Perception change is an important thing - Changing how girls view themselves and how society views girls, to create a better environment. Organisations like Girl Effect works to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. We do this by connecting girls to each other and to the critical assets they need. We work to create lasting perception change by harnessing media in innovative ways and building social networks to develop girls' positive perceptions of themselves and shift how others see and value them.
I think one way to change the perception of girls is to have stronger, self-assertive female characters in children's books/tv/movies, and portraying more female characters of different cultures with these characteristics, especially in Disney's stuff, since they have a gigantic impact on children worldwide. Why? more girls in other parts of the world would be able to identify themselves with them.
1. Memory from Malawi and Achie from Ethiopia.
"But listen to Memory Banda, 18, from Malawi and 16-year old Achie (whose last name is not provided because of her age) from Ethiopia, and you'll hear an earful about a lot of things you wouldn't expect. They're talking about how tough it is to be young and female in Africa. They're discussing how child marriage and female genital mutilation are just two of the obstacles to girls getting an education. They're commiserating about the challenge of getting health care and of finding jobs that will let them lead a better life.
What made you want to work for women's rights?
Memory: In my community in southern part of Malawi the tradition is that once a girl reaches puberty, you go to an initiation camp where we are taught how to be a woman — how to satisfy a man. As part of that you go through a sexual initiation with a man.
And did you?
Memory: I did not. This was a hard decision. My family and friends were calling me a stubborn little girl because it felt to them like I was embarrassing the family. But for me it was a life decision. I knew that some girls come back pregnant, they get married, they cannot go to school, and if the men run away from their responsibility the girls are left on their own with the children. That was not for me. - (like Memory, girls should be reminded that they should be the one to control their own lives.)
But when my younger sister reached puberty, she went to the camp. She ended up getting pregnant and had to marry to the person who impregnated her. She was 11. This is what I saw and what I wanted to change.
Achie: I live in a nice neighborhood, and go to a good school, but this is not the life that many young girls in Ethiopia have.
Early marriage is also a problem in my country. There are traditional views about women, and they are not expected to go to school. There is also female genital mutilation. In my family there is nothing like that, but I would volunteer in organizations [to tutor] and I would talk to girls and hear their stories. Listening, you just have a feeling of how heavy a burden they are carrying and you cannot be quiet about it. When they share with you what they have experienced, you feel part of it and you want to act on it."
2. Why Is Violence against Girls and Women in South Asia Critical to Address?
The violence that women and girls are subjected to throughout their lives prevents them
from realizing their rights as human beings and as equal citizens.
Violence in childhood and later can also affect girls’ and women’s abilities to fully benefit from and participate in schooling and employment, thus constraining their lifetime opportunities for an education and a career. Violence not only affects the girls and women experiencing it and their families, but also can spiral across generations.
Starting with the beginning of the life cycle—that is, in childhood—South Asia has the highest levels of excess female child mortality among world regions. Within South Asia, India has the greatest excess female child mortality of all countries for which data are available; Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan also show high levels.
South Asia also has the highest rate of child marriage in the world, with 46 percent of girls married by age 18. In Bangladesh, more than 40 percent of girls are married by age 15 (figure ES.1).
Qualitative data provide cautious optimism that attitudes toward child marriage may also be changing. Still, a divide persists between individual desires on the one hand and perceived cultural norms and compulsions for early marriage on the other, thus contributing to the persistence of
child marriage in the region.
A major barrier to needed legal and social reform is the continued lack of recognition that women and girls are first and foremost citizens, individuals who should be accorded the same rights and privileges as men and boys. A perception of women as victims or subjects—rather than as individuals with rights to their own identities, sexualities, and other forms of self-expression—has circumscribed the social and legal provisions for women’s safety. This perception perpetuates the patriarchal belief that female household members must be protected by men and in ways that ensure female conformity to roles defined by traditional, patriarchal norms.
Patriarchy in South Asia also creates other circumstances that perpetuate social norms conducive to continuing violence against women and girls. Most critically, both women and men are prescribed numerous attributes that are tied directly to feminine and masculine social identities and enforced not only by men but also by women.
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