The girl in every woman precedes and shapes the woman in her.
And to
the extent to which girlhood is denied, liberated, and fostered, womanhood
perishes or prospers." (Sohoni, 1995)
I. Introduction
A: About the meeting
1. The United Nations's Division for the Advancement of Women
(DAW), jointly with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA), is preparing an expert group meeting on
Adolescent Girls and their Rights, which is scheduled to take
place at the Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, from 13-17 October 1997.
2. The expert group meeting will provide a substantive input
to the report on the subject which will be submitted to the
Commission on the Status of Women at its forty-second session,
2-13 March 1998. It will also contribute to the Commission's
debate on 'the girl child' which should lead to the elaboration
of agreed conclusions aimed at the accelerated implementation of
the Beijing Platform for Action in this area.
3. The expert group meeting is also intended to contribute
toward a better understanding of the factors affecting the
situation of the adolescent girls and their rights. It will allow
consideration of these issues in a broad social, economic and
human rights context, and will provide a forum for the assessment
of progress in implementation of the relevant provisions of the
Beijing Platform for Action, and elaboration of action-oriented
measures to move forward the commitments entailed in the Beijing
Platform for Action.
4. The expert group meeting, attended by 10 experts, as well
as observers from the United Nations system, Governments and
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, will
examine the following aspects of the situation of adolescent
girls and their rights:
(i) adolescent girls in need of special protection, including as identified by
UNICEF, i.e. harmful and disabling child labour; warfare and other forms of
organized and large-scale violence; sexual abuse and exploitation; childhood
disabilities; temporary or permanent loss of family and/or primary caregivers and;
deficient laws and abusive legal and judicial processes;
(ii) health, including reproductive and sexual health and
nutrition;
(iii) enabling environment for empowering adolescent girls.
5. This background paper is prepared by the United Nations
Division for the Advancement of Women with focus on the third
aspect, i.e. an enabling environment for empowering adolescent
girls, reflecting on the current state of knowledge and
practices. This paper attempts to provoke ideas on
action-oriented recommendations for advocacy, institutional
support and policy formulation maily at the national level. These
recommendations are addressed to governments and various actors
of civil society in order to create the environment that empowers
adolescent girls, and to facilitate and accelerate the
implementation of the Platform for Action. Other organizers,
UNICEF and UNFPA, will focus their background papers on (i) and
(ii) respectively. The Economic Commission for Africa will
introduce a paper on the girl-child and traditional harmful
practices as their contribution to the meeting.
II. Issues of the girl-child and the
United Nations
A: Background
6. Despite widespread progress in improving the health,
nutrition and education of children, the situation of girls
continues to be disadvantaged compared to that of boys in many
parts of the world. Parents prefer to have a son to a daughter in
many countries of the world.. Worldwide, approximately 500
million children start primary school, but more than 100 million
children, two thirds of them girls, drop out before completing
four years of primary school.(1)
In many countries, girls are breast-fed for shorter periods than
boys. A study in India, for instance, revealed that 51 per cent
of boys were breast-fed, compared with 30 per cent of girls(2) while various studies indicate
that babies fed on breastmilk have fewer illnesses and less
malnutrition than babies who are fed on other foods and that
bottlefeeding, especially in poorer communities, may pose a
serious threat to the lives and health of children.(3) Girls are often seen as less
important to family and community life than boys. Girls are not
as much encouraged as boys to further their studies and develop
their careers. Millions of girls are raised in an environment of
neglect, overwork and often abuse, simply because they are
female. In many countries girls are fed less than their brothers,
forced to work harder, provided less schooling and denied equal
access to medical care. They marry earlier and face greater risks
of dying in adolescence and early adulthood because of early and
too closely spaced pregnancies.(4)
7. Furthermore, girls are often twice denied on account of
both their gender and their age. In such an environment, it is
almost impossible for girls to develop physically, mentally and
socially to their fullest potential - a right of all children
stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The
Convention further stipulates that all rights apply to all
children without exception and that no discrimination shall be
made on the ground of their sex.
