This issues paper looks at how data from the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) confirm the message from the Beijing Platform for Action that social norms play a critical role in accelerating progress in gender equality. The paper looks at how discriminatory social norms affect women throughout their life course, with adverse impacts on their rights, well-being and empowerment opportunities, and explores the linkages between discriminatory social norms and the achievement of three of the Beijing critical areas: education and vocational training, women and the economy, and women and health. It emphasises in particular that integrating a social norms perspective into development operations can fast-track progress on the Beijing agenda, with implications for the implementation of the SDGs. To conclude, the paper proposes key policy recommendations for social transformation, equality and empowerment.
Living up to Beijing’s vision of gender equality: Social norms and transformative change
