Exploring the Impact of National Laws Against Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
Open AccessBackground: Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a harmful traditional practice and a form of gender-based violence perpetrated against women and girls globally. The practice can have lasting negative health consequences for its survivors and has no health benefits. With over 200 million women and girls affected by the practice worldwide, eliminating FGM/C is a priority in the international community. The passage of anti-FGM/C national laws has been noted as one key avenue to support the elimination of FGM/C, yet rigorous evidence on the topic has been lacking. Aims and Methods: This dissertation analyzed nationally-representative data from the Demographic and Health Surveys in Senegal (2019) and Kenya (2008-9 and 2014) to explore the impact of the passage of national laws against FGM/C. The first aim focused on examining the causal impact of the passage of the anti-FGM/C law in Senegal by using a regression discontinuity approach. This approach exploited the timing of the passage of the Senegalese law in January 1999 to obtain a causal estimate of its impact on women’s likelihood of FGM/C. The second objective had two aims – 1) to examine the explanatory pathways of four predictors (beliefs surrounding FGM/C as a religious requirement (FGM/C belief), women’s own FGM/C status, regular media exposure, and household decision-making) to daughters’ FGM/C via women’s attitudes on the continuation of the practice (FGM/C attitude) in Kenya and 2) the moderating role that national law may play on these explanatory pathways. For these aims, a path analysis was run to test mediation effects, and then a multiple group path analysis was run to test the modifying effect of law among the explanatory pathways. Results: In Senegal, the national law resulted in a statistically significant reduction (coef=-0.202, SE=0.090, p=0.019) in the likelihood of FGM/C at the time of passage. This estimate was valid and stable based on several robustness checks conducted to support the internal validity of the regression discontinuity approach. In Kenya, there were significant indirect and total effects of FGM/C belief and women’s FGM/C status, independently, via FGM/C attitude on daughters’ FGM/C. Compared to women who believed FGM/C was a religious requirement, those women who did not had a lower probability of having any daughters with FGM/C (indirect: b= -0.649, SE=0.100; 95% CI: -0.846, -0.452; total b = -0.788, SE = 0.084; 95% CI:-0.945, -0.617). Additionally, women who had experienced FGM/C had a higher probability of having any daughters with FGM/C, compared to women who had not experienced FGM/C (indirect: b=0.133, SE=0.027; 95% CI: 0.084, 0.193; total b=1.851, SE=0.112; 95% CI:1.652, 2.076). When examining the modifying effect of the law, these explanatory pathways remained significant when stratified by the existence of the law. In addition, regular media exposure only had significant indirect and total effects on daughters’ FGM/C post-law. Testing the differences pre-law to post-law, the effect of FGM/C belief on FGM/C attitude, along with the total effects of women’s FGM/C status and regular media exposure were significantly different. This indicated initial support for the modifying effect of the law on these explanatory pathways, such that the saliency of regular media exposure was greater and women’s FGM/C status was lower in relation to its effect on daughters’ FGM/C. Conclusions: This dissertation provided support for examining the impact of national law passage in two distinct ways: direct impact on the likelihood of FGM/C and modifying impact on explanatory pathways. Additionally, findings suggested that prevention efforts should shift harmful beliefs surrounding FGM/C being a religious requirement, target the intergenerational nature of FGM/C, and improve media exposure, along with acknowledging the indirect role of attitudes on the discontinuation of the practice. Although more research is needed on the complexities of law such as enforcement, awareness, or implementation, this research posited that the initial passage and existence of national anti-FGM/C laws can positively influence FGM/C elimination to support women and girls. Overall, this dissertation provided much-needed rigorous evidence on the passage of national laws that can advance future research and suggested that countries currently without national anti-FGM/C laws should enact legislation to further enable change along with their other prevention efforts.
- All rights reserved
Notice to Authors
If you are the author of this work and you have any questions about the information on this page, please use the Contact form to get in touch with us.