Gender Norm That is Easy for Many to Follow

Sexual and reproductive health and rights

A nurse at a health center in Athiémé,
Benin, examines a newborn beside the
proud mother.
© Stephan Gladieu / World Bank

Sexual and reproductive health and rights enable women to make their own choices around childbearing, and can spur on women's progress in other areas, such as work.

Gender norms lie at the heart of most people's experiences of sexual and reproductive health and have shifted significantly in some areas and contexts. Norm changes since the Beijing Declaration can be seen in greater access to, and use of, contraception, as well as a falling global fertility rate: down from 2.9 to 2.4 births per woman between 1995 and 2018. Major differences remain, however, across and within regions, suggesting that patriarchal norms still block progress in some places, and in particular areas of sexual and reproductive health and rights. The norms that shape trends in physical and sexual violence, for example, remain particularly 'sticky'.

Key messages

• The global fertility rate fell from 2.9 to 2.4 births per woman between 1995 and 2018, with significant regional differences. Sub- Saharan Africa still has some of the highest fertility rates worldwide, and its fertility rate is falling more slowly than in other regions.
• Contraceptive use has risen in Asia and Latin America in particular, although it remains low in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Men's attitudes about their right to sex, and women's attitudes about sex within relationships, have changed in some countries but not all.
• Norms around sexual and physical intimate partner violence are hard to change. Out of 24 countries with data, the prevalence of sexual and physical intimate partner violence has fallen in 18, stayed the same in one, and risen in five.
• Adolescent sexual activity has changed in some areas but not others. Adolescent fertility rates have fallen and while norms have shifted against child, early and forced marriage in many societies, the norms that restrict girls' sexuality and value their virginity have remained.
• The LGBTQI+ community has gained growing acceptance in many countries, but continued (and in some cases increased) discrimination, violence or abuse in others.
• The drivers and barriers of norm change in sexual and reproductive health and rights include access to health services, contraception, and education (comprehensive sexuality education in particular), economic empowerment, legislation and community mobilisation and campaigning, as well as mass media, the Internet, and popular culture.
• Key actions to shift discriminatory norms around sexual and reproductive health and rights include:
  • continuing to expand access to quality health services and contraception, including through mobile technologies for women and girls in rural and remote communities
  • providing comprehensive sexuality education for all, particularly curricula that address issues of dominant patriarchal gender relations and empower girls and women
  • facilitating mobilisation and social movements that aim to change norms at the individual and community level, as well as through legal systems
  • leveraging mass media, popular culture, and the ubiquity of the Internet to foster more gender-egalitarian norms by portraying new behaviours for women and men.

Paid and unpaid work and care

Thoeun harvests corn from her farm.
© Chhor Sokunthea / World Bank

Fair paid and unpaid work can boost women's autonomy in many areas and shift norms within families and communities about power and control.

Contrary to common belief, paid work does not automatically empower women – particularly if working conditions are oppressive and exploitative. However, it often underpins greater autonomy for women and their greater influence in the family and in society, as well as widening their horizons more than unpaid work at home.

While global figures show little  change in the proportion of women in the workforce over the past 25 years, some countries have experienced a notable increase, but others have seen substantial declines. The global aggregate figures show little change in the proportion of time women and men spend on unpaid care and domestic work (which is much higher for women than men), but there is an overall trend towards greater gender equality in many countries.

Key messages

• There has been little global progress on the scale of women's participation in the labour force over the past 25 years. Global figures mask a rise in some regions, such as Latin America and a fall in others, such as South and East Asia.
• There has also been little change in the time women and men spend on paid work and on unpaid care and domestic work over this period, though the overall trend is towards greater gender equality in many countries.
• Attitudes have often changed much more than work patterns but there is huge variation: in most countries for which there are data, the proportion of people who agree that if jobs are scarce, men should have priority has fallen. In all 15 countries for which there are data, the proportion of people who fear that pre-schoolers suffer if their mothers work has also fallen – and by large margins in some countries – over the past 25 years.
• Rising education levels, shifts in economic structures that create more job opportunities, and gender-egalitarian changes in laws and policies can all interact in a virtuous cycle, leading to shifts in gender norms around paid and unpaid work.
• This cycle can, however, be blocked by a web of gendered norms that act as patriarchal brakes. These include norms around care responsibilities, the importance of maintaining respectability and chastity, and norms that tolerate gender-based violence.
• Promising approaches to shift the norms that limit women's economic opportunities include community-, school- and workplace-based education on gender equality, equal care roles and the prevention of violence; the use of mass and social media to build momentum for norm change; and the development of good quality, affordable childcare services. These approaches need to be backed up by policies that can normalise women's participation in the labour force, such as the expansion of decent work opportunities.
• Key actions to shift discriminatory gender norms around paid and unpaid work include:
  • community-, school- and workplace-based education to shift norms around gender equality, equal care roles and gender-based violence
  • the use of mass and social media to build momentum for norm change, particularly around equal care roles and to normalize women's engagement in paid work
  • facilitating the development of good quality, affordable childcare services, and
  • enabling the expansion of decent work opportunities.

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Source: https://www.alignplatform.org/gender-power-progress

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