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...have increasingly reconfigured services to reflect an awareness of the power imbalances that exist between males and females. Some efforts have also been made to pay attention to gender issues in formal sexuality education, but these strides have, for the most part, been less thorough than they might be.
Substantial evidence illustrates the ways that gender roles shape sexual attitudes, behavior, experiences, and outcomes. For example, pressure on young men to "prove their manhood" may lead to attitudes that condone risk-taking and abusive behavior, while creating sexual performance pressure and anxiety related to sexual dysfunction. At the same time, in many settings, girls are taught to be submissive and not to associate sex with their own pleasure. Not surprisingly, studies also show that gender often shapes the reasons adolescents become sexually active: Boys typically cite such things as curiosity and pleasure as primary reasons for having sex, whereas girls' principal reason is for love or approval.
Adherence to traditional gender norms is an antecedent to poor sexual health outcomes, including those that sexuality education programs typically aim to influence--early sexual initiation, greater number of partners, and low rates of condom and contraceptive use.
NEW PROJECT AT POPULATION COUNCIL
The Population Council program in Gender, Family, and Development--coming out of parallel institutional streams of work in adolescence, sexuality, and sexual health--is hoping to foster a dialogue to address the question of how sexuality education might look different if we were to incorporate a gender perspective more fully into the design of curricula, materials, training, and...
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