Webinar Video: Social Norms and Violence against Women and Girls

"Role models may persuade people to adopt new norms, condemn existing norms and/or simply make an alternative seem feasible where previously it was unimaginable." - Lori Heise

This is a recording of a Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC) webinar on social norms and violence against women and girls (VAWG) featuring Lori Heise and Emma Fulu. Dr. Heise (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and Dr. Fulu (the Equality Institute) gave short presentations on social norms and violence against women and girls (VAWG). They drew on their experience and research to reflect on comments and questions raised by participating development practitioners.

In a PowerPoint presentation [PDF] summarising some of Dr. Heise's remarks, she notes that a combination of factors sustain VAWG: individual factors, social factors, material realities, and structural forces. A social norm is a rule of behaviour that people in a group conform to because they believe: Most other people in the group conform to it (i.e., it is typical behaviour) and believe they ought to conform to it (i.e., it is appropriate behaviour). Some harmful or violent behaviours are held in place by social norms; other violent behaviours, such as intimate partner violence (IPV) may not be held in place by beliefs that the specific behaviour is typical and appropriate, but they are underpinned by other beliefs and other social norms around gender roles, family privacy, and male authority that create expectations that perpetuate men's use of violence. Socialisation is internalisation of gender roles and expectations so that gender becomes "naturalised", invisible. Empowerment focuses on building agency: expanding horizons/aspirations, building skills and self-efficacy, and encouraging critical reflection. Norms, however, can serve as a "brake" on social change: Agency helps women and girls resist social expectations, but doesn't transform expectations. Dr. Heise moves on to discuss how to diagnose and measure social norms, noting that qualitative research is probably the easiest way to develop a hypothesis, yet quantitative research allows for tracking change over time. The purpose of tackling social norms is to create new social expectations. It is important to emphasise positive descriptive norms in communication campaigns - e.g., a poster featuring a young man and the words "I listen when a girl says no. Do you?" Also key is promoting public debate and deliberation; individuals need to see and hear from others who may be changing their attitudes towards VAWG so that expectations also change. Thus, Dr. Heise suggests publicising role models and the benefits of new behaviour. She also suggests that those designing programmes ask: How can change be scaled up beyond the direct beneficiaries and participants to the wider society?

In a PowerPoint presentation [PDF] summarising some of Dr. Fulu's remarks, she notes that there is increasing attention being paid globally to VAWG as a public health and development issue - as reflected in the fact that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include 3 specific targets addressing VAWG. IPV is the most common form. VAWB emerges from multiple intersecting factors operating across different levels of society: individual, relationship/interaction, community, social, and global. Dr. Fulu describes various factors associated with men's perpetration of IPV, such as childhood emotional abuse or neglect and frequent quarrelling with partner. There is limited evidence of the effectiveness of interventions to prevent VAWG, but some of the more effective ones have involved relationship-level interventions, group education with community outreach (men/boys), and community mobilisation. Effective programme elements have been found to be participatory, multi-component, supportive of critical discussion, skills building, built from a well-articulated theory of change, and working across multiple settings and/or multiple risk factors.

In addition to the video version (above), an audio-only version of the webinar is available here.