8. Neglect or abuses of girls in childhood generally leads to,
or are linked to a lower status for them as women. If girls are
given equal opportunities to develop themselves to their fullest
potential, they are more likely to grow up to be empowered women.
Transforming the social, economic and political environment so
that girls can fully enjoy their rights and develop their
potential is fundamentally related to the broader struggle for
gender equality. Attention to women's equality has proven, in
some instances, to filter down to adolescent girls. However, the
effects of discrimination against girls, including abuse, sow the
seeds for discrimination throughout the life-cycle.
B: The Fourth World Conference on Women and
the Beijing Platform for Action
9. The Beijing Platform for Action is an agenda for women's
empowerment. It recognizes that the full realization of the human
rights and fundamental freedoms of all women is essential for the
empowerment of women. The Platform reaffirms the fundamental
principle set forth in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993,
where the international community formally recognized for the
first time that "the human rights of women and of the girl
child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of
universal human rights". As an agenda for action, the
Platform seeks to promote and protect the full enjoyment of the
human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women throughout
their life-cycle.
10. The Beijing Platform for Action identifies twelve critical
areas of concern in which major actions are designed to overcome
the existing obstacles and to advance the status of women. The
chapter on the Girl Child, one of the critical areas of concern,
recognizes that in many countries the girl child faces
discrimination from the earliest stages of life, through
childhood and into adulthood despite the progress in advancing
the status of women worldwide. Reasons for this may be traced to
traditional attitudes and practices. The Platform expresses
concern at the effects of such attitudes on girls, which often
take the form of harmful practices, son preference, early
marriage and gender violence including sexual exploitation. The
Platform argues that due to this discriminatory environment,
girls often receive limited opportunities for education and
consequently lack knowledge and skills needed to advance their
status in society. The Platform further emphasizes the importance
of implementing gender-sensitive curricula and educational
materials in schools.
11. The Platform underscores the responsibility of Governments
to protect and promote the rights of the girl child and
recommends eliminating all barriers in order to enable girls
without exception to develop their full potential and skills
through equal access to education and training, nutrition,
physical and mental health care and related information. The
Platform also notes that girls are less encouraged than boys to
participate in and learn about the social, economic and political
functioning of society and urges the Governments to take action
to provide access for girls to training and information to enable
them to articulate their views and to promote the equality and
participation of girls in society. The Platform points out that
girls are often treated as inferior to boys and are socialized to
put themselves last, resulting in their self-esteem undermined.
Impacts and influences created by the surrounding environment on
children can have lifelong effects as they grow into adulthood.
12. Most importantly for this expert group meeting, the Beijing Platform for Action recognizes that during adolescence girls could be receiving a variety of conflicting and confusing messages on their gender roles from their parents, teachers, peers and the media.
13. The Beijing Declaration, adopted at the Conference,
reaffirmed the commitment of Governments to eliminate
discrimination against women and the girl child and to remove all
obstacles to equality between women and men. Governments also
recognized the need to ensure a gender perspective in their
policies and programmes.
14. Thirteen countries made a firm commitment during the
Beijing Conference to promote and protect the rights of the girl
child and increase the awareness of her needs and potential. Out
of the thirteen countries, nine stated their intention to focus
on education by, for example, providing financial assistance to
girls, developing an enabling environment for girls to continue
schooling, and securing resources for programmes targeted at
girls. Although the initial efforts were to be made in the area
of primary education, five countries made a reference to girls'
and young women's access to further education.
15. Seventeen countries so far placed the girl child in their
national action plans as an area of concern, and elaborated on
their strategies to improve the lives of girls. The three most
discussed aspects relating to the girl child in their national
action plans were (i) education, (ii) health and (iii) violence
against the girl child. They also recognize the need for
disaggregated data by age and sex and the need to analyze
existing policies and programmes for children from a gender
perspective.
