Introduction
Innovators told us that gender discrimination, gender-based violence and women’s low status contribute to poor maternal mental and physical health, impede mothers in their parenting, and create risks to childhood development. Innovators also spoke about how low rates of father involvement in caring for the young children can impede healthy early child development.
By deepening understanding of gender dynamics, innovators have altered the design and implementation of their innovation.
Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) is committed to advancing gender equality. GCC's Gender Equality Portal includes a suite of modules to support incorporation of gender considerations into your applications and innovations, a white paper with more in-depth analysis of how GCC integrates gender into its programs, and additional links and resources.
To help guide your gender analysis, here is a list of sample questions from GCC adapted specifically for Saving Brains innovators.
For example, innovators from Vietnam’s Learning Clubs and India’s Stepping Stones increased father participation in parenting sessions by including videos and pictures of fathers caring for children. These innovators report that after participating in parenting sessions, fathers contributed more to childcare activities such as bathing and playing with their child.
On the symptoms of unequal gender relations >
Stepping Stones
Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences
India
…some symptoms of [unequal gender relations] include the continued practice of female seclusion, very low female labour force participation rates, a large gender gap in literacy rates, extremely restricted female property rights, strong gender preference, widespread neglect of female children and a drastic separation of [a] married woman from her natal family.
On gender inequality's adverse impact on early childhood development >
Jane Fisher, Learning Clubs
Research and Training Center for Community Development and Monash University Partnership
Vietnam
Gender equality and gender-based violence are only two of the risk factors related to women’s mental health problems which have adverse consequences on child development. But together they constitute … the biggest risk factors. When we developed the Learning Clubs project, we felt gender equality had to be addressed directly in the intervention.
Watch a short clip with Aisha Yousafzai on why gender matters for early childhood development, exploring issues such as income, early education, play, stereotypes, female labour work force, and public policy.