Social institutions as mediating sites for changing gender norms: Nurturing girl’s resilience to child marriage in Uganda

Abstract

abstractPoised at the intersection between childhood and the world of adults, adolescent girls face unique challenges to the full development and exercise of their capabilities. Child marriage, one of the forms of sexual violence is noted to constrain and/or shape girls’ current and life-course opportunities and capabilities. The practice remains widespread in Uganda, associated with gender discriminatory social norms, attitudes and practices that make up the social ecology in which adolescent girls live in Uganda. Drawing on a three-year qualitative study on transforming the lives of adolescent girls and young women in Uganda undertaken between 2012 and 2014, the article illuminates the role of social institutions as mediating sites in nurturing girls’ resilience to child marriage in Uganda. With reference to the socio-ecological model of resilience, the family was posited as a foundational site for nurturing girls’ resilience to discriminatory social norms and practices that sustain child marriage. The school was also noted to be a mediating site that offers support structures and acts as a springboard for positive change. The findings suggest that coordinated actions by multiple actors at the family and school level to effectively address the underlying discriminatory social norms and their manifestations in limiting girls’ capabilities have potential to enhance girls’ resilience to child marriage and promote girls’ empowerment.