Section 2 | FOUNDATIONAL FACTORS It bears repeating that gender norms are idealized roles and expectations; the lines are blurred in daily life and over an individual’s life cycle. SAFETY CONCERNS A key gender-related power dynamic cited in gender assessments, during focus group discussions, and increasingly in media is public safety for women and girls. Gender norms IREX INSIGHT that result in restricted economic and educational opportunities for women and girls are Mobile phones are often couched in fears for their physical safety. In many environments, this is warranted, simultaneously seen as whether in response to sexual abuse perpetrated by armed combatants95 or sexual empowering and endangering harassment on city buses.96 Another assessment notes a link between norms around women’s mobility and ability to attend community meetings and expectations of deference women and girls. to elders and religious authorities, underscoring that gender dynamics intersect with other power relations within any given political economy.97 Safety issues are particularly salient for girls and young women, for whom gender and age-related norms are most restrictive. Participants in a CSO empowerment program for adolescent girls in an IDP camp in Kachin State shared “their fears of rape and sexual assault, the risk of trafficking, parental beatings, and the daily chores demanded of them as girls that keep them from education and leisure.”98 CASE STUDY: Agriculture, Access and Control in Shan State A gender assessment among ethnic minority groups in the Inle Lake region of Shan State explored women’s empowerment in terms of their access to and control of resources and benefits related to agricultural activities. Resources included land, equipment, labor, cash, and education or technical training; benefits included outside income, asset ownership, education, and political power. The respondents from Intha, Pa-O, Danu, and Taung-yoe communities agreed that women and men generally share equal access to these resources and benefits. However, they were nearly unanimous in their assessment that women enjoy little if any control compared to men. In the Inle Lake study, the only benefits where women had equal control with men related to basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. In addition to concerns for physical safety, gender norms regulating acceptable levels of exposure to uncensored information and contacts outside the sphere of familial control are clearly playing a major role in narratives around online safety. One of the strongest themes to emerge during focus group discussions was the dangers of online dating, photo sharing, and social media connections with strangers (see figure 6 next page). One key informant, an educator, described her practice of confiscating students’ mobile phones during school hours. In addition to asking each offender to unlock the phone so she could confirm with whom they have been communicating, she threatens to print out any inappropriate photos for the school walls and their parents. Indeed, both parents and educators lamented security Ma and Kusakabe, “Gender Analysis of Fear,” 342–56. Hanna Ingber, “Profiles in Courage: Myanmar’s Other Female Leaders,” PRI, June 15, 2012. UNDP, Gender Analysis Around Inle Lake. 98 Fiona MacGregor, Teenage Girls in Burma Find Their Voices to Defend Their Rights, Guardian, February 11, 2015. 95 96 97 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 33