Lu Gram
Biographic Data
| ID | 234309 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lu Gram |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lu |
| FAMILY NAME | Gram |
| SIGNATURE | GRAM L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3905-0465 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Exploring Motivational Differences in NGO-Inspired Community Action to Address Violence Against Women in Mumbai, India
Despite growing evidence for the effectiveness of community interventions to address violence against women (VAW), the evidence on factors that motivate community participation in them is insufficient. We did a grounded theory study of a large-scale non-government (NGO) program in informal settlements in Mumbai, India, aiming to analyses motivations for community participation in program activities. We systematically collected data using a ground…
Spatial clustering of domestic violence attitudes toward women in Ghana
Violence against women is a global public health issue associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”. There is paucity of data on th…
‘We are not the virus’–Experiences of racism among East & Southeast Asian heritage young people in London during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic
The spread of COVID-19 was accompanied by news reports of surging racism, xenophobia, and hate crime all over the Global North targeting individuals of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) descent. However, little empirical research has documented the impacts of COVID-19 on child and adolescent ESEAs. We describe and analyse the mental health experiences of young ESEA Londoners during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We purposively recruited 23 yo…
Workplace gender-based violence among female staff in public higher education institutions in eastern Ethiopia
Despite the global and local efforts, gender-based violence at workplaces has remained a major public health challenge and pervasive human rights violation worldwide. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research evidence on gender-based violence in higher educational institutions (HEIs). The main aim of this study was to assess workplace gender-based violence and its associated factors among female staff in public HEIs in eastern Ethiopia. An ins…
Individual interventions, collective lessons
Background: Interventions with women's groups have been widely implemented to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income settings, particularly India. While there is a large evidence base on the effectiveness of single interventions, it is challenging to predict whether a women's group intervention delivered in one setting can be expected to work in another. Methods: We applied realist principles to develop and refine a mid-range theory on…
Remedial, institutional or radical? Explaining community responses to violence against women in an NGO programme to prevent violence in Mumbai, India
Despite ambitions in development and global health policy to transform communities into supportive environments for women facing risks of violence, our understanding of how to best engage communities remains incomplete. In particular, there is little evidence on the types of strategies that communities employ to address violence against women (VAW). We aimed to describe and analyse the processes involved in community responses to incidents of VAW…
Mostly women's issues’ – Gender differences in community responses to a large-scale NGO programme to prevent violence against women in urban India
Despite striking gender differences in men's and women's engagement in past prevention programmes to stop violence against women (VAW), few empirical studies have determined why such gender differences arise. We did a grounded theory study of a large-scale NGO programme in informal settlements in Mumbai, India, aiming to analyse how gender affects participation in community action to address VAW. We did 27 focus group discussions and 31 semi-stru…
What impact does hearing impairment have on cognitive health in older married couples in China
‘Our courage has grown’
Transforming communities into supportive environments for women facing risks of violence requires community members to play an active role in addressing violence against women (VAW). We did a grounded theory study of enablers and barriers to community response to ongoing violence, sampling from programme areas of a non-governmental organisation (NGO)-led community mobilisation intervention in informal settlements in Mumbai, India. We held 27 focu…
“Can’t live willingly”
In South Asia, early marriage has been associated with a range of adverse outcomes during pregnancy and infancy. This may partly be explained by early marriage leading to a younger maternal age, however it remains unclear which other factors are involved. This review aimed to synthesise the qualitative evidence on experiences of pregnancy following early marriage or early pregnancy in South Asia, to inform our understanding of the mechanisms betw…
Risk factors for violence against women in high-prevalence settings
Mechanisms for community prevention of violence against women in low- and middle-income countries
Modelling collective action to change social norms around domestic violence
Interventions promoting collective action have been used to prevent domestic violence in a range of settings, but their mechanisms of operation remain unclear. We formalise and combine feminist theoretical approaches to domestic violence into a game-theoretic model of women’s collective action to change gendered social norms and outcomes. We show that social norms create a social dilemma in which it is individually rational for women to abstain f…
Disrespect and abuse as a predictor of postnatal care utilisation and maternal-newborn well-being