C: Other International Agreements Relevant
to the Girl Child
16. The Declaration of the World Summit for Children in 1991
endorsed the right of girls and women to equal opportunities in
health, education and employment. In addition, it called for
protection of children against all forms of exploitation and
abuse. It served as a basis for the Convention on the Rights of
the Child which is discussed below.
17. The Programme of Action of the International Conference on
Population and Development in September 1994 stated that women
need to be empowered in order to manage their own fertility. The
Conference acknowledged that greater equality for the girl child
is a necessary first step in ensuring that women realize their
full potential and recommended actions on how to create an
enabling environment for the girl child.
18. Issues of equality and opportunity for girls and women
were given high priority at the 1995 World Social Summit in
Copenhagen. It recognizes the needs to give special attention to
promoting and protecting the rights of the child, with particular
attention to the rights of the girl child as part of national
efforts for social development. Governments committed themselves
to "establish policies, objectives and goals that enhance
the equality of status, welfare and opportunity of the girl
child, especially in regard to health, nutrition, literacy and
education, recognizing that gender discrimination starts at the
earliest stages of life." (Commitment 5, para. f.,
Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development) This global
commitment has been reaffirmed and strengthened by several
regional declarations, including the seven-nation South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which declared
1991-2000 "The Decade of the Girl Child".
19. In December 1995, the General Assembly adopted an
international strategy to improve the situation of young people
(Res 50/81). The World Programme on Action for Youth identified
ten priority areas; one of them was "girls and young
women". Under this item, the Programme acknowledgeed that
"discrimination and neglect in childhood can initiate a
lifelong downward spiral of deprivation and exclusion from the
social mainstream" (para.98). The actions proposed to
improve the status of girls are rooted in the Beijing Platform
for Action.
D: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child
20. Underlying principles of both the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child are equality and
non-discrimination. The Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women calls for equality between
the two sexes throughout the life cycle. The Convention on the
Rights of the Child calls for the rights of children without
exception to develop physically, mentally and socially to their
fullest potential. Both Conventions promote and protect the equal
rights of women and girls and support their full participation in
the political, social and economic development of their
communities. More specifically, the two Conventions substantively
compliment each other in the areas of nationality, education,
health, employnt, social security, rural women, family law,
traditional attitude and stereotyping, trafficking, sexual abuse
and violence.
21. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women specifically refers in Article 10 to
equal access for girls, with boys, to an equal standard of
education in every subject at every level. The Convention's
Article 16 refers to monitoring minimum marriage age of girls.
22. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, which monitors and examines the implementation process of
the Convention, has made references to the girl child when
considering country reports. The issues of the girl child have
been seen primarily in the context of measures to be taken
against traffic and prostitution of girls, the age of marriage,
girls' equal access to education, reproductive health and sex
education, and harmful traditional practices.
23. The Convention on the Rights of the Child makes reference in Article 2 to the principle of non-discrimination when applying its provision to all children regardless of, inter alia, race, colour, sex, language, or religion. Article 24 of the Convention refers to the state's obligation to work towards the abolition of traditional practices, such as female circumcision and the preferential treatment of male children. Amongst other relevant provisions of the Convention are Article 29 (d), which refers to equality of sexes; and Articles 34, 35 and 36, which address problems of child abuse, trafficking and prostitution.
24. When examining country reports, the Committee on the
Rights of the Child recognizes the need to single out girls
particularly with regard to those born out of wedlock, living
and/or working on the street, living in rural areas, victims of
sexual abuse and exploitation, with disabilities, refugees and
belonging to tribal minorities. In considering country reports
submitted to the Committee, it has made particular reference to
girls within the context of the age of marriage, harmful
traditional practices and customs and access to formal education.
III. Current environments for
adolescent girls
A: Adolescence as a Critical Period in a
Woman's Life-cycle
25. Adolescence is a concept encompassing physical and
emotional stages of transition from childhood to adulthood. With
an awakening realization of their own sexuality as well as the
existence of the opposite sex, accompanied by dramatic physical
changes and development, adolescents worldwide find themselves in
a situation characterized by an uncertain and ambivalent status.
