In the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, where sexual assault is rampant, an NGO called No Means No Worldwide has made important inroads in reducing rape of girls and women. As I've reported previously, their empowerment program for high-school girls teaches young women that they are entitled to stop unwanted sexual advances and gives them skills to do so.
But, in a culture with persistent denigration of women, girls' lack of empowerment is only part of the problem. Fortunately, the people at No Means No Worldwide have also been asking how to improve male attitudes and behaviors toward women.
The curriculum for these young men is centered on getting them to think about what kind of people they want to be
Today, they're reporting success in the first study of their curriculum for adolescent boys. The set of six two-hour classes for young men in impoverished Nairobi high schools focused on getting participants to challenge prevailing ideas about of women, as a Stanford expert who worked on the study explains in our press release:
“The curriculum for these young men is centered on getting them to think about what kind of people they want to be,” said lead author Jennifer Keller, PhD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “It’s about really getting them invested in why they need to step up and care about violence toward women: It affects their mothers, sisters and girlfriends.”
The classes helped boys recognize the cultural normalization of violence against women, and gain skills and courage to stop it. Topics of discussion included myths about women, negative gender stereotypes, when and how to safely intervene if you see someone else acting violently toward a woman, and what constitutes consent to sexual activity:
“If you think that when you take a woman out to dinner, she owes you something, you may believe that consent is different than it actually is,” Keller said. “The instructors and young men talked about understanding what true consent is and how to get that consent.”
At the end of the classes and at follow-up nine months later, the boys and young men who participated had significantly better attitudes and beliefs about women than a control group who participated in a life-skills class. Members of the intervention group also were more likely to step in to try to stop violent behavior they saw toward women. In the future, the research team plans to test whether the program also improves young men's behavior in their own relationships with girlfriends.
Previously: Rape prevention program in Kenya attracting media attention, funding, Working to prevent sexual assaults in Kenya and Empowerment training prevents rape of Kenyan girls
Photo of participants in the "Your Moment of Truth" program by Duthie Photography, courtesy of No Means No Worldwide