Economic abuse and its associations with symptoms of common mental disorders among women in a cross-sectional survey in informal settlements in Mumbai, India
To our knowledge, this is the first community-based study in India of the prevalence of economic abuse and its associations with symptoms of common mental disorders. It provides empirical support for the idea that economic abuse is at least as harmful to women's mental health as physical violence. Surveys should include questions on economic abuse and prevention and intervention strategies need to help survivors to understand its forms
A future for the world's children? A WHO–Unicef–Lancet Commission
Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today's children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. In 2015, the world's countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet nearly 5 years later, few countries ha…
Classroom, club or collective? Three types of community-based group intervention and why they matter for health
Interventions involving groups of laywomen, men and adolescents to promote health are increasingly popular, but past research has rarely distinguished between different types of intervention with groups. We introduce a simple typology that distinguishes three ideal types: classrooms, clubs and collectives . Classrooms treat groups as a platform for reaching a population with didactic behaviour change strategies. Clubs seek to build, strengthen an…
Community interventions with women’s groups to improve women’s and children’s health in India
Social and Psychological Readiness to Take Collective Action Against Violence Against Women
Past failures to mobilize communities in collective action against violence against women (VAW) have been ascribed to contextual challenges, but researchers have not systematically mapped community capacity for collective action against VAW. We conducted a mixed methods study in Mumbai, India using quantitative data from a household survey ( n = 2,642) and qualitative data from 264 community meetings. We found attitudes supporting gender inequali…
Do Participatory Learning and Action Women’s Groups Alone or Combined with Cash or Food Transfers Expand Women’s Agency in Rural Nepal
Participatory learning and action women's groups (PLA) have proven effective in reducing neonatal mortality in rural, high-mortality settings, but their impacts on women's agency in the household remain unknown. Cash transfer programmes have also long targeted female beneficiaries in the belief that this empowers women. Drawing on data from 1309 pregnant women in a four-arm cluster-randomised controlled trial in Nepal, we found little evidence fo…
Understanding participation dilemmas in community mobilisation
Community mobilisation interventions have been used to promote health in many low-income and middle-income settings. They frequently involve collective action to address shared determinants of ill-health, which often requires high levels of participation to be effective. However, the non-excludable nature of benefits produced often generates participation dilemmas: community members have an individual interest in abstaining from collective action…
Organising Concepts of 'Women's Empowerment' for Measurement
Revisiting the patriarchal bargain
Although power struggles between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law in the South Asian household remain an enduring theme of feminist scholarship, current policy discourse on 'women's economic empowerment' in the Global South tends to focus on married women's power over their husband; this neglects intergenerational power dynamics. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the processes involved in young, married women's negotiations of …
Validating an Agency-based Tool for Measuring Women's Empowerment in a Complex Public Health Trial in Rural Nepal
Despite the rising popularity of indicators of women's empowerment in global development programmes, little work has been done on the validity of existing measures of such a complex concept. We present a mixed methods validation of the use of the Relative Autonomy Index for measuring Amartya Sen's notion of agency freedom in rural Nepal. Analysis of think-aloud interviews (n = 7) indicated adequate respondent understanding of questionnaire items,…
Organising Concepts of 'Women's Empowerment' for Measurement
Revisiting the patriarchal bargain
Although power struggles between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law in the South Asian household remain an enduring theme of feminist scholarship, current policy discourse on 'women's economic empowerment' in the Global South tends to focus on married women's power over their husband; this neglects intergenerational power dynamics. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the processes involved in young, married women's negotiations of …
Validating an Agency-based Tool for Measuring Women's Empowerment in a Complex Public Health Trial in Rural Nepal
Despite the rising popularity of indicators of women's empowerment in global development programmes, little work has been done on the validity of existing measures of such a complex concept. We present a mixed methods validation of the use of the Relative Autonomy Index for measuring Amartya Sen's notion of agency freedom in rural Nepal. Analysis of think-aloud interviews (n = 7) indicated adequate respondent understanding of questionnaire items,…
Mechanisms for community prevention of violence against women in low- and middle-income countries
Understanding participation dilemmas in community mobilisation
Community mobilisation interventions have been used to promote health in many low-income and middle-income settings. They frequently involve collective action to address shared determinants of ill-health, which often requires high levels of participation to be effective. However, the non-excludable nature of benefits produced often generates participation dilemmas: community members have an individual interest in abstaining from collective action…