They find with confusion that they can be both
"children" and "adults" at the same time, and
yet they are not completely treated as either. Adolescents may go
out of their ways to "grow up" quickly, and yet they
fear to enter the "adulthood" and struggle to distance
themselves from that world.
26. Adolescence is in turn a crucial period for healthy
development in both psychological and physical terms. During this
period, attitudes, beliefs and values tend to settle in to a
pattern, out of which emerge the shape and direction of one's
life-style. Also, physical changes emerge during this period
which could result in additional complications to adolescent
girls' status in society. If they become pregnant, girls bear the
consequences of it to a much greater extent than boys. In the
short term, pregnant school girls and unmarried teenage mothers
are often forced to drop out of school, and relations with their
parents and guardians may become severely strained. In the long
term, the lower level of education reduces their economic
prospects. In some settings, girls who have been sexually abused
are more likely to become pregnant at an early age.(5)
27. Poverty plays a major role in leading adolescent girls into desperate situations. In the Caribbean, for example, poverty is one of the causes of girls' early marriage and/or pregnancy.(6) Sufferings of girls from poverty are aggravated when they receive little or no support from their family and communities. In such environment, many girls facing poverty, including those who have not yet reached adolescence, frequently become involved in prostitution, drug trafficking and petty crime in order to survive, and suffer from extensive physical and psychological trauma.(7)
28. As much as they are entitled to equal access to education
and opportunities for life with their male counterparts,
adolescent girls are also entitled to childhood. Adolescent girls
have autonomous right to childhood, and thus they are entitled to
be protected, defended, helped and taken care of by their
families, by their parents and guardians, by the communities they
live in, by their teachers, and by the states. Adolescent girls,
like any other children, need security so that they can continue
their education and develop themselves to their full potential.
Children's rights encompass all basic human rights, including the
rights to development and the right to equal opportunities.
29. In many countries, adolescent girls' childhoods are cut
short due to early marriage and consequent responsibilities of
being "home-makers" in their teens. In some African
countries, for example, 50 per cent of women give birth before
age 20.(8) Girls continue to marry
early in Southern Asia where 41 per cent of girls aged between 15
and 19 are already married.(9) In
the developed regions (except Eastern Europe) and in Eastern Asia
the average fertility rate in the age group 15-19 is about 20 per
1,000. The rate is nearly double that, at 37, in south-eastern
Asia and it is 47 in Eastern Europe. Usually high rates are found
in Central America, at 110, and sub-Saharan Africa, at 156, five
to seven times higher than in the developed regions outside
Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia.(10)
30. Early child-bearing does not only rob adolescent girls of
their childhood. It denies their access to opportunities for
future and hurts the chances young women should have to improve
their lives - their health, educational attainment, employment
opportunities and decision making in the family and in the
community.
31. Despite the critical importance of the adolescent period
in a woman's life, until recently, little effort has been made to
accurately address and analyze the specific conditions and needs
of adolescent girls with an aim to redress the situation.
Following the United Nations Woman's Decade 1976 to 1985, when
data on women began to be increasingly collected and
disaggregated, children continued to be profiled as a collective
entity, with the exception of data on schooling.(11)
Lack of data on adolescent girls is a limitation to any analysis,
making it difficult to accurately define their status.
32. Drawing from existing sources and experiences, this paper
attempts to analyze and illustrate the particular needs and
situations of adolescent girls by examining three critical
aspects of empowerment: i) education, ii) socialization, and iii)
media. Some overlapping of issues is inevitable as these aspects
are closely inter-related. The paper also describes some of the
issues and ways to redress them by examining examples of the
existing policies and programmes.
