Incorporating Gender Dialogues into Strategies for the Promotion of Family Planning

Reproductive health (RH) interventions are often designed to promote equitable gender norms, but there are few published studies that directly examine the relationship between family planning (FP) use and interventions designed to change gender norms. Here we test the hypothesis that promoting gender equity in the context of RH can improve gender norms and increase use of FP by conducting pre/post surveys with participants in community workshops targeting gender norms and FP. Thirty communities in Guatemala and 22 in Tanzania were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Data analysis consisted of comparisons of odds ratios estimated with mixed effect logistic models to account for community-level randomization and repeated measures per participant. Analyses showed statistically significant effects on two of three outcomes examined: gender attitudes and contraceptive knowledge. Findings regarding contraceptive use were suggestive but not significant. The results suggest that it is possible to influence both inequitable gender norms and contraceptive knowledge using communication interventions that engage couples in re-thinking gender norms that act as barriers to health. The results are particularly impressive given the brevity of the intervention, four workshop sessions over the period of only a month.