Temporary acceleration or long-term change? Experimental evidence on female empowerment and intimate partner violence in urban Liberia
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The intervention produced a durable shift in how women perceived the normative environment surrounding intimate partner violence. Although women’s own attitudes eventually converged with the control group, treatment participants continued to perceive substantially less community acceptance of violence 3.5 years after the program. The authors interpret this as evidence that intensive […]
Evaluation of Girls Invest, an economic empowerment intervention to address social and economic risks associated with intimate partner violence among adolescent girls in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Girls Invest suggests that combining economic empowerment with gender-equity education can help adolescent girls critically question restrictive gender roles and strengthen their ability to respond to gender discrimination. Girls described recognizing norms that privilege male authority and restrict girls’ educational and economic opportunities, and shared intervention lessons with friends and family, […]
Promoting Adolescent Girls’ Well-Being in Pakistan: a Mixed-Methods Study of Change Over Time, Feasibility, and Acceptability, of the COMPASS Program
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Restrictive gender norms around girls’ mobility, safety, sexuality, and family honor limited adolescent girls’ access to resources and opportunities. While the COMPASS program improved psychosocial well-being, social support, and some gender-equitable attitudes, harmful norms surrounding violence, victim-blaming, and girls’ movement remained largely unchanged. The findings suggest that life skills programs should […]
Attitude towards gender roles and violence against women and girls (VAWG): baseline findings from an RCT of 1752 youths in Pakistan.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study shows that patriarchal gender attitudes among Pakistani adolescents are shaped by social norms within peer groups, families, and schools. Peer violence, corporal punishment, child marriage expectations, and exposure to violence at home serve as indicators of gender norms that reinforce inequality. The authors argue that because peer norms are […]
Prevention of violence against women and girls: A cost-effectiveness study across 6 low- and middle-income countries
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study shows that community-based interventions designed to change harmful gender norms and social norms around violence are among the most cost-effective strategies for preventing violence against women and girls in low- and middle-income countries. The findings highlight that investing in proven social norms interventions can improve population health, although additional […]
“You are a child and this is not your business”: Decision-making on child marriage in Sindh, Pakistan
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Child marriage in rural Sindh is sustained by social norms that view girls as financial burdens, expect obedience to parents, restrict girls to domestic roles, and frame early marriage as protection against premarital relationships and threats to family honor. The study argues that lasting change requires engaging parents, empowering youth, and […]
Why do adolescent girls become pregnant? Contextual pathways to adolescent pregnancy in rural Tanzania: a mixed-methods study.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Adolescent pregnancy in rural Tanzania is shaped by social norms embedded within broader economic and gender inequalities. Cultural expectations surrounding initiation, marriage, sexuality, and fertility can normalize early sexual relationships and transitions to adulthood, while gendered power imbalances—particularly within age-disparate relationships—constrain girls’ ability to negotiate contraception. Importantly, the authors argue that […]
Landscaping the behaviors, drivers and norms influencing the wellbeing of very young adolescents: an exploration of stakeholders’ perspectives in Nigeria.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Harmful gender norms and sociocultural expectations operate across multiple areas of very young adolescents’ lives in Nigeria, reinforcing early marriage, gender-based violence, girls’ economic dependency, silence around sexuality, and vaccine hesitancy. The discussion emphasizes that these behaviors are embedded in unequal social structures and sustained by stigma, community expectations, misinformation, and […]
She Is a Guest in My House: Exploring the Barriers to Asset Development and Decision-Making Autonomy Among Young Women in Southern Uganda
Key Social Norms Takeaways: Deeply entrenched patriarchal social norms in Southern Uganda—reinforced through family systems, cultural expectations, and institutional practices—systematically restrict young women’s access to assets and decision-making power. Norms positioning women as dependent “guests” in their husbands’ homes and prioritizing men as providers and decision-makers shape both structural opportunities and individual agency. Critically, the […]
It’s a men’s world: Influence of media literacy for women’s empowerment through social media engagement in Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study demonstrates that social norms—particularly patriarchal gender norms, expectations around modesty, and restrictions on women’s public voice—significantly shape how media literacy translates into empowerment for women in Bangladesh. While media literacy provides women with skills, knowledge, and access to information, deeply embedded norms limit their ability to actively participate, express […]