B: Education for Adolescent Girls
33. Education is the key aspect for the empowerment of
adolescent girls. There is a growing consensus now that
education, irrespective of who receives it, contributes to
development. It raises income, promotes health and increases
productivity. Education is a powerful vehicle for ensuring girls'
and women's equal access to knowledge, skills, jobs and
participation in society. Furthermore, the span of years at
secondary school covers a time of important events and crucial
decisions. Decisions are made about further education and future
jobs.
34. However, lower percentages of adolescent girls attend and
complete secondary school than boys in several parts of the
world.(12) In 1988, girls'
secondary school gross enrolment ratios were lower than those for
boys in 57 African and Asian countries.(13)
It is estimated that in developing countries, at any point in
time, up to three-fourths of the children not attending school
are girls.(14) In Africa, three
quarters of rural women aged 15-24 are illiterate.(15) While there has been
considerable improvement in the education of girls, the
probability that adolescent girls will drop out of school is
still significant.
35. Girls' work responsibilities at home often increase as
they get older. Further schooling for adolescent girls is often
considered a "trade-off between the cost of keeping a child
in school and the expected benefits of having an educated
child".(16) Given that even
educated girls will only be given low-paid employment
opportunities, parents often become reluctant to continue sending
their daughters to school. In a traditional society, adolescent
girls are often found husbands by their parents. Early marriage
and pregnancies as a consequence hinder girls' educational
attainment. Where a preference for sons is strong, girls are
forced to marry early and have many babies to increase their
chance of having sons.(17) As for
unmarried teenage mothers, they usually found little support from
their families and communities, and are forced to drop out of
school. In some cases, pregnancy is a result of sexual favours
female students gave in return for money with which to buy books,
clothes and bus fare for school.(18)
36. Favouring education for boys over girls going to school is
not an exclusive phenomena of poorer countries. In industrialized
countries, the ratio of boys and girls going to school is roughly
the same at the primary and secondary levels when education is
compulsory. But at the tertiary level, boys easily outnumber
girls.(19)
37. School environments sometimes do not provide appropriate
support for girls to continue their education. A study suggests
that in the United States, teachers interact with boys more
frequently, and praise them for their intellectual quality of
their ideas while girls are praised for their good behaviour. (20) Adovacy for teachers, parents
and other educationalists and those who responsible for making
school policies can help create an environment in which education
for girls is encouraged and supported. Illustrated below is an
example of such efforts from Israel.
38. It has been pointed out that in many parts of the world,
text books and other teaching aids do not necessarily portray
women and girls in a way encourage girl children to assume
non-traditional roles in future. For example, a 1991 study in
Kenya discovered that women and girls were conspicuously absent
in most text books.(21) When
references to women did appear, they were negative. They were
presented as passive while men were portrayed as managers and
leaders in both private and public sphere. Such environment only
encourages adolescent girls who are usually already suffering
from low self-esteem to hold low opinion of their own academic as
well as leadership ability. At the same time, various studies
suggest that gender-sensitive instruction and materials can make
a classroom more relevant to adolescent girls, and thus encourage
them to remain in schools. A 1992 study by the American
Association of University of Women suggests that
"instructional practices, with teachers aware of such
factors as the level of girls' participation, teacher
expectations concerning girls' abilities and achievement, girls'
self-concept, and long-established gender stereotypes, can have a
positive impact on girls' performance in the classroom".(22) Teaching materials and study
kits can also be revised to communicate gender-sensitive messages
and girls' equal status with boys.
39. Girls' access to scientific and technical areas remains
limited in most parts of the world. In the United States,
according to a study by the American Association of University
Women, boys are preferred over girls in subjects such as maths,
science and technology.(23)
Growing up in this discouraging environment, to further study
maths, science and technology at the secondary school level,
girls often choose to major in "soft" disciplines in
colleges and universities.(24) In
Japan, more than half of all students in literature, arts, home
economics, and teacher training were women, whereas women
constitute only 10 per cent of the students in law, politics,
economics, engineering, and agriculture.(25)
40. It is around adolescence that girls are struggling to find
out what sort of people they are, and what they want to become.