Remedial, institutional or radical? Explaining community responses to violence against women in an NGO programme to prevent violence in Mumbai, India
Despite ambitions in development and global health policy to transform communities into supportive environments for women facing risks of violence, our understanding of how to best engage communities remains incomplete. In particular, there is little evidence on the types of strategies that communities employ to address violence against women (VAW). We aimed to describe and analyse the processes involved in community responses to incidents of VAW…
Mostly women's issues’ – Gender differences in community responses to a large-scale NGO programme to prevent violence against women in urban India
Despite striking gender differences in men's and women's engagement in past prevention programmes to stop violence against women (VAW), few empirical studies have determined why such gender differences arise. We did a grounded theory study of a large-scale NGO programme in informal settlements in Mumbai, India, aiming to analyse how gender affects participation in community action to address VAW. We did 27 focus group discussions and 31 semi-stru…
What impact does hearing impairment have on cognitive health in older married couples in China
Validating an Agency-based Tool for Measuring Women's Empowerment in a Complex Public Health Trial in Rural Nepal
Despite the rising popularity of indicators of women's empowerment in global development programmes, little work has been done on the validity of existing measures of such a complex concept. We present a mixed methods validation of the use of the Relative Autonomy Index for measuring Amartya Sen's notion of agency freedom in rural Nepal. Analysis of think-aloud interviews (n = 7) indicated adequate respondent understanding of questionnaire items,…
Revisiting the patriarchal bargain
Although power struggles between daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law in the South Asian household remain an enduring theme of feminist scholarship, current policy discourse on 'women's economic empowerment' in the Global South tends to focus on married women's power over their husband; this neglects intergenerational power dynamics. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the processes involved in young, married women's negotiations of …
Do Participatory Learning and Action Women’s Groups Alone or Combined with Cash or Food Transfers Expand Women’s Agency in Rural Nepal
Participatory learning and action women's groups (PLA) have proven effective in reducing neonatal mortality in rural, high-mortality settings, but their impacts on women's agency in the household remain unknown. Cash transfer programmes have also long targeted female beneficiaries in the belief that this empowers women. Drawing on data from 1309 pregnant women in a four-arm cluster-randomised controlled trial in Nepal, we found little evidence fo…
Understanding participation dilemmas in community mobilisation
Community mobilisation interventions have been used to promote health in many low-income and middle-income settings. They frequently involve collective action to address shared determinants of ill-health, which often requires high levels of participation to be effective. However, the non-excludable nature of benefits produced often generates participation dilemmas: community members have an individual interest in abstaining from collective action…
Organising Concepts of 'Women's Empowerment' for Measurement
A future for the world's children? A WHO–Unicef–Lancet Commission
Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today's children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. In 2015, the world's countries agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet nearly 5 years later, few countries ha…
Classroom, club or collective? Three types of community-based group intervention and why they matter for health
Interventions involving groups of laywomen, men and adolescents to promote health are increasingly popular, but past research has rarely distinguished between different types of intervention with groups. We introduce a simple typology that distinguishes three ideal types: classrooms, clubs and collectives . Classrooms treat groups as a platform for reaching a population with didactic behaviour change strategies. Clubs seek to build, strengthen an…
Community interventions with women’s groups to improve women’s and children’s health in India
Social and Psychological Readiness to Take Collective Action Against Violence Against Women
Past failures to mobilize communities in collective action against violence against women (VAW) have been ascribed to contextual challenges, but researchers have not systematically mapped community capacity for collective action against VAW. We conducted a mixed methods study in Mumbai, India using quantitative data from a household survey ( n = 2,642) and qualitative data from 264 community meetings. We found attitudes supporting gender inequali…
Modelling collective action to change social norms around domestic violence
Interventions promoting collective action have been used to prevent domestic violence in a range of settings, but their mechanisms of operation remain unclear. We formalise and combine feminist theoretical approaches to domestic violence into a game-theoretic model of women’s collective action to change gendered social norms and outcomes. We show that social norms create a social dilemma in which it is individually rational for women to abstain f…
Disrespect and abuse as a predictor of postnatal care utilisation and maternal-newborn well-being
