Exploring young women’s menstruation-related challenges in Uttar Pradesh, India, using the socio-ecological framework
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights how entrenched social norms — including menstrual stigma, silence, and restrictive gender expectations — profoundly shape girls’ experiences and limit their access to support and services. Effective interventions must address these social norms directly by engaging not just girls but also families, communities, schools, and boys and men, […]
Exploring stigma and social norms in women’s abortion experiences and their expectations of care
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Abortion stigma is deeply intertwined with social norms around female sexuality, marriage, and motherhood. In both Kenya and India, community disapproval and cultural taboos contribute to secrecy, fear, and delayed care-seeking. Interventions must address these norms by promoting respectful, youth-friendly, and rights-based services. Ensuring privacy, providing accurate information, and challenging harmful […]
Effects of Gender Role Beliefs on Social Connectivity and Marital Safety: Findings From a Cross-Sectional Study Among Married Adolescent Girls in India.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Progressive gender role beliefs—supporting female marital choice, shared household decision-making, male involvement in childcare, and rejecting the acceptability of marital violence—are associated with improved social and digital connectivity, greater freedom of movement, and enhanced safety from marital violence among married adolescent girls. This underscores the importance of transforming restrictive gender norms […]
Cross-national and multilevel correlates of partner violence: an analysis of data from population-based surveys
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Norms justifying wife beating and endorsing male authority over women’s behavior are strongly associated with higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV). These gender norms not only influence national IPV prevalence but also modify how individual-level factors like education and employment affect women’s risk, highlighting the importance of transforming harmful norms […]
“Potential of organizing unmarried adolescent girls and young women into self-help groups for a better transition to adulthood: Findings from a cross-sectional study in India”
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study illustrates how gender norms and structural inequalities restrict adolescent girls’ and young women’s (AGYW) agency in rural India. Social norms that limit girls’ mobility, financial autonomy, and decision-making power are significant barriers. However, organizing AGYW into self-help groups (YWSHGs) creates a platform that enables shifts in these norms. Girls […]
Beyond the statistic: Exploring the process of early marriage decision-making using qualitative findings from Ethiopia and India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around marriage readiness based on physical maturity rather than age, limited roles for unmarried girls, and pressure from elders and peers sustain early marriage in Ethiopia and India. Legal deterrents are often ineffective compared to strong social sanctions. Girls’ voice and agency are constrained, especially in socially vulnerable contexts. […]