Engaging Coaches and Athletes in Fostering Gender Equity and Reducing violence

against girls and women

Findings from the Parivartan Program in Mumbai, India

Why Sports? Why Coaches?Sports

Sports is predominantly a ‘masculine’ institutionPower, control and entitlement

It is critical to confront and question masculinity norms and practices within the sports

Coaches

Coaches embody power, hierarchy and

inequality and are looked up as role models

What is Parivartan?It means “Transformation” (Change for

Better) individual transformation leading to social transformation

Based on the US Model “Coaching Boys into Men”

Implemented in Mumbai in formal and informal settings with support fromFutures Without ViolenceMSSA, Apnalaya, BreakthroughNIKE FOUNDATION

What did we want to accomplish through Parivartan?

Among the male coaches/mentors and athletes:Raise awareness about abusive and disrespectful

behaviorPromote gender-equitable, non-violent attitudes Develop skills to speak up and intervene when

witnessing harmful and disrespectful behaviorsThis would contribute to transforming damaging

masculine norms that condone abuse against women and girls, thereby improving their dignity and safety.

Formative Research: Setting the Field

Key Findings from the formative research set the field for the program (29 in-depth/6 FGD):Coaches still believe in the segregated role of girls

and boys Coaches don’t feel comfortable going beyond cricket

coachingIt is something new to them but they are willing and

recognize the importance

The ideal coach serves as a mirror to reflect back which we fail to see about ourselves; coach is someone who really cares a lot and can ‐

contribute significantly to the quality of life of an athlete.

Program DesignQuasi-experimental with two arms,

Experiment group (25 schools with 377 athletes & 16 Mentors with 228 athletes)

Control group (20 schools with 286 athletes & 15 Mentors with 178 athletes)

Public Education Campaign:• 9750 boys and girls at the school & community

level. • Community men and women

Coaches (45) and mentors (31) Core Coaches Group/Master Trainers (10

members; including intervention partners and coaches)

Intervention Component

Mentors/Coaches: Coaching Clinic Workshops and training

Gender norms, violenceSessions on Cards

Facilitationcommunication

Materials:Card Series; Coaches Handbook; Diary; Banners; Posters; stickers, Comic strips

Intervention component

Athletes: Cricket Coaching, usual for school and

through coaches clinic for community Weekly Sessions by coaches/mentors using

card seriesrespect, Fair-play, Aggression and abusive language, violence including sexual violence and harassment,intention to intervene, and bystander intervention

How did Parivartan work in the field?

Workshops for Coaches & Mentors led by Leadership Council & implementing organizations (12 days/4 months)

Build perspectives and self reflection around gender and violence; engage

athletes in critical thinkingCoaches & Mentors used ‘card series’ to

engage athletes, talk to them in the field & use real examples as ‘teachable’ moments (12 cards/6 months)

What changes did we achieve through this program?

School and community athletes in the program became more supportive of gender equity than non-participants

Manhood & Masculinity

School Community

School and community athletes in the program became more supportive of gender equity than non-participants.

Agreement with traditional notions about women and girls also declined: A wife should always obey her husbandViolence against girls are perpetrated by strangersIf a girls says no, it means yes

Boys’ Controlling BehaviorsLess improvement especially among school

athletes

The community athletes became significantly less supportive of the physical abuse of girls.

There was a decline in agreement with all seven statements about when girls deserve to be beaten among community athletes

But strong agreement continued for “when she doesn’t help with household chores”

School athletes did not show a corresponding level of change

School and community athletes report greater intentions to positively intervene in response to hypothetical scenarios of abuse against girls.

School athletes in response to observing sexual

joking about a girl or a girl being sexually

assaulted.

Community athletes in response to sexual joking,

assaulting a girl sexually, yelling at girls and

spreading sexual rumors about girls.

Despite improvements in intentions to intervene, there were no significant changes in their bystander intervention behaviors.

Peer violence shows some decline but still remains high among both the school and community athletes.

Among the community athletes, both program and non-program participants report a decline in sexually abusive behaviors.the result shows some change, which should be

interpreted as a promising change. These findings point to the need for more in-depth

research

The athletes report less perpetration of violence.

What effects did participation in the training and the overall program have on the coaches?

Coaches & mentors became more supportive of equitable gender roles and relationships.

“The program helped me think how as men and women we are all equal. Earlier I used to think that men are always powerful and they can do anything that they want. But now I think in a different way”. ‘Sharing of powers gives more power’

Coaches and mentors wrestled with women’s and girls’ mobility.

They identified various security and safety

considerations for justifying men’s control over

their behavior.

This is an area that needs greater attention.

The program was well accepted by both the coaches & athletes

“With each session, I can vouch there was a change in the cognition of these boys. Once you go in the depths of a discussion—making it light, yet serious at the same time—you will see there is a change in their thinking level. And this you will see has also resulted in a change in their attitude level,”

For school athletes, the most common change was stopping the use of abusive language; for the community athletes it was helping with household chores

What changes did the wives, mothers or daughters of the coaches and mentors perceive as a result of the men’s participation in the program?

The female relatives noted improvements in the men’s gender-related attitudes and behaviors:

Communication with family membersSharing of household responsibilitiesViews about women and girlsAggressive behaviorEmotional and sexual intimacy

The wife of a mentor described how his approach to sex and intimacy has changed. “…in the beginning when he was in the mood of having sex he never asked me about my willingness…….but now its not like that, he thinks that if I am not in that mood its all right. …….I used to take pills for family planning but he stopped me. He said that, if I take pills it may create problem but if he uses condom he will have no problem”.

 

Conclusion & Way ForwardSports is an effective platform to engage

coaches and boys on issues of gender and violence.

Parivartan’s success raises several questions around opportunities and challenges:

How can these positive changes be sustained among the coaches/mentors & athletes?

How feasible is it to scale this initiative to a larger group?

How can this effort be institutionalized at various levels?

How can women & girls be more actively engaged?