They are very tuned in to the things that will bring social
approval. Whether they accept or reject the advice, treatment and
curriculum of their teachers, adolescent girls still absorb the
form and the sex-differentiated assumptions that these contain.(26) Secondary schools usually have
more male teachers, and individual achievements begin to be
stressed. To adolescent girls, who have been mainly socialized to
care for others rather than themselves, secondary schools may
present a "male" world.(27)
41. In addressing constraints to adolescent girls' school attendance, some studies point to the time spent on commuting to school and the safety of the passage to school. For example, a study in Egypt documents that locating schools closer to girls' homes can increase their enrolment to schools.(28) Household work as well as income generation responsibilities, often placed on the shoulders of adolescent girls, constitute another serious impediment to girls' educational attainment. Programmes that counter parents' reluctance to send daughters to school, such as provision of financial incentives to help the economy of the household proved to be successful, an so were informal and alternative establishments to provide drop-outs with an opportunity to continue education, and with an orientation towards vocational training. There are studies which show in particular that when schools offer courses that might improve girls' income eartning opportunities, parents see the opportunity cost of sending them to school as being lower. Some examples of efforts to keep girls in school are highlighted below.
42. Most crucial is the process of vesting the female with
the awareness of their human rights and further, ensuring that
such rights are assured to all females irrespective of their age,
race, ethnicity, religion, class, caste, and nationality. Human
rights education should be given not only to adolescent girls and
boys but also to those who have daily contact with adolescent
girls and boys.
C:Socialization of Adolescent
Girls
43. Social conditioning of one's belief and
behaviour takes place in both conscious and unconscious ways. A
child's social learning occurs initially in the family and is
gradually extended outside. By the time they reach adolescence,
girls will have been exposed to a wider domain, including
extended family relations, schools, community, and in some cases,
employment. Popular opinion about gender stereotypes is passed on
through the family, school and the economic organizations of home
and work, and through the media and organization and is set
against a backdrop of history and tradition.
44. As discussed in the earlier section, girls are
more encouraged to carry out household work than boys. For
example, a study suggests that female children spend more than
four times longer hours on household work than male children in
Kenya.(29)
Helping their mothers to carry out domestic chores is perceived
as a preparation of girls for their future role as care-givers
and domestic workers and as a kind of education which is not
expected for boys. Socialization in a school environment, under
the influence of peer pressure and interaction with the opposite
sex and adults, helps adolescent girls to prepare how they relate
to other people and to choose activities to undertake. When they
leave school, adolescent girls often encounter discriminatory
attitudes and beliefs of a society which prevents them from
entering certain occupations. This has a link to the issues of
different academic subjects girls and boys are encouraged to
study, as discussed in the previous section. It may be more
common in Western societies, but the socialization of girls is
very often oriented toward docility, emotional expressiveness,
dependence, unassertiveness and submissiveness.(30)
45. Prevailing cultural and social attitudes about
girls' roles and the division of labour in everyday life
influence girls' status immensely. Culture and social structures
do not encourage girls to break the traditional customs and
practices which may or may not be discriminating. The inner
strength and confidence are required to take an exception with
tradition. In other words, an adolescent girl needs to have
strong self-esteem and be able to value herself enough to raise a
question about customs which are traditional but are also
discriminating, and to articulate her equal rights to life.
46. The ideologies and images that girls absorb
and hold during the formative and uncertain years of adolescence
through socialization have crucial effect on how they determine
their future roles in a society. Girls' self-image declines in
early adolescence to a much greater extent than boys', and can
remain low throughout adolescence.(31)
Related concepts, such as self-esteem and self confidence, also
show decline.(32)
If they live in the community where men are always the
decision-makers, and women are considered to be less able and
significant than men, adolescent girls may accept an idea that
they must be inferior to boys. Adolescent girls need an
encouraging environment in which their equality with boys is
recognized and their well-being is seriously concerned, and which
teaches them their rights and entitlements.
