A Multi-Level Analysis of the Continuation of Female Genital Cutting in Kenya

Sarah R. Hayford, University of Pennsylvania

In this paper, I examine community-level influences on the prevalence of female genital cutting in Kenya. I first outline the history of the campaign against genital cutting in Kenya. I then present quantitative analyses using data from the 1998 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The analysis is motivated by a game-theoretical account of the continuation of female genital cutting first proposed by Mackie (1996). Mackie's convention hypothesis attributes the continuation of genital cutting largely to social pressures. I address this hypothesis through multi-level modeling of individual and community effects on mothers’ decisions to have their daughters cut. I find that community characteristics, including the dominant ethnicity and the proportion of women who have undergone genital cutting, strongly influence the probability of having daughters cut. However, I also find correlations between individual-level characteristics and the decision to carry out genital cutting.