Shifting gender norms to improve HIV service uptake: Qualitative findings from a large-scale community mobilization intervention in rural South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around HIV testing and treatment—particularly those tied to stigma, secrecy, and gendered power—are significant barriers to service uptake for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa. The Tsima intervention showed that transforming these norms—by promoting open communication, supportive male involvement, and reframing testing as a collective responsibility—can […]
Impact of Tipping Point Initiative, a social norms intervention, in addressing child marriage and other adolescent health and behavioral outcomes in a northern district of Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This impact evaluation explicitly examines how CARE’s Tipping Point program influenced injunctive and descriptive norms related to gender, marriage, and adolescent girls’ rights in rural Bangladesh. The study used a dedicated norms module to assess what adolescents and adults perceive others expect of them (injunctive norms) and what they believe others […]
Tipping Point Project: Report of the baseline study findings from Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This baseline study explicitly measures and analyzes both injunctive and descriptive norms across domains related to adolescent girls’ mobility, marriage, education, and decision-making in rural Bangladesh. The study defines and operationalizes social norms using structured survey items, capturing what respondents believe others expect of them (injunctive norms) and what they believe […]
Delaying child marriage through community-based skills-development programs for girls: Results from a randomized controlled study in rural Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Although the study does not use formal social norms theory or measure norms directly, it clearly identifies normative influences—especially community expectations and social pressures—as key drivers of early marriage. In the background, the authors frame child marriage as shaped by family concerns about reputation, girls’ perceived readiness for adult roles, and […]
The power of women’s and men’s Social Networks to catalyse normative and behavioural change: evaluation of an intervention addressing Unmet need for Family Planning in Benin
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Tékponon Jikuagou demonstrates that community-based social norms interventions can effectively shift attitudes and behaviors related to family planning (FP) by addressing communication taboos, social expectations, and gender roles. By fostering open dialogue around fertility and contraception within couples and peer networks, the intervention created more supportive environments for reproductive decision-making. While […]
Findings from the SASA! Study: a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a community mobilization intervention to prevent violence against women and reduce HIV risk in Kampala, Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The SASA! study demonstrates that community mobilization can meaningfully shift social norms related to intimate partner violence and gender equality, leading to reductions in both the social acceptance and actual experience of violence against women, and influencing HIV risk behaviors. It highlights the importance of engaging entire communities in dialogue about […]
Process and impact evaluation of a community gender equality intervention with young men in Rajasthan, India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This evaluation highlights that individual-level shifts in gender norms are possible when young men are engaged in safe, reflective, and participatory group settings. The intervention catalyzed changes in attitudes and self-perceptions around masculinity, violence, and relationships. However, these internal shifts were constrained by broader social pressures—community norms lagged behind, limiting young […]
Female Condom Use among Female University Students in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: Results of a Randomized Behavioral Trial
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study suggests that brief, group-based female condom (FC) promotion interventions can shift individual-level attitudes and peer norms regarding condom use among young women, even in contexts of entrenched gender inequalities. While broader social norms around male dominance in sexual decision-making remain a barrier, increasing women’s condom self-efficacy and improving peer […]
Increasing literate and illiterate women’s met need for contraception via empowerment: a quasi-experiment in rural India.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that addressing gender norms within households—especially around women’s mobility and control over earnings—can empower women and increase their ability to meet contraceptive needs. Outreach visits that included messages about gender dynamics were more effective at shifting norms than clinic-based interactions alone. Programs that aim to improve family planning […]
Rape Prevention Through Empowerment of Adolescent Girls
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study underscores the power of individual-level empowerment to shift social norms around sexual violence. By teaching adolescent girls to assert their boundaries, resist coercion, and speak out, the intervention helped dismantle norms of silence and victim-blaming. Increased disclosure and the use of verbal resistance signaled changing expectations about girls’ agency […]