47. Home is the place where socialization of a child begins, and where the biggest change can happen about the empowerment of the girl child. Mothers and fathers, and guardians alike, need to be made aware that both girls and boys are equal and that no preferential treatment should be given to any of them. The followings are some examples of approaches taken to ensure that girls' socialization builds confidence and is on a par with that of boys.
D: Media and Adolescent Girls
48. The mass media occupy an increasingly central
place in the lives of women and men all over the world. North
Africa, Western Europe and some of the affluent Asian and Arab
States still lead in terms of media availability. However, the
developing regions are rapidly increasing their share of world
radio and television sets.(33)
The media are well placed to influence viewers' opinions and
attitudes about themselves, their relationships, their place in
the world. However, what is transmitted are imagery reflections
of pre-selected particular priorities and views of the world
which reproduce and enforce certain assumptions about women's and
men's roles and their status.
49. Girls and boys are generally impressionable during
the adolescent period, and thus are the receptive audience to
images transmitted through the media. They see in media
reflections of society's attitudes and ideals often in extreme
and caricatured fashion, and may arrive at their views of
themselves and their values, and their relationships with the
rest of the world through these images. Recent research from
Canada and the United States has pointed to the negative impact
mass media can have on the self-image or body image of adolescent
girls.(34)
Adolescent girls compare themselves with those perfectly shaped
female figures and get painfully disappointed by the obvious gap.
Adolescent girls and young women often feel impelled to conform
to the materialistic, consumer-driven and exploitative
stereotypes. (35)
This is also a potential concern in developing countries, where
mass media images from industrialized countries appear
increasingly.(36)
50. Throughout the media, girls are presented in ways
which are consistent with aspects of their stereotyped images.
The chance is seldom given to girls (or boys) to see girls and
women doing things on television which require strength of
character and initiative. Instead, girls and women portrayed in
the media are often domestic, caring, and subordinate.(37)
Furthermore, a 1994 study in the United Kingdom showed that many
women felt that "women's issues" were not considered
serious enough and consequently given little airtime.(38) The
women also expressed their wish to see more women journalists and
female experts on television. In Europe, Canada and the United
States negligible coverage of "women's issues" receive
and little exposure of female experts in the media have also been
pointed out.(39)
Another study suggests that women like to watch sports events on
television; traditionally considered as the men's programmes.(40)
However, they like watching different sport from men while the
television sports schedules are build around male and not female
preferences.
51. Despite the large number of women studying mass
communication and journalism, fewer women hold media jobs than
men.(41)
In two thirds of the 70 countries surveyed in 1993, women were
more than 50 per cent of communications students.(42) Yet
another 1993 study showed in no country women hold 50 per cent of
media jobs.(43)
Women working at the decision-making level in media may help
ensure more comprehensive coverage of women's priority concerns
and the presentation of girls and women in non-traditional roles
in the press, in radio and in television. Given the power of the
media, and the impressionable mind of adolescent girls, this is
important to girls and women the world over. Concerns for
predominantly male ownership of the media were expressed at the
Second Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference on Women in
Development (Jarkarta, 7-14 June 1994) that the ownership and
control of the media in Asia and the Pacific are largely in male
hands, which could be linked to the presentation of a male
perspective in the media, reflecting, in many ways, men's values
and perceptions. (44)
52. The example below illustrates an effort to promote
positive images of female population with a view to enhance
girls' dignity and self-image, ensuring their access to various
forms of communication technology including more traditional and
indigenous forms of media.
IV. Conclusion and Recommendations
53. The first step towards the creation of an enabling
environment for empowering adolescent girls is to recognize their
specific needs and situation. Resources need to be mobilized and
secured to carry out in-depth assessments of the status of
adolescent girls, and to develop a data bank of statistics and
data disaggregated by age and by sex. Visibility of adolescent
girls needs to be increased, through the dissemination of the
findings of such assessments, while the transformation of social
and cultural attitudes towards the female population is a
principle requirement. A society must work collectively to ensure
that the potential of adolescent girls will be fully exploited,
and such efforts need to be supported and assured by States.
