Impact assessment of SAT-7 ARABIC’s
Female Heads of Households Project
In many Arab families the “head” is a woman. She may be a widow. She may be divorced. Or perhaps she never married. Her husband might be working abroad. He might be jobless, or sick, or an alcoholic, or a drug abuser...or he might simply have abandoned her. Now she is left alone to provide for her children, her parents or her younger siblings. But her society expects the head of the household to be a man.
In a series of 28 documentaries called “And I Am Not Just a Woman”, the Christian Arabic satellite TV-station SAT-7 has shed light on the many challenges - legal, economic and social - which female heads of households in the Arab world face. Of the 28 documentaries, 9 are from Lebanon, 12 from Egypt, 4 from Jordan, and 3 from Morocco. 18 cases are Muslims, 10 are Christians.
In addition to the documentaries SAT-7 has produced a series of short TV spots raising awareness about the rights of women living in the Arab world. The project has also included a series of live interactive talk shows, where women have discussed the challenges they face as the sole person responsible for the household. Viewers from all over the Arab world have called-in during the show with their comments and questions.
The project has had financial support from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the US.
The impact of the campaign has been surveyed in six villages in rural Egypt. In the survey, respondents were asked about their attitudes towards women. Satellite dishes were then installed, enabling households to watch SAT-7. After 8 months of exposure to the broadcasts, the attitudes towards women were measured again. The results are remarkably positive. For example, the number of respondents who think rape happens because of girls’ bad behaviour has fallen from 53.6 to 43.9 percent, the number of people who think that a woman abandoned by her husband has probably been a bad wife has decreased from 32 to 22.3 percent, and the number of people who think a husband has the right to discipline his wife has fallen from 59.3 to 45.3 percent.
Method of evaluation
Measuring the impact of any media campaign is difficult. In the Arab world, it is even more difficult than in other parts of the world. TV ratings, Gallup surveys etc. are not available as they are in the West. Because of the lack of freedom and democracy in many of the countries in the region, many people will not answer freely and honestly to questions presented to them by market researchers.
Focus group studies are often used to evaluate the impact of television programs. In a focus group study, you select a sample representative of the population and have them watch the programs in question. Afterwards you discuss the program with them, or even survey their attitudes through a quantitative survey. SAT-7 has used this method successfully in an earlier project, on the rights of people with disabilities, and those results were very illuminating.
The problem with a focus group study is that it does not measure the impact of the actual broadcasts. Focus groups create an artificial situation: you place people in a room and “force them” to watch a particular program. A focus group study gives you no indication of whether anybody was watching the programs “of their own free will”, and whether it made any difference to them.
The method chosen for the evaluation of the FHH project is a different method, but one which SAT-7 has successfully employed before, in a project on HIV/AIDS awareness. In order to measure the impact of that campaign, a baseline survey was done in four villages in Upper Egypt, measuring the population’s Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) in regards to the HIV virus. With the help of the local churches in the villages, satellite dishes were then installed, enabling 200 families to connect to the dish and watch SAT-7. After some months of exposure to the broadcasts, the KAP was measured again. The final survey found that KAP had improved significantly on 10 out of 12 indicators. These results are noteworthy, because the target group was not asked specifically to watch the programs about HIV. The villagers could watch any of the many different programs aired every day during SAT-7 ARABIC’s 24 hours schedule of programming.
Because of the success of the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and the dish installation in the villages it was decided to use the same method for the evaluation of the Female Heads of Households project. The evaluation of yet another project, on nutrition awareness, is being undertaken simultaneously. The survey was done by the same consultant as for the AIDS awareness project, Dr. Nader K. Wasif.
Egypt was chosen as the country for the evaluation for practical reasons. There is a big Christian minority in Egypt, and in Egypt SAT-7 has the manpower and the connections to make such a study possible.
The villages, all in Upper Egypt, are: Al Senaria with 4,600 inhabitants, Ezbet el Tubji with 1,000, Deir el Barsha with 25,000 and Ezbet el Shahid with 4,000 inhabitants. From the survey done for the AIDS awareness project, we knew that at least 25 percent of the inhabitants in the villages are illiterate, and many are unemployed. Deir el Barsha and Al Shahid are Christian villages, while in al Senaria 50 percent of the inhabitants are Christian, and in al Tubji 65 percent are Christians. All the villages have Coptic Orthodox churches as well as Evangelical churches. The new villages are Harz and Gobeer (with similar demographics).
Only the Christians were involved in the survey. To include Muslims in an activity in Egypt that involved watching SAT-7’s broadcasts would have been a security risk as it would have exposed SAT-7 to accusations of proselytizing.
A set of 15 questions for the survey was developed by the project manager in consultation with Dr. Nader K. Wasif. The questions were inspired by the “Multidimensional Aversion to Women Who Work scale”[1] and they address the attitude towards women on a number of parameters, economic, legal and social. The questions were translated into colloquial Egyptian.
A baseline survey was done in September 2009 in the four villages of the AIDS project and in two additional villages, not previously connected to SAT-7.
