Research into Gender Equality and Early Childhood Development in Eleven Countries in Asia

"These findings are of concern because they suggest that in the communities studied, the existing gender discrimination, the low social position of women and the gendered distribution of labour are being taught from the earliest age, instilled in young children before they even reach primary school and in this way are being transmitted from one generation to the next."

Between 2014 and 2015, Plan and partner organisations conducted research on the gender dimensions of early childhood care and education (ECCE) and parenting initiatives in 11 countries of the Asia region using Plan's gender in early childhood development (ECD) assessment tools. The research, which was primarily qualitative, aimed to support teams to identify where existing interventions need to be strengthened in order that they: support parents/caregivers and educators to provide girls and boys equal care and opportunities for learning and play and ensure that children grow up free of limiting gendered expectations and attitudes around how they should behave, how they are valued, and what they will be in the future. The report synthesises the findings from the different countries, highlighting common issues around the gendered distribution of care work and men's limited engagement, as well as the fact that in many of the communities studied, girls and boys are being prepared - from an early age - to be mothers/caregivers and fathers/providers of the future.

The pilot application of the Gender and ECCD self-assessment tool developed by Plan, which contained several qualitative (and one quantitative) tools, took place in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. Plan was motivated to carry out this work based on the observation that:

• Gender socialisation starts at birth - By the time girls and boys reach primary school, many already have a clear idea of how they are expected to behave, what the consequence might be for not conforming to these expectations, how they are valued based on their sex, and what roles they are expected to fulfil throughout their lives.
• ECD programming has gender transformative potential offering an entry point to: sensitively challenge the ways that girls and boys are socialised into stereotypical attitudes and expectations about the roles, behaviours, and value of their sex; promote changes in the gender roles and relationships among the adults who surround and care for young children; and encourage caregivers and educators to value and care for girls and boys equally.
• The gender transformative potential of ECD programmes is often not being leveraged, with many programmes continuing to reinforce gendered norms and sterotypes.

These country assessments were not intended or planned to be rigorous research projects, and the teams were piloting and testing newly developed qualitative tools. The fact that participants and facilitators of parenting groups as well as ECCE centre/pre-school teachers are virtually all women in many countries meant that in some countries the majority of the respondents were female and the perspectives of men were not covered to the same extent. Several countries noted challenges in applying the tools because respondents didn't understand the questions. For these and other reasons, Plan stresses that the findings are not generalisable to the overall population in the areas studied. They do, however, provide a "snapshot" and suggest that there are possibly many commonalities across these different contexts.

In brief, the study findings suggest that, in the communities studied:

• There is a clear gendered division of labour, with women primarily responsible for care work, childrearing, and community work, and the men primarily responsible for income generation and decision-making. When women are also expected to play a productive role and contribute to household income, this responsibility is added on to their existing parental/caring and community roles, rather than these responsibilities being shared by others.
• The productive work of men is seen as more important, while "women's work" - care work and childrearing - is thought to be of lesser value. As a result, men are in control and make the decisions, even when these relate to childrearing or early childhood education - areas in which they are otherwise very little involved. When women do enter the workforce, it is usually in "caring roles" that are less valued and poorly paid.
• Adults - parents/caregivers/teachers - attribute to girls/women and boys/men inherent qualities, characteristics, and abilities that reinforce the maintenance of gendered roles and the gendered division of labour described above.
• Parents are not being encouraged to challenge or even to examine these gendered roles and norms when parenting groups are almost exclusively attended and facilitated by women. Nor are they encouraged to think differently about what to expect from their girls and boys, about what is natural, and what is learned and reinforced.
• Even where enrolment and attendance rates for girls and boys are roughly equivalent, their opportunities to learn - and to learn specific skills - are often different. For example, when young girls are kept in the home - as was the case in many countries - they had less opportunity than boys to explore, observe, and interact with other people and the world around them, and to learn from these interactions.
• Girls are potentially learning from the earliest age that they are less valuable and important than boys - and boys are learning that they are more valuable and powerful that girls. They learn this: from the way that girls and boys are depicted differently in story/picture books; when boys are told that they are the "inheritors of the next generation"; from the way boys are put first and allowed to play a dominant and active role in the classroom (while girls are praised for being quiet and obedient); and from the way they see the women around them occupied in lower value roles and tasks.
• For similar reasons and in similar ways, girls and boys are potentially being prepared from the earliest age to behave in ways that are expected and socially acceptable for their gender.
• Girls and boys are learning about their future roles by observing the adults around them and how their behaviours model and reflect what is expected in their society to be a good man/father or a good woman/mother.

Following these assessments, which Plan says are "cause for concern", Plan and partner organisations in the study countries concluded that more needed to be done in ongoing ECD programming to ensure that:

• Interventions that aim to ensure children's access to inclusive, quality early childhood/pre-primary education challenge, rather than reinforce, biased and stereotypical gender socialisation processes - including through: review of the curriculum; review and replacement of printed reading/learning materials; review of teacher training curriculum; and ongoing training and support of educators for gender transformative pedagogy and classroom management.
• Strengths-based, culturally sensitive work with the parents and caregivers of young children: incorporate explicit and effective action to promote men's engagement while taking care that their increased participation does not suppress women's participation; incorporate opportunities for collective reflection and discussion about the implications of the existing gender socialisation processes and the gendered division of labour for children's development and the wellbeing of the family; and support parents and caregivers to provide equal care and treatment to their sons and daughters.
• ECD projects are designed to identify the social and gender norms that underpin the different expectations that adults have about the behaviours, value, potential, and future roles of girls and boys - and to support changes in the norms and expectations that underpin behaviours and practices that are not in the best interests of girls and boys.
• ECD project monitoring and evaluation frameworks and plans are adapted in order to allow assessment of any changes in gender norms, gaps, roles, and relationships that occur and to which the project may have contributed.
• Organisational and staff capacities are sufficient to ensure that ECD projects are at a minimum gender aware and progressively gender transformative.

Conclusions from the findings were used for the development of action plans to strengthen the gender equality approach of the ECD programming, as well as to address staff and organisational capacity gaps. A revised version of the Gender and ECCD assessment tool has been developed based on feedback and recommendations for strengthening the original tool from the study countries.