Feminist
Research
Education
Development
and
Action Centre
The FREDA Centre
for Research on Violence
against Women and Children
for Research on Violence
against Women and Children
The Girl Child: Having to 'Fit'
Yasmin Jiwani, Ph.D. October 1998
The recent focus on the "girl child" can be attributed
to the ongoing work of advocates who sought to bring attention
to the specific conditions affecting girls throughout the world.
Formed in 1993 at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights,
the Working Groups on Girls (WGGs) aims were to ensure that governments
were implementing measures to protect girls from gender-based
discrimination, oppression and exploitation. The WGGs were active
in ensuring that the concerns of girl children were addressed
at the Fourth World Conference of Women, held in Beijing, China
in 1995, and included in the Platform for Action.
At Beijing, women delegates from around the world reported the
continued exploitation and abuse of girls in spite of the ratification
of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) in 1981, the Convention of the Rights of
the Child in November, 1989, and the World Congress Against Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm in 1996. Specific
issues raised by delegates included the violence directed at girls
in the form of female genital mutilation, forced and early marriages,
sexual exploitation, unequal access to education, health care
and other services.
According to the NGO Girl Child Caucus at the Conference, the
situation of girls requires urgent action: a quarter of the 500,000
women who die every year because of complications in pregnancy
and childbirth are young women in their teens. Girls are immunized
at a lower rate, given less nurturing, and are breast-fed for
shorter periods than boys. Young girls also tend to be employed
in occupations that are unprotected and more vulnerable to economic
exploitation and sexual harassment.
The Platform for Action contains several strategic objectives
addressing the issue of the girl child. These objectives emphasize
the need to eliminate sexist discrimination against girls, ensure
equal access to education, information, medical and social services,
increase awareness of and protection of the rights of girls, and
ensure that steps are taken to protect girls against violence.
Paragraph 238b of the Platform for Action compels governments
to "Take appropriate legislative, administrative, social
and educational measures to protect the girl child, in the household
and in society, from all forms of physical or mental violence,
injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment
or exploitation, including sexual abuse."
The Canadian Situation
In the contemporary climate of backlash, illusory gender equality,
and fiscal restraint, how has the Canadian girl child fared?
Not very well.
Despite the various international accords which highlight the
need for gender-specific policies and programs, these are not
viewed with much favour at the regional, territorial and national
levels, the exception being those federal departments and ministries
entrusted with that responsibility. However, even at these levels,
the ceaseless attacks in the name of an illusory gender equality,
have the effect of compromising the allocation of resources toward
the development and implementation of any gender-specific programs.
Hence, the needs of "girls" are
collapsed into the
category of "youth" and "children." In
British Columbia, responsibility for gender-specific programming
aimed at girls and young women is now being shifted to the Ministry
for Children and Families, with any reference to gender being
dropped along the way!
School-based violence prevention programs are becoming more generic.
The recognition that much of the violence directed at girls and
women is gender-based and expressive of patriarchal power and
authority, is now being eroded and substituted by a growing emphasis
on "bullying" in the school yard, and girl gang violence
suggesting that girls are just as violent as boys. Thus, in terms
of violence, it would seem that girls have achieved gender parity!
However, such a view obscures not only the differences between
girls but also masks the reality that girls are subject to sexual
violence. The Canadian Federation of University Women's report
on the Girl Child reveals that more than
half (54%) of girls
under the age of 16 have experienced some form of unwanted sexual
attention; another 24% have experienced rape or coercive sex,
and 17% have experienced incest. Of the sexual assaults reported
to police, 63% involve girls under 18 years of age. These figures
do not take into consideration those girls who have witnessed
violence at home or school.
For girls who are differently situated by
virtue of their race,
sexual orientation, disability and class, the situation is compounded
by their marginalization and "lack of fit" within the
dominant, white, heterosexual world. The situation of young
lesbians has been documented in the US revealing a suicide rate
that is two to three times that of the national average. Stigmatized
and subjected to verbal and physical abuse, these girls lead a
socially isolated existence. Homophobic attitudes construct the
closet - "compulsory heterosexuality" ensures that they
remain there. Similarly, girls with disabilities experience higher
rates of sexual abuse (at 4 times the national average) because
of their dependent status, isolation, and the negative stereotypes
that prevail in the dominant society. Afraid to report the abuse
because of the fear of not being believed, many of these girls
continue to lead lives that are jeopardized by threats and actual
incidents of violence.
