Social norms, gender norms and adolescent girls: a brief guide - - Toolkits

But ‘Norms are vital determinants of social stratification because gender norms reflect and contribute to inequalities as they reflect and reproduce relations that empower in the distribution of power and resources that often some groups of people with material resources, disadvantage women and girls, many gender norms do, authority, and entitlements while marginalizing and in practice, limit girl. [...] Gender ideologies and their associated norms can thus set the boundaries of what girls and boys and adult women Social norms, gender norms and adolescent girls: a brief guide 5 and men think as well as what they do; they can make Insights from social norms theory: conformity, inequalities of power and resources seem natural or God- sanctions and rewards given, and thus unchangeable. [...] For girls, and womanhood) there seems no recognised time of adolescence – in terms of A second cluster of highly influential gender ideologies, the transition between childhood and adulthood – whereas values and norms are those related to girlhood and the for boys, there appears to be a gradual change where they transition to womanhood. [...] All change in response discriminatory gender norms provide a guide as to how to forces such as changing economic opportunities, the cope with resource scarcity, but that discriminatory gender spread of new ideas, and more specific actions, such norms are not only the outcome of poverty and affect as government policies, programmes and information women and girls of all economic backgrounds. [...] The report argues that addressing gender inequality and changing gendered norms and practices will ultimately reduce the health risks women and girls face and transform the gendered politics of health systems, which currently limit women’s access to and quality of care.