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Gender Norms as Drivers of Change
Designing for Young Women’s Success1
Why Gender Norms Matter
When a young woman decides whether to stay in school, delay marriage, or get vaccinated, she is often responding not only to her own preferences but also to what she thinks her community expects of her. These expectations, gender norms, quietly shape the boundaries of her choices.
Our team has been examining this connection in Nigeria and Kenya using nationally representative surveys alongside high-resolution community data. Through this work, we seek to understand how gender norms influence adolescent girls’ and young women’s (AGYW) lives across critical domains, and how these insights can serve as a toolkit for more effective program and policy design.
Several questions have guided our analysis: Are young women responding to the gender norms they perceive in their communities? Do these norms matter more for some behaviors than others? How do they compare to structural drivers such as wealth, education, or religion? And if norms matter, which ones should decision-makers prioritize?
The answers across diverse behaviors and themes are consistent and clear: perceived gender norms significantly shape young women’s outcomes. This holds across five areas of focus: sexual and reproductive health, economic empowerment, child marriage, gender-based violence, and HPV vaccine awareness and uptake.
This body of evidence underscores that any strategy aiming to improve outcomes for AGYW must address the gender norms that influence their everyday decisions.
Designing With Norms in Mind
Design Implication 1: Measure What Shapes Choice
Young women’s perceptions of community norms are closely tied to outcomes across five domains: sexual and reproductive health, economic empowerment, child marriage, gender-based violence, and HPV vaccine awareness and uptake. These perceptions also influence enabling conditions, whether girls can access services, have a say in decisions, or feel confident making choices.
Figure 1: Associations Between AGYW’s Behaviors and Their Self-Perceived Community Norms, by Theme
Note: Color Gradient Reflects Estimated Strength of Association Based on Multivariate Logistic Regression Models (Odd Ratios). Most significant norms are shown. Norms considered include G-NORM scale, WEE scale, and HPV related norms on access to SRH education and health services.
As shown in Figure 1, in Nigeria, the associations are especially strong for economic empowerment and child marriage outcomes, and we also see clear links to HPV vaccine uptake. In Kenya, the patterns are also strong across multiple themes, with the strongest associations for HPV vaccine awareness and uptake.
The consistency of these results across contexts gives us a powerful signal: norms matter. Shifting perceptions could unlock broad benefits across many aspects of young women’s lives.
Implication
By rigorously interrogating perceived gender norms through frequent and granular measurement, we can begin to understand how they shape young women’s agency, behaviors, and life trajectories, and design interventions that not only meet women where they are but also move them where they want to go.Design Implication 2: Design With the Normative Environment
How important are gender norms compared to wealth, education, age, religion, or urban residence? These structural factors are often assumed to matter most. Yet our analysis shows that gender norms consistently emerge as important drivers of behavior, even when assessed alongside these socio-demographic predictors.
Using Nigeria as an illustrative case, we see in Figure 2 that gender norms shape outcomes across multiple domains. In some instances, they are as influential as wealth, which remains the single strongest driver overall. This reinforces that norms are not secondary – they are structural forces in their own right, shaping key dimensions of young women’s lives.
Figure 2: Biggest AGYW Behavior Drivers in Nigeria, by Theme
Note: Each row represents a regression model for select key outcomes across themes. For ease of comparison, only the relative magnitude of a subset of covariates is shown. Gender Norms is a continuous variable with values reflecting a 5-point increase on a 0-100 scale. Urban resident refers to residence in an urban area versus a rural area. Religious faith compares Christians to Muslims and other religious faiths. Education compares highly educated individuals to less educated individuals. Wealth compares individuals in high-wealth households to those in low-wealth households. Age is a continuous variable. The values shown reflect a 1-year increase in age.
Implication
Norm-sensitive design opens new possibilities for shaping outcomes. While structural conditions matter, measuring norms enables us to see where they are comparably influential—and where social influence may offer a more immediate lever. Designing with the normative environment in mind enables strategies that are context-aware, socially resonant, and more likely to drive engagement
Design Implication 3: Target Where Norms Are Moving and Plan for Where They Are Stuck
Some norms are divergent, varying by region and showing signs of shift. Others are sticky, with low endorsement everywhere and deep resistance to change. In Figure 3, we compare the endorsement of gender-equitable norms among adolescent girls and young women in Kano and Kaduna versus Lagos (as a progressive reference) to identify where norms are most resistant.
As seen in Figure 3, in Nigeria, Kano and Kaduna diverge sharply from Lagos on norms around early marriage, women’s employment after marriage, and boys’ education – signaling both barriers and opportunities. At the same time, norms like men’s control over household decisions or restrictions on women’s mobility remain entrenched across states.
Figure 3: Endorsement of Gender-Equitable Norms Among AGYW in Nigeria
Note: Norms included in the G-NORM score are indicated by an asterisk.
Implication
High-resolution norm data can reveal where resistance to change is deeply entrenched and where social expectations are already in motion. This enables precision design: short-term, targeted strategies where norms are shifting, and long-term systemic approaches where they remain sticky.
The Bigger Picture: A Toolkit for Action
Three lessons emerge:
1. Perceived gender norms profoundly shape AGYW’s health, agency, and well-being.
2. Norms matter as much as structural factors and must be treated as central drivers.
3. Some norms are shifting while others remain entrenched, requiring tailored strategies.
For researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, this evidence is a toolkit. It highlights where to act, how to design, and which levers are most promising. By centering gender norms in design, we can create interventions that not only respond to current realities but also open pathways for young women to thrive.
At the heart of every choice a young woman makes is not only what she wants, but what she believes her community expects of her. That is where meaningful change begins.
1Fraym’s Data Engine is a global public good that aims to facilitate timely, evidence-based decision-making and planning among the broader community of practitioners, policymakers, advocates, and researchers working to improve the outcomes of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW). The Data Engine is a groundbreaking high-frequency data platform that provides large-scale, population-based time series data and research on gender norms, behaviors, and outcomes, which shape the lives of AGYW across and within countries at any geographic level. To access our data and research, please visit us here.
For questions or additional information, please contact:
Neetu John, PhD (Pronouns: she/her)
Principal, Gender Research & Programs
Email: [email protected]
