The participatory seminar ‘Do We Challenge Social Norms’ was held at Sida HQ the 20th of March. It aimed at unpacking social norms in relation to gender equality, rural development and poverty reduction by deepening the discussion around social norms and understand linkages between the different concepts. Gisela Strand, Gender Policy Specialist, Sida opened the seminar by touching upon the Social Norms Theory, speaking of the misperception between the perceived norm and the actual norm as a foundation for the understanding of social norms. In a gendered perspective, it affects who we think we are expected to be and act, based on certain, socially given, characteristics.
Jeannette was one of the speakers and shared the perspective that women’s normative expectation to manage households, which is unpaid and unrecognized, rob them of opportunity to both participate and advance in the workforce. Other normative constraints women face is the view of women as victims, taking away their agency. Furthermore, there is limited understanding of the links between the two cross-cutting issues that is gender and climate. Ways forward would be to work towards measurements rather than financing projects based on outputs, enhancing the gender lens, invest in rural energy access while mobilizing new types of funders and investors using a market-based approach.
In conclusion, change in women’s economic status is the foundation for changes in social norms. However, interventions targeting WEE need to include initiatives for leadership, knowledge and skill development. Moreover, the inclusion of men as change agents is key.
Moving forward, there need to be more investments in women’s groups and organizations. Additionally, technologies and approaches that help free up women’s time and energy will be an important tool as well as measure the results of women’s empowerment and changed norms. At the same time, women’s unpaid and unrecognized work will need to be given value.
The other speakers were:Professor Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, Human Geography and team leader of the Afrint group at Lund University, andFlorence Tartanac, Senior Officer and Group Leader of the Market Linkages and Value Chain Group in the Nutrition and Food Systems Division of FAO.
Read the attached report for more info.