Despite long‐term efforts to encourage abandonment of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGMC), the practice remains widespread globally. FGMC is situated in specific social and historical contexts, and both prevalence and rates of decline vary widely across practicing countries. However, cross‐national comparative research on the determinants of FGMC is sparse. This paper adds to the limited body of rigorous, theoretically grounded quantitative studies of FGMC and takes a step toward advancing cross‐national comparative research. We apply an integrated theoretical framework that brings together norms‐based and gender‐based explanations of community‐level influences on FGMC. We test this framework in four francophone West African countries, drawing on comparable nationally representative data from the Demographic and Health Surveys in Burkina Faso (2010), Côte d'Ivoire (2011–2012), Guinea (2012), and Mali (2012–2013). Results show that community‐level FGMC norms and community‐level gendered opportunities are associated with girls’ risk of FGMC, but that the direct and moderating associations vary qualitatively across countries. Our findings highlight the contribution of context‐specific social and institutional processes to the decline or persistence of FGMC.

中文翻译：

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社区对女性生殖器切割/切割的影响：四个法语西非国家的比较。

尽管长期努力鼓励放弃女性生殖器切割（FGMC），但这种做法在全球仍然普遍存在。FGMC 处于特定的社会和历史背景下，不同国家的流行率和下降率差异很大。然而，关于 FGMC 决定因素的跨国比较研究很少。这篇论文补充了有限的严格的、有理论基础的 FGMC 定量研究，并朝着推进跨国比较研究迈出了一步。我们应用了一个综合的理论框架，将基于规范和基于性别的社区层面对 FGMC 影响的解释结合在一起。我们在四个法语西非国家测试这个框架，借鉴了布基纳法索（2010 年）、科特迪瓦（2011-2012 年）、几内亚（2012 年）和马里（2012-2013 年）人口与健康调查的可比全国代表性数据。结果表明，社区层面的 FGMC 规范和社区层面的性别化机会与女孩的 FGMC 风险相关，但直接和调节的关联在不同国家之间存在质的差异。我们的研究结果强调了特定于环境的社会和制度过程对 FGMC 的衰落或持续的贡献。