Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

My research examines the social issues that influence women's health globally and contributes to evidence-based policy making by quantitatively evaluating the effectiveness of policies aimed at improving women's health. My current work focuses primarily on two issues: child marriage and female genital cutting. Child marriage, defined by the United Nations as marriage before the age of 18, is associated with poor reproductive and mental health. Most research on child marriage has been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but my work examines the health consequences of child marriage in wealthy countries, including Canada. My work also examines the effectiveness of laws that prohibit child marriage and the unintended consequences such policies may have for the health of girls who marry and their children. Female genital cutting (FGC) refers to a wide range of procedures that involve injury to the genitalia for non-medical reasons. Severe forms of cutting are associated with increased risks during childbirth and may have lifelong implications for sexual wellbeing. Global efforts to curb this practice have resulted in laws that make it a crime to perform FGC in many countries. However, these laws appear to have had little impact on the number of women who experience it. I am conducting research to better understand why some communities persist in this practice and whether driving the practice underground increases the health risks for girls. A common theme of my research is to include policies that affect women's and girls' health in wealthy countries, including Canada, under the umbrella of global health. Wealthy countries are often not considered in global health research but failure to critically examine how their policies align with international development goals may lead to the perpetuation of harms. Throughout my research, I stress that an inclusive definition of global health is a necessary component of Canada's strong leadership in this realm.