The attitudes of the “old” and “new” villages at baseline was compared, to see if the fact that the first 4 villages had been watching SAT-7 for a couple of years had meant that their attitudes towards women were different from the attitudes of those who had not previously been exposed to the broadcasts. There was no significant difference between the two groups. This means that all the changes during the project period is probably caused by the exposure to the media campaign alone.
After the baseline, dishes were set up and families connected via the dishes to watch the broadcasts of SAT-7. This was done in October 2009. In June 2010, after 8 months of exposure to the documentaries, spots and talk show, a final survey was made. The baseline and the final surveys can be found in Appendices 17 and 18. [2] The CV of the consultant, Dr. Nader K. Wasif, can be found in Appendix 15.
Results
We were aware that changing people’s attitudes to something as deeply rooted in culture as the attitudes towards women would be much more difficult that changing people’s knowledge about HIV. We did not expect a very big effect on the surveyed group. We were therefore very pleased to find a significant, positive change on 8 out of 13 indicators. One indicator showed no significant change, and four indicators were negative. Two indicators had to be disregarded because of lack of clarity on the questions, so the total number of indicators is 13.
Type / Significance of measured change / Issue / No.Negative / Significant / Girls have the same right to education as boys. / 1
Positive / Significant / It is better for a woman to stay with her husband, even if he is a drug addict or is beating her. / 2
No Change / Not significant / Women have the right to work in the same type of jobs as men. / 3
Positive / Significant / If I see a young widow coming home late in the evening, I think she is having an affair. / 4
Negative / Significant / It is a shame for a widow or a divorcee to receive support from the government. / 5
Negative / Significant / It should not be allowed for girls under 18 to marry. / 6
Positive / Significant / The right place for Girls and women is HOME. / 7
Negative / Significant / Women have the right to have a say in spending money and budget. / 8
Positive / Significant / Rape happens due to women and girls improper behaviour. / 9
Question should be disregarded / 10
Positive / Significant / It is better for a widow or a divorcee to find a new husband than to find a decently paid job. / 11
Question should be disregarded / 12
Positive / Significant / If a woman is abandoned by her husband, it is probably because she was a bad wife. / 13
Positive / Significant / A woman’s children should have the right to acquire her nationality just the same as that of men. / 14
Positive / Significant / A husband has the right to discipline his wife in his own way. / 15
The consultant, Dr. Nader Wasif, concludes:
“This positive change is statistically significant, this means that the change is due to the exposure factor which is viewing the SAT-7 program. This is actually a great success of the program. Bearing in mind that these issues are social and cultural, the change is a remarkable indication about the powerful change effect of SAT-7’s program. These cultural and social issues usually takes a generation (about 30 years) to change.“
Analysis of the results
The results were broken down according to education and gender, to see if there was a difference in the way the different groups were impacted. Please see Appendix 19.
The challenges that female heads of households face are economic, legal, and social. The questionnaire tried to target all three areas, with questions 1, 3, 6, 12, and 14 addressing legal issues, questions 5, 8, and 10 addressing economic issues, and 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 the social issues. While the results on the legal and economic questions are mixed, the responses to the social questions are all positive.
Indicators showing positive change
Question 2: It is better for a woman to stay with her husband, even if he is a drug addict or is beating her.
The number of respondents agreeing with this statement has fallen from 47.6 % to 35.1 %. The breakdown shows that the change was significant only for educated and males. After the intervention, the attitudes of men to this question were at the same level as that of women.
Question 4. If I see a young widow coming home late in the evening, I think she is having an affair.
Only 23.8 % agree with this statement after the intervention, as opposed to 31.7 % before. The breakdown shows that females were most positively impacted. This is good news, as the gossiping mostly occurs among women.
Question 7. The right place for girls and women is home.
Positive change has occurred across all groups, although not significantly for females (the majority of whom disagreed with the statement even before the intervention.) The number of men agreeing with the statement has fallen from 57.7 % to 42 %.
Question 9. Rape happens due to women’s and girls’ bad behaviour.
The attitude towards rape has been positively changed, although it is still shocking how many agree with the statement. The number agreeing with the statement has fallen from 53.6 % to 43.9 %. The change is most significant among the educated and females.
Question 11. It is better for a widow or a divorcee to find a new husband than to find a decently paid job.
This indicator was positively impacted across all groups, from 59.2% to 47.8 %. The change among illiterates was not significant.
Question 13. If a woman is abandoned by her husband, it is probably because she was a bad wife.
This indicator is positive, and mostly so among illiterates and males. This is very good news, as these groups were the most negative before the intervention. The number of illiterates agreeing with the statement has falled from 40.9 % to 26 %.
Question 14. A woman’s children should have the right to acquire her nationality just the same as that of men.
This indicator was positive, from 66.9 % to 75.3 % agreeing with the statement. The change was most significant among the educated and males. Several of the documentaries and the talk show addressed the question of nationality, which is a major issue in many Arab countries. In Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and all the Gulf states, a woman married to a foreigner cannot pass on her nationality to her children. This restricts the children’s right to work, own property, and access to public schools and healthcare. Women in Jordan and Lebanon are campaigning intensely to change this law.