‘Spoiled’ girls: Understanding social influences on adolescent contraceptive decision-making in Kenya
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Adolescent girls in Kenya must navigate overlapping and often contradictory social norms that stigmatize both contraceptive use and adolescent pregnancy. Contraceptive use—particularly hormonal methods—is associated with promiscuity and feared to cause infertility, while pregnancy outside of marriage threatens educational and social standing. These stigmas are compounded by gendered power imbalances and […]
Social norms and family planning decisions in South Sudan
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms deeply influence reproductive behavior in the Fertit community of South Sudan, particularly through expectations around high fertility, male decision-making, and limited female agency. However, these norms are shifting. Emerging beliefs support spacing pregnancies and investing in children’s wellbeing, challenging long-standing norms that emphasize having many children. The post-conflict context […]
Social Norms and Security and Justice Services for Gender-based Violence in Nepal: Programmatic Implications from a Baseline Mixed-Methods Assessment
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that deeply rooted patriarchal social norms—centered around family honor, obedience to elders, and the sanctity of marriage—significantly deter help-seeking for gender-based violence (GBV) in Nepal. Despite increased awareness and formal justice mechanisms, women often face strong sanctions for reporting violence, including stigma, community ostracism, and familial rejection. These […]
Social norms and women’s risk of intimate partner violence in Nepal
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that social norms—particularly perceived and collective community expectations regarding gender roles, family honor, and the acceptability of violence—are significantly associated with women’s risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Nepal. Notably, women’s perceptions of community beliefs about male control, female submissiveness, and the legitimacy of violence to maintain […]
Social norms, attitudes, and access to modern contraception for adolescent girls in six districts in Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study reveals that prevailing social norms in Uganda often inhibit adolescent girls’ access to contraception, especially in certain districts. The belief that adolescent girls should not access contraceptives is widely shared, driven by community attitudes linking contraception with promiscuity, particularly for unmarried or young women. These norms vary significantly by […]
Social norm coordination and readiness to change female genital cutting: Evidence from Senegambia
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study reinforces the social coordination norm model of female genital cutting (FGC), showing that decisions around FGC are deeply influenced by the anticipated social benefits of conformity and the costs of deviation. Families often act not purely out of individual preference but in response to the behavior and expectations of […]
Social normative origins of the taboo gap and implications for adolescent risk for HIV infection in Zambia
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The taboo gap is driven by deeply ingrained gender norms that enforce silence and stigma around adolescent sexuality—especially for girls. Discordance between adult attitudes and behaviors serves as a signal of harmful norms. Effective interventions must confront these contradictions and include peers, parents, educators, and health systems in reshaping the social […]
Social norms and beliefs about gender based violence scale: a measure for use with gender based violence prevention programs in low-resource and humanitarian settings.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around victim-blaming, prioritizing family honor over survivor safety, and men’s authority to use violence against women strongly sustain GBV practices. Changing these norms requires engaging influential community members, addressing the stigma surrounding survivors, and promoting new norms that value women’s safety and equality. The scale offers a critical step […]
Social and economic marginalisation and sexual and reproductive health and rights of urban poor young women: a qualitative study from Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study illustrates how deeply embedded gender norms restrict urban poor young women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy in Gujarat, India. Respondents widely internalized dominant norms that stigmatize menstruation, silence sexual desire, and normalize male control over fertility decisions. These norms were enforced through restrictions on dress, mobility, and sexuality—especially after puberty—and […]
Social and gender norms informing, voicing, and reporting against sexual harassment among domestic workers in Kampala’s informal economy
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social and gender norms in Uganda deeply constrain domestic workers’ ability to recognize, voice, and formally report sexual harassment. Norms of female submissiveness, the privatization of sexual matters, and expectations around dress and propriety contribute to victim-blaming, shame, and normalization of harassment. These norms also shape how institutions and actors—such as […]