Age and Agency: Evidence from a Women’s Empowerment Program in Tanzania
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that community-level social norms around child marriage—specifically, the average perceived appropriate age of marriage and norms around girls’ education and labor—significantly influence individual girls’ marriage expectations and transitions. Norms function both through collective expectations and the behavior of others in the community, reinforcing early marriage in contexts where […]
Designing for two: How enhancing human-centered design with behavioral nudges unlocked breakthroughs to promote young women’s psychological safety and access to reproductive care in Tanzania
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Malkia Klabu intervention in Tanzania demonstrates how social norms that stigmatize adolescent girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) can be strategically shifted through context-sensitive, peer-driven, and incentive-based approaches. The program capitalized on AGYW’s peer networks to normalize SRH-seeking behaviors, reduce gatekeeping by shopkeepers, and foster a sense of […]
More Than Brides Alliance: Endline Evaluation Report
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The More Than Brides Alliance (MTBA) endline evaluation shows that shifting social norms—particularly around the value of girls’ education, the ideal age of marriage, and gender roles in relationships—is central to reducing child marriage. While individual-level knowledge and attitudes improved across intervention sites, broader normative change was uneven and highly context-specific. […]
On her own account: How strengthening women’s financial control impacts labor supply and gender norms
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that enhancing women’s financial control can lead to shifts in both individual and community-level gender norms about female labor. Without directly targeting norms, the intervention resulted in more progressive personal beliefs and a reduction in perceived social stigma around women working—particularly among women who were initially constrained by […]
Season Three | Consolidated Evaluation Brief
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The MKBKSH (“Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon”) intervention illustrates the power of transmedia edutainment in challenging and reshaping social norms around family planning, gender equality, sanitation, and reproductive health in India. By using relatable storylines, interactive platforms, and community-based “markers” like “Lambi Sagai” and “Aurat ki Marzi ka Din,” the […]
The impact of an intervention to prevent intimate partner violence against women in Tanzania: findings from the MAISHA cluster randomised controlled trial
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study provides strong evidence that adolescent girls’ perceptions of gendered social norms—particularly around marriage and education—are predictive of their expectations for their own futures. Norms around when girls should marry, whether education is valuable for them, and whether they are expected to work or stay home shape their aspirations and […]
Étude des effets de l’intervention de l’École des Maris sur les dynamiques de genre pour améliorer la santé reproductive au Niger
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This report explores the deeply rooted norms in Niger that limit women’s autonomy, particularly in decision-making around marriage, reproduction, and economic participation. Although there are many burdens associated with early and forced marriage, social norms and gender roles continue to pressure girls into early unions. Notably, while some community actors advocate […]
A mixed-methods, exploratory, quasi-experimental evaluation of a radio drama intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex in Tanzania.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The LINEA radio drama intervention demonstrates promising potential to shift gender-related attitudes, beliefs, and social norms around age-disparate transactional sex (ADTS) in Tanzania. The qualitative findings reveal early signs of social norms change, particularly in reducing victim-blaming attitudes and shifting responsibility from adolescent girls to adult men and communities. The drama […]
HIV/STI Risk-Reduction Intervention Efficacy with South African Adolescents Over 54 Months
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study provides compelling evidence that early, theory-based HIV/STI risk-reduction interventions can foster lasting shifts in sexual behaviors and the psychosocial drivers of behavior among South African adolescents. While not explicitly framed around social norms, the intervention indirectly influenced normative beliefs—particularly perceptions of parental approval and sexual negotiation self-efficacy—highlighting how targeting […]
Encoded exposure and social norms in entertainment-education
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study provides empirical evidence that entertainment-education (EE) programs can influence social norms directly through audience exposure, without necessarily relying on behavior change as a mediator. It highlights the importance of “encoded exposure”—a multi-dimensional measure capturing attention, recall, involvement, and frequency of engagement—with findings suggesting that deep and sustained involvement with […]