Changing the River’s Flow – A Gender Transformative Programme for Young People (CTRF4YP)
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This evaluation demonstrates that gender-transformative, community-based interventions can catalyze shifts in deeply embedded norms around gender roles, violence, and sexual relationships. The intervention’s focus on community dialogue and inclusion of both men and women led to increased openness in discussing gender-based violence, reduced stigma around survivors, and new expectations around spousal […]
How gender norms and ‘good girl’ notions prevent adolescent girls and young women from engaging with PrEP: qualitative insights from Zimbabwe.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Rigid gender norms around sexual morality, obedience, and reputation prevent AGYW from using PrEP. These norms are enforced by families, male partners, and even health providers, limiting girls’ autonomy. Effective PrEP programs must go beyond clinical availability to address stigma, reshape community attitudes, and create enabling environments where AGYW can make […]
Obstacles to the realization of women’s reproductive health rights in Zimbabwe
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This article highlights how entrenched gender norms undermine women’s sexual and reproductive health rights. Norms such as male dominance, expectations of female sexual compliance, polygamy, and wife inheritance severely restrict women’s autonomy. These norms are reinforced by cultural beliefs and practices that prioritize male authority, making it difficult for women to […]
Gender Norms and Structural Barriers to Use of HIV Prevention in Unmarried and Married Young Women in Manicaland, Zimbabwe: An HIV Prevention Cascade Analysis
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that negative gender norms significantly constrain adolescent girls and young women’s (AGYW) motivation and capacity to use condoms for HIV prevention in Zimbabwe, particularly among married AGYW. While traditional norms around premarital sex and condom use are weakening for unmarried AGYW, married AGYW face deeply entrenched expectations that […]
Empowering Women or Pleasing Men? Analyzing Male Views on Female Condom Use in Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Cameroon.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Prevailing gender norms in Sub-Saharan Africa position men as the primary decision-makers in sexual relationships, significantly shaping the acceptability and use of female condoms. While female condoms are often promoted as tools for women’s empowerment, male perspectives reveal that female-initiated condom use is frequently viewed with suspicion, particularly in marital and […]
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 […]
Community influences on modern contraceptive use among young women in low and middle-income countries: a cross-sectional multi-country analysis
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Norms related to ideal family size, early marriage, and gender roles—particularly those that limit women’s autonomy—act as major barriers to contraceptive use. Changing these norms through community-wide interventions, education, and women’s empowerment is essential for increasing contraceptive access and supporting young women’s reproductive agency. Objectives: This study examined how community-level characteristics […]
Community Factors Influencing Birth Spacing among Married Women in Uganda and Zimbabwe
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights how community-level gender norms and fertility expectations influence birth spacing practices. In Uganda and Zimbabwe, delayed marriage and childbearing do not necessarily lead to healthier birth intervals. Instead, social norms emphasizing high fertility may pressure women to ‘catch up’ by shortening birth intervals. Norms that tolerate gender-based violence […]
A reconfiguration of the sex trade: How social and structural changes in eastern Zimbabwe left women involved in sex work and transactional sex more vulnerable
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study shows how social norms around sex work in Zimbabwe were reconfigured during a period of economic collapse and heightened HIV awareness. While overt commercial sex became more stigmatized and publicly condemned—framed as a threat to community health and morality—transactional sex became more widespread and less visible, especially among women […]