ABSTRACT
Gender discriminatory social norms are a widely recognised barrier to women’s economic empowerment (WEE), affecting both their access to decent work and their experience in workplaces. Between 2013 and 2018, the Growth and Economic Opportunities (GrOW) programme funded 14 research projects on issues related to WEE in more than 50 countries. Although few GrOW studies focused specifically on social and gender norms, they have generated a body of evidence about the ways that discriminatory gender norms affect women’s access to economic opportunities and their work experiences. This chapter reviews and synthesises findings from GrOW-supported research projects and situates them within the global body of evidence on gender, social norms, and WEE. GrOW-supported research adds to existing evidence by helping to explain stagnation in women’s labour force participation in some contexts, the frequent concentration of women in relatively less lucrative sectors and occupations than men, and gendered barriers and challenges that disproportionately affect women.