54. Public information campaigns can be organized with the
media taking a leading role in order to eliminate negative
cultural attitudes and practices against girls and to achieve
gender equality within the society. Such campaigns, for example,
could help recognize and enhance the historical role women played
in national liberation struggles, in negotiation for peace, in
rebuilding of the nation after a war, and/or their past and
present roles in national and international development. At the
same time, positive role models for adolescent girls may appear
through various forms of the media in order to help build
adolescent girls' self-esteem. For instance, seeing women, young
and old, pursuing and realizing their dreams will encourage
adolescent girls to do the same, and it will give them the much
needed confidence to achieve their non-traditional goals. These
role models should also be portrayed in traditional settings,
emphasizing the importance of women's various contribution to
society in social, cultural, economic and political activities.
This will also work effectively for boys and men to recognize
their equal partnership with the female population, since boys
and men also need to be trained to be gender-sensitive. It needs
to be noted, however, that the use of the media should be
balanced with traditional communication modes to ensure the
messages reach a wide audience.
55. Governments are recommended, in coordination with partners
in civil society, to develop and implement gender sensitive
strategies to address the rights and needs of adolescent girls,
including special action for their protection from sexual
exploitation and abuse, harmful traditional practices, including
early marriage, teenage pregnancy and vulnerability to sexually
transmitted deseases, and for the development of life skills and
self-esteem. Targeted programmes allow the specific requirements
of adolescent girls to be examined in more detailed manner, which
can help effectively implement the policy measures to improve the
status of adolescent girls. This can be best organized in
coordination with non-governmental organizations and community
groups whose work involve close interaction with adolescent
girls, and who are familiar with and sensitive to local culture
and social arrangements.
56. Laws and other regulations can also be reviewed with an
aim to eliminate any discriminatory provisions. States need to
commit themselves to formulate specific legal and social
provisions to counteract the girls' unacceptable negative image
in traditional and non-traditional media, education and culture
with a view to eliminate de jure and de facto discrimination. It
is the obligation of States to ensure that rights of adolescent
girls are respected, protected and promoted. At the same time,
initiatives should be taken to ensure that girls participate
actively, effectively and equally with boys at all levels of
social, economic, political and cultural activities, and to
ensure positive interaction of girls and boys throughout these
activities.
57. Educationalists and community leaders alike are urged to
take initiatives in creating a learning environment in which
girls are given equal encouragement and opportunities to continue
their education. Awareness-raising training courses can be
organized to target parents, classroom teachers, boys and girls.
Training focussed on education of parents a part of population
and family life education programmes may be particularly
effective. School curricula, textbooks and other teaching
materials need to be reviewed from a gender perspective. If
necessary, changes should be made to ensure that positive role
models for girls are included in and negative images of girls and
women are eliminated from these materials. Girls should not be
discouraged from taking up traditionally "male"
subjects, and they may also receive more encouragement to
participate in sports, in particular, team sports. Communities,
parents and guardians can coordinate to ensure that the passages
to schools are safe for girls to walk alone, if needed.
58. States who have not signed or ratified the Convention on
the Rights of the Child and/or the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women are urged to take
urgent measures towards signing and ratifying the Convention.
States who have signed and ratified the two Conventions are urged
to ensure their full implementation through the adoption of all
necessary legislative, administrative and other measures and by
fostering an enabling environment that encourages full respect
for the rights of adolescent girls. At the same time, the
Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women are encouraged to
make a particular reference to the needs and situations of
adolescent girls when considering country reports and their
comments should address those issues.
59. Lower status of women in many cultures is often directly
linked to the gender bias in investment in girls. Investment in
the empowerment of women throughout the life-cycle must be
encouraged. Policies and programmes with an aim to create a
non-discriminatory environment in which girls are respected as
equal citizens and are encouraged to pursue their dreams and to
exploit their potential, are needed to help develop empowered
women of the future.
--- ~ ---
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