Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.2 Summary of the main findings
The study revealed that whilst these young women are segregated from young men at school level, there is still a powerful interest and desire centered on love and dating. Even though they were in a single-school, they found many creative ways and used networks to make contact with boys and men outside of school. This included acts of deception to avoid parental interference.
Whilst these young women demonstrated agency in making their own decisions, they may have placed themselves at risk by going to places that are unsafe. A few young women were not afforded the opportunity to engage in after school social interaction due to parental restrictions.
These young women found difficulty in forming heterosexual relationships.
Heteronormative behaviour was dominant among the young women. The identification as heterosexual was emphasized regardless of a few who had chosen to experiment sexually with the same sex. This shows the dominant culture of heterosexuality that has been produced and reproduced which causes silence around same-sex issues. The root of homosexual
experimentation was due to peer persuasion and stereotypical views that there is a strong association between single-sex schools and homosexual behaviour. Social interactions have impacted the decisions these young women have made in terms of their sexuality. Although heterosexuality is the preferred orientation and these particular young women have no desire to pursue homosexual relationships, social dynamics have persuaded many of these young women to experiment in homosexuality.
The need to be loved compromises the ability of many young women to negotiate safe sex practices. Fear of losing a partner in a love based relationship exceeds the fears of causing bodily harm. There were young women who afforded men power by permitting their partners to make decisions within their relationships in an attempt to please their partners, and thus compromising their own sexual safety. The data suggests that there is a connection between condom use and trust, that is, the belief that engaging in unsafe practices signifies trust. This caused hesitance of many young women to communicate their desire to practice safe sex thus jeopardising their sexual safety. These young women are unaware that they were being coerced to engage in unsafe sexual acts. This is due to the immense fear of losing their partner and the misconception that sexual coercion and physical violence are related. There were young women however, who showed resistance to this injustice and remained static in their beliefs in terms of safe sex practices and choosing to abstain from sexual acts.
Most of these young women had formed relationships with older men. The main reasons for this that emerged from the data were maturity, status and the material benefits that these types of relationships provide. Same-age young men were seen as immature and lacked stability and seriousness. Relationships with older men increase sexual relations and increase the possibility of risky sexual behaviour as in the case of most of these young women (Morrison-Breedy, 2013).
The age gap between the younger women and the older men also imply a power differential within which women’s capacity to negotiate the conditions of the relationship, including safe sex practices are compromised. It is these relationship dynamics that place young women vulnerable to HIV infection.
The findings confirm other studies that reveal that whilst sex education has been implemented at school thereby equipping young women with knowledge on HIV & AIDS, many of the young women were not receptive to the messages on safe sex practices and many continued to engage in risky sexual behaviour. It was found that the school was not the sole source of information.
Other sources included the internet as well as peers. The internet was seen as a means to research sex related issues without public knowledge. The need for discretion was due to the belief that young women should not be engaging in premarital sex. The internet made it easy to acquire knowledge by asking questions that were relative to a particular situation. Peers also played a role in distributing sex related knowledge. This knowledge however was not legitimate and was
based on experience. Attending a single-sex school had reduced the pressure and awkwardness when discussing sex for one particular young woman. This particular young woman who had not engaged in sexual activity felt that the absence of young men assisted in exploring sex education.
It was also found that substance abuse was a contributive factor to sexual risk taking. Those consuming alcohol displayed an inability to make logical decisions while intoxicated, deviating from their traditional behaviour and thus resulting in potentially risky behaviour. Alcohol consumption caused heightened sexual desires and resulted in some young women engaging in sexual relations and also caused men to make sexual advances. Casale et al. (2011) and Mehra et al. (2014) state that alcohol consumption and sexual coercion are related and it is women who are most vulnerable. Alcohol can be used as an approach to achieve sex and women who have consumed alcohol are more likely to behave in a passive and complicit manner when approached to engage in sexual acts (Mehra et al., 2014). It is important to note that not all young women indulged in substances that caused a change in character. There were young women who practiced agency and did not allow social forces to impact the decisions that they made.
In addition, the data suggested that an influential factor in decision making was peer acceptance.
These young women highlighted the importance of social status among peers. There is a need to feel a part of a social circle and this results in many young women engaging in certain activities to be on par with their peers. The data show that heterosexual relationships and sex related topics and experiences were what fueled many conversations. This put undue pressure on young
women who did not share the same experiences. Many young women made sexual decisions based on peer influences whilst others were resistant to these influential factors.
It is clear that most of these young women continue to reproduce conventional forms of
femininity which are harmful to their sexual health and well being, reproducing sexual identities that perpetuate gender inequality. Certain young women continue to give men a certain degree of power and men who lack power within the relationship are labeled as more feminine than
masculine. This shows that women are in fact inhibiting their ability to progress. These young women were aware of the sexual double standards that exist between men and women and many had accepted and reinforced these double standards. Attending a single-sex school therefore does not free young women from gendered ideologies as many assume. While this is derived from the experiences of majority of the young women, there were young women who suggested a certain
degree of agency and demonstrated greater control over their sexual behaviour and sexual health, proving that experiences vary based on social context.