‘I have the confidence to ask’: thickening agency among adolescent girls in Karnataka, South India

Abstract

Gender norms serve to normalise gender inequalities and constrain girls' agency. This paper examines how girls' agency, along a continuum, is influenced by the interplay with both constraining and enabling influences in the girl's environments. We analyse data from a qualitative study nested within a cluster randomised evaluation of Samata, a multi-layered programme supporting adolescent girls to stay in school and delay marriage in Karnataka, South India. Specifically, we compare agency among 22 girls from intervention communities and 9 girls in control communities using data from the last round of interviews in a qualitative cohort. Using the concept of 'thin' and 'thick' agency on a continuum, we identified shocks like mothers' death or illness, poverty stress, gender norms and poor school performance as thinning influences. Good school examination results; norms in support of education; established educational aspirations; supportive parents, siblings and teachers; and strategic government and Samata resources enabled thicker agency. The intervention programme's effect increased in parallel to the gradient from thin to thicker agency among girls in progressively supportive family contexts. Engagement with the programme was however selective; families adhering to harmful gender norms were not receptive to outreach. In line with diffusion theory, late adopters require additional peer encouragement to change norms.

Adolescent Girls and Their Family Members’ Attitudes Around Gendered Power Inequity and Associations with Future Aspirations in Karnataka, India

“…Previous research conducted in Ghana found that educational aspirations mediated the relationships between AGs' academic self-efficacy and performance (Ansong et al, 2019). Findings further support qualitative evidence from the Samata trial that greater aspirations for the future enabled agency for school attendance and against early marriage (Ramanaik et al, 2020). Thus, the results from this study point to the importance of instilling household-level gender-equitable attitudes through efforts tailored to AGs and their family members independently, as well as efforts to promote agency and voice among AGs.…”

“…Results from this study highlight the importance of household and family-level characteristics in the development of gender attitudes, thus strategies to improve and shift gender attitudes may function differently depending on baseline household gender attitudes. Moreover, findings from our study have important implications for the psychological well-being and agency of AGs, as previous research has indicated that hope and future aspirations are often synonymous with better mental well-being (Davids et al, 2016), increased social benefit (Frye, 2012), and agency (Ramanaik et al, 2020). Programming, such as Girl Rising India , which uses communication tools and storytelling to inspire social change, has been shown to be effective at shifting harmful attitudes by improving AGs’ voice and agency to stand up to parents and others in their communities against harmful gender attitudes (Vyas et al, 2020).…”

Biosocial life‐course factors associated with women's early marriage in rural India: The prospective longitudinal Pune Maternal Nutrition Study

“…Our results have implications for policy and practice. Interventions to delay marriage implemented during adolescence, such as conditional cash transfers to reduce poverty and promote girls' education, and community‐ and peer‐networks aiming to change sociocultural norms, have had inconsistent effects (Forte et al, 2019; Kalamar et al, 2016; Malhotra & Elnakib, 2021; Prakash et al, 2019; Ramanaik et al, 2020). Given the implications of early marriage for reproductive fitness, it should be recognized as critical public health importance (Marphatia et al, 2017), just as public health is increasingly recognized as a key social issue (Jong‐Wook, 2005).…”

Quantifying the association of natal household wealth with women’s early marriage in Nepal

“…Third, there needs to be a collective shift in societal gendered norms and the value attributed to girls and women in society ( Maertens, 2013 ; Bicchieri, Jiang & Lindemans, 2014 ; Marphatia, Amable & Reid, 2017 ). Changing norms is difficult and slow, as shown by social interventions that did not succeed in delaying marriage age in India ( Prakash et al, 2019 ; Ramanaik et al, 2020 ). Moreover, in populations where women marry very early, it may initially be more realistic to delay marriage by 1 year at a time.…”