Project dissemination

WE-SAY: bananas Dissemination of the WE-SAY project began with a panel presentation within the Gender Justice SIG of the Comparative International Education Society Annual Conference in February 2023.

The first presentation (Reworking Gender, Education and Work in Sub Saharan Africa – Barbara Crossouard and Máiréad Dunne) critiqued human capital theory (the dominant lens used in international development to understand relationship of education and work) for its failure to consider women’s reproductive work. It argued for attention to the gender regimes that framed education and work, and for methodological approaches that could attend to their intersections.

WE-SAY: baby In Paper 2, (We will have our say: education and work for young women in Northern Nigeria), Dauda Moses and Safiya Adamu drew on their analysis of the Life History Interviews to highlight the multiple forms of work demanded of young women in rural contexts of Northern Nigeria. They further highlighted how gender violence was intrinsic to young women’s schooling, work and livelihoods. Despite being forced out of school at an early age because of marriage expectations, some young women did however return to complete their education, sometimes becoming teachers themselves. However, this always required the support of their husband and wider family, and this was not always in place.

WE-SAY: Hope in our hands In Paper 3 (Advocating for Change in the Community: Young Women: Education and Work for Young Women in Rural South Africa) Relebohile Moletsane, Nkonzo Mkhize and Lisa Wiesbesiek elaborated on their extensive engagement with the co-researcher participants through participatory visual methods before highlighting how young women’s work and education in this context continued to be affected by the legacies of colonialism and apartheid as well as corruption. These all contributed to the reproduction of inequalities related both to race and gender.

Further dissemination of the project will take place at an end of project event at the University of Sussex on 24 May 2023. This will be an open event with face to face and online participation possible.

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Respondent Commentary from Dr Paul Fean, Plan International

The session was a valuable interrogation of gender, education and work with relevance to the work of youth training and employment actors, including INGOs such as Plan International. The research questioned the assumptions of the linear pathway from learning to earning, while also highlighting the realities of young women’s experience at home, education and work.

The detailed learning of the study provides depth of understanding on key elements of Plan International’s gender transformative approach:

Gender norms were emphasised through the whole study, including gendered space in education and the hidden curriculum, gender roles in homes, and the broader impact of social norms on access to work.
Reflecting on the enabling environment needed by young women to learn and access employment, the study illustrated why an enabling environment should not be assumed and particularly the importance of working with teachers to promote gender equality.
The participatory approach of the study, in which the young women were co-research participants, centred their agency in the process.

Overall, the research shows the need for practitioners to understand the diverse experiences of young women in all their diversity through detailed gender analysis and participatory approaches to learn how to support young women transition to and stay in gender responsive work.