A Compilation Of Research On Rural Girls And Young Women S Issues

This review is part of a larger project, which shines light on the potential of rural girls and young women to contribute to community development. The project engages youth and rural organizations to advance the leadership and community involvement of rural young women. Project activities include a partnership with four rural organizations to deliver leadership programs with female youth; regional meetings of girls program practitioners in the Atlantic and Prairie regions; webinars on topics related to rural young women's empowerment; and another publication gathering successful practices and perspectives of rural communities working for girls and young women's well-being and empowerment across Canada.

Life in the countryside, often perceived as either idyllic or depleted, has long been misrepresented. Challenging the stereotypes and myths that surround the idea of rurality, Our Rural Selves interrogates and represents individual and collective memories of childhood in rural landscapes and small towns. Drawing on visual artifacts whose origins range from the early twentieth century to today, such as photographs, films, objects, picture books, and digital games, contributors offer readings of childhood that are geographically, ethnically, and culturally diverse. They examine the memories of Indigenous children, the experiences of back-to-the-land youth, and boom-or-bust childhoods within the petroleum, farming, and fishing industries. Illustrating often neglected and overlooked aspects of adolescence, this collection suggests new ways of studying social connectedness and collective futures. Innovative and revealing in its use of visual studies, autoethnography, and memory-work, Our Rural Selves explores representation, imagination, and what it means to grow up rural in Canada.

This book investigates the barriers to women’s economic empowerment in the Global South. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of countries, the book outlines important lessons and practical solutions for promoting gender equality. Despite global progress in closing gender gaps in education and health, women’s economic empowerment has lagged behind, with little evidence that economic growth promotes gender equality. International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme was set up to provide policy lessons, insights, and concrete solutions that could lead to advances in gender equality, particularly on the role of institutions and macroeconomic growth, barriers to labour market access for women, and the impact of women’s care responsibilities. This book showcases rigorous and multi-disciplinary research emerging from this ground-breaking programme, covering topics such as the school-to-work transition, child marriage, unpaid domestic work and childcare, labour market segregation, and the power of social and cultural norms that prevent women from fully participating in better paid sectors of the economy. With a range of rich case studies from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, this book is perfect for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in the Global South.

Subsequent to the demographic transition, Asian countries have been experiencing deep-rooted changes in family structures. In this context, the question of gender relations within the family, and more generally within society, is crucial, in view of the increase in discriminatory practices toward women, beginning at foetal conception and continuing through all stages of life. Asia is the “black continent” for women. Estimates place the deficit in the number of women in the world at between 60 and 100 million, the vast majority of which is found on this continent. This book focuses on the intensity of female discrimination, from a demographic perspective, in the earliest stages of life, and more specifically around birth, in China, India, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan. These societies share cultural characteristics that are not favourable to women: patriarchal systems, patrilineal families, socialization processes encouraging the submission of wives to their husband's family, etc. In these societies, a son is needed to perpetuate the family line and ensure social and biological reproduction of the family. These are among the reasons why they share a strong son preference, which is in some cases accentuated by economic constraints. A son is generally the only person to support his parents in old age, and as a rule help with work in the fields. Moreover, girls and women still occupy a marginal position in society, whereas a male heir offers countless advantages.

Despite recent advances in important aspects of the lives of girls and women, pervasive challenges remain. These challenges reflect widespread deprivations and constraints and include epidemic levels of gender-based violence and discriminatory laws and norms that prevent women from owning property, being educated, and making meaningful decisions about their own lives--such as whether and when to marry or have children. These often violate their most basic rights and are magnified and multiplied by poverty and lack of education. This groundbreaking book distills vast data and hundreds of studies to shed new light on deprivations and constraints facing the voice and agency of women and girls worldwide, and on the associated costs for individuals, families, communities, and global development. The volume presents major new findings about the patterns of constraints and overlapping deprivations and focuses on several areas key to women s empowerment: freedom from violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, ownership of land and housing, and voice and collective action. It highlights promising reforms and interventions from around the world and lays out an urgent agenda for governments, civil society, development agencies, and other stakeholders, including a call for greater investment in data and knowledge to benchmark progress.

This report aims to 'crack the code' by deciphering the factors that hinder and facilitate girls' and women's participation, achievement and continuation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and, in particular, what the education sector can do to promote girls' and women's interest in and engagement with STEM education and ultimately STEM careers.