Economic abuse and its associations with symptoms of common mental disorders among women in a cross-sectional survey in informal settlements in Mumbai, India
To our knowledge, this is the first community-based study in India of the prevalence of economic abuse and its associations with symptoms of common mental disorders. It provides empirical support for the idea that economic abuse is at least as harmful to women's mental health as physical violence. Surveys should include questions on economic abuse and prevention and intervention strategies need to help survivors to understand its forms
Risk factors for violence against women in high-prevalence settings
Mechanisms for community prevention of violence against women in low- and middle-income countries
‘Our courage has grown’
Transforming communities into supportive environments for women facing risks of violence requires community members to play an active role in addressing violence against women (VAW). We did a grounded theory study of enablers and barriers to community response to ongoing violence, sampling from programme areas of a non-governmental organisation (NGO)-led community mobilisation intervention in informal settlements in Mumbai, India. We held 27 focu…
“Can’t live willingly”
In South Asia, early marriage has been associated with a range of adverse outcomes during pregnancy and infancy. This may partly be explained by early marriage leading to a younger maternal age, however it remains unclear which other factors are involved. This review aimed to synthesise the qualitative evidence on experiences of pregnancy following early marriage or early pregnancy in South Asia, to inform our understanding of the mechanisms betw…
Spatial clustering of domestic violence attitudes toward women in Ghana
Violence against women is a global public health issue associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The United Nations defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”. There is paucity of data on th…
‘We are not the virus’–Experiences of racism among East & Southeast Asian heritage young people in London during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic
The spread of COVID-19 was accompanied by news reports of surging racism, xenophobia, and hate crime all over the Global North targeting individuals of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) descent. However, little empirical research has documented the impacts of COVID-19 on child and adolescent ESEAs. We describe and analyse the mental health experiences of young ESEA Londoners during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We purposively recruited 23 yo…
Workplace gender-based violence among female staff in public higher education institutions in eastern Ethiopia
Despite the global and local efforts, gender-based violence at workplaces has remained a major public health challenge and pervasive human rights violation worldwide. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research evidence on gender-based violence in higher educational institutions (HEIs). The main aim of this study was to assess workplace gender-based violence and its associated factors among female staff in public HEIs in eastern Ethiopia. An ins…
Individual interventions, collective lessons
Background: Interventions with women's groups have been widely implemented to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income settings, particularly India. While there is a large evidence base on the effectiveness of single interventions, it is challenging to predict whether a women's group intervention delivered in one setting can be expected to work in another. Methods: We applied realist principles to develop and refine a mid-range theory on…
Remedial, institutional or radical? Explaining community responses to violence against women in an NGO programme to prevent violence in Mumbai, India
Despite ambitions in development and global health policy to transform communities into supportive environments for women facing risks of violence, our understanding of how to best engage communities remains incomplete. In particular, there is little evidence on the types of strategies that communities employ to address violence against women (VAW). We aimed to describe and analyse the processes involved in community responses to incidents of VAW…
Mostly women's issues’ – Gender differences in community responses to a large-scale NGO programme to prevent violence against women in urban India
Despite striking gender differences in men's and women's engagement in past prevention programmes to stop violence against women (VAW), few empirical studies have determined why such gender differences arise. We did a grounded theory study of a large-scale NGO programme in informal settlements in Mumbai, India, aiming to analyse how gender affects participation in community action to address VAW. We did 27 focus group discussions and 31 semi-stru…
What impact does hearing impairment have on cognitive health in older married couples in China
Exploring Motivational Differences in NGO-Inspired Community Action to Address Violence Against Women in Mumbai, India
Despite growing evidence for the effectiveness of community interventions to address violence against women (VAW), the evidence on factors that motivate community participation in them is insufficient. We did a grounded theory study of a large-scale non-government (NGO) program in informal settlements in Mumbai, India, aiming to analyses motivations for community participation in program activities. We systematically collected data using a ground…
Political science (17 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Intimate Partner and Family Violence (10 works) · Social science (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Economic growth (6 works) · Geography (6 works)