Social norms: GSDRC Professional Development Reading Pack no. 31
This reading pack provide an introduction to the main issues and debates on social norms
Abstract
In recent years the development community has witnessed an upsurge of interest in the role that social norms may play in perpetuating a host of harmful practices, especially practices affecting women and girls. There has long been interest in how deeply held beliefs, attitudes, and norms can justify male dominance and reinforce behaviour and institutions that discriminate again women. Despite this recognition, there has been little conceptual clarity about the distinctions between these various constructs or how they relate to actual practices such as female genital cutting, domestic violence, or early marriage.
Indeed, activists, programme planners, and donors have tended to refer loosely to the need to address “gender norms,” without making distinctions between whether the construct of interest is an attitude, a norm, a belief or behaviour. This undisciplined approach misses an important opportunity to use theory-based distinctions to shape programme planning and evaluation. Both the content of an intervention and who should be involved is greatly affected by the nature of the construct – whether it is an individually held belief or attitude or whether it is a social norm. This reading pack is designed to help practitioners begin to understand these distinctions and thereby capitalise on evolving theory on how to transform and measure shifts in social norms
Citation
Heise, L. and Manji K. (2016). Social Norms. GSDRC Professional Development Reading Pack no. 31. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham.
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