For many women, the biggest barrier they face is the societal belief of what women should be, and how they should be allowed to behave. That’s the underlying cause of a lot of barriers for rural women. CARE Ethiopia, and especially the GRAD project (funded through USAID’s Feed the Future), use Social Analysis and Action, a technique for engaging men and strengthening women’s wellbeing in the community. SAA creates community dialogue on social norms, and provides safe spaces for men and women to discuss challenges and come up with solutions. Following an Outcome Mapping evaluation process, the communities highlighted their results:
“Now we do not argue with our husbands like before. We discuss issues, especially about our resources like how to sell our land or cattle.”
- 40-year-old mother from Hawassa Zuria
According to the review process, women’s economic engagement appears to have been a stepping stone towards a number of other changes in gender relations, including women’s greater involvement in household livelihood decisions. Women’s participation in VESAs—often alongside their husbands—was an important catalyst for these changes.
The subtle signs of more equitable relationships—such as men and women eating together or calling each other by name—are rewarding and can be self-reinforcing, leading to ever greater communication, understanding, and trust in the relationship. For programs that aim to shift gender dynamics, it may be that putting more energy and focus on relationship behaviors such as these (rather than, say, insisting that men begin to take on previously taboo tasks) could lead to a more profound process of renegotiation of power dynamics in the household.
More information is available in the learning brief or the full evaluation.
For many women, the biggest barrier they face is the societal belief of what women should be, and how they should be allowed to behave. That’s the underlying cause of a lot of barriers for rural women. CARE Ethiopia, and especially the GRAD project (funded through USAID’s Feed the Future), use Social Analysis and Action, a technique for engaging men and strengthening women’s wellbeing in the community. SAA creates community dialogue on social norms, and provides safe spaces for men and women to discuss challenges and come up with solutions. Following an Outcome Mapping evaluation process, the communities highlighted their results:
“Now we do not argue with our husbands like before. We discuss issues, especially about our resources like how to sell our land or cattle.”
- 40-year-old mother from Hawassa Zuria
According to the review process, women’s economic engagement appears to have been a stepping stone towards a number of other changes in gender relations, including women’s greater involvement in household livelihood decisions. Women’s participation in VESAs—often alongside their husbands—was an important catalyst for these changes.
The subtle signs of more equitable relationships—such as men and women eating together or calling each other by name—are rewarding and can be self-reinforcing, leading to ever greater communication, understanding, and trust in the relationship. For programs that aim to shift gender dynamics, it may be that putting more energy and focus on relationship behaviors such as these (rather than, say, insisting that men begin to take on previously taboo tasks) could lead to a more profound process of renegotiation of power dynamics in the household.
More information is available in the learning brief or the full evaluation.
Ms. Emily Janoch