The heightened vulnerability to violence experienced by Aboriginal/indigenous
girls has also been noted. In Canada, 75% of Aboriginal girls
under the age of 18 have been sexually abused. Furthermore, Aboriginal
girls are hospitalized for attempting suicide at twice the rate
of boys. These figures do not begin to tell the full story.
State-level violence as imposed
through child apprehension
and transfers to foster homes, allows for the state to continue its
practices of colonization. Confronted by racism, sexual abuse,
physical and verbal abuse, many girls choose to run away from
foster homes and reserves. Homeless and destitute, they survive
on the streets where their vulnerability to violence escalates.
It has been noted that the mortality rates for Canadian girls
and women on the streets is 40 times higher.
The Working Groups on Girls (WGGs) noted in its report that immigrant
and refugee girls also experience higher rates of violence because
of dislocation, racism and sexism from both within their own communities
and the external society. Caught between two cultures, where
their own is devalued and inferiorized, and where cultural scripts
in both worlds encode patriarchal values, these girls face a tremendous
struggle in trying to "fit." When they don't, they
suffer intense backlash. Economic pressures force many of them
to turn to the sex-trade and to work that is devalued. Harsh
immigration restrictions force many of them to use illegal routes
to get into the country, the payment for that often being sexual
exploitation.
Poverty is one of the major contributing factors to the violence
experienced by girls. In the hierarchy of industrialized countries,
Canada's child poverty ranks second. In the cities, 1 out of
every 3 children is raised in a home with an income below the
poverty line. In rural areas, the rate is 1 in 5.
Poverty
itself constitutes a form of violence, but that violence is
compounded by the particular pressures of living in a society
that values consumption and material wealth. Poverty and homelessness
facilitate the sexual exploitation of girls and young women.
Attempting to "fit" has severe consequences.
Self-mutilation
and self-hatred mark the lives of many Canadian girls - often
taking the form of addictions. Sexualized by the media, constructed
as commodities and markets, trained to be nurturers and caregivers,
and having their needs and voices trivialized and dismissed, it
is no wonder that girls today want some kind of power and self-respect.
In a series of focus groups consisting of girls in Vancouver,
Victoria and Whitehorse, the majority of girls identified respect
as a key issue. They talked about the need to have girl-only
spaces where they can come together, and where they can find some
refuge from abusive parents, boyfriends and peers. They communicated
the violence they experienced, and how difficult it was for them
to "fit" in a context where the constant messages they
were receiving was that they were sexual objects, passive and
unintelligent. For many of these girls, violence had become something
that they had to learn to expect. They talked about constantly
having to "watch their backs." And they had very little
hope that things would change.
The kinds of violence that Canadian girls encounter spans the
entire continuum - from verbal, physical and psychological abuse,
to sexual violence, homophobia, racism, classism, and poverty.
While girl gang violence may be prominent in the public imagination,
the reality is, as a recent Elizabeth Fry Society report reveals,
that only 3.83% of violent crimes are committed by young female
offenders.
As a signatory to various international accords and declarations,
Canada has a responsibility to ensure that it fulfills the articles
outlined in these accords. Yet, the reality shows otherwise.
Most violence prevention programs are under-funded and sporadic.
Funders exert pressure on organizations to couch their applications
in gender-neutral language. In the name of an illusory equality,
buffeted by backlash, the language of governments has shifted
away from incorporating (a hard-won) recognition of male violence
to a gender-neutral concept of violence. Using the rhetoric of
law and order, violence is then simply defined in criminal terms
legitimizing the increased resources allocated toward policing
and crime prevention. The root causes of violence, and the notion
of violence as a core trait of patriarchy, are erased from the
public mind and the public purse!
Author's Note:
In
March, 1998, Status of Women Canada provided
funding to the Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence for the
development of
a national action plan on Violence Prevention and the Girl Child.
The information used in this article is derived from the background
research conducted by the Alliance. Each Centre also conducted
focus groups with girls and service providers in its respective
region. The FREDA Centre acknowledges the assistance of Monica
Blais, Kim Rogers, Zara Suleman and Annabel Webb in conducting
the focus groups in Vancouver, Victoria and Whitehorse. However,
the author assumes final responsibility for any errors or quotes
out of context.