving policy implications from the corresponding games. The theoretical arguments are illustrated by examples drawn from available empirical works, thus providing a reasoned survey of the literature.

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Section: Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Eradicating women-hurting customs: What role for social engineering?

Platteau¹,

Camilotti²,

Auriol

2017

WIDER Working Paper

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“…More-educated women are more likely to report opposing FGC continuation and having uncircumcised daughters [4,14,34,37], although there are exceptions [3,5,35]. Finally, media exposure is usually associated with pro-abandonment attitudes [38][39][40], again with exceptions [41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards female genital cutting among adolescents in rural Burkina Faso: a multilevel analysis

Greis

Bärnighausen

Bountogo

et al. 2020

Tropical Med Int Health

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objective Despite decades of abandonment efforts, female genital cutting (FGC) prevalence rates in Burkina Faso remain high. We present updated prevalence data from rural adolescents and examine factors associated with FGC receipt and attitudes, testing predictions of social convention and modernisation theory regarding the abandonment process.methods We interviewed 1644 adolescents aged 12-20 years from 10 villages and one sector of Nouna town in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance site in late 2017. Response-weighted prevalence for self-reported FGC receipt, beliefs about religious requirements, and attitudes about abandonment were calculated. We used bivariate regression and two-level hierarchical models to test whether social convention or modernisation theory-related factors predicted current FGC attitudes.results 43% of women in our sample reported having undergone FGC; 74% of women and 76% of men believed FGC should be abandoned. The strongest predictors of FGC receipt were religion, ethnicity, the village's FGC rate and mother's education. The strongest predictors of FGC abandonment attitudes were religion, ethnicity, belief that FGC is religiously required, and own FGC status. Males' attitudes were less determined by community factors than females'; females' attitudes were more strongly influenced by factors linked to modernization, such as maternal education and household wealth.conclusions FGC continues to be common in rural and small-town Burkina Faso, and our analysis suggests that social conventions play an important role in its continuation. However, modernisationrelated factors were stronger predictors of abandonment attitudes than of FGC status, particularly in adolescent women. The changes these relationships suggest may benefit the next generation of girls.keywords Burkina Faso, female genital cutting, social convention theory, modernisation theory, adolescents Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equity), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) Tropical Medicine and International Health

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“…Occurring in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, the frequency of FGC within ethnic groups varies from 1-99% 10 . The persistence of this practice, especially in the face of longstanding eradication efforts, represents a puzzle to policy makers and evolutionary scientists alike [11][12][13] . As a seemingly costly behaviour, FGC challenges assumptions of adaptive behaviour as it appears to jeopardise rather than maximise evolutionary fitness 14 .…”

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confidence: 99%