A new Focus Area on child marriage will be published in May. Keep checking this page for updates, or visit our Resource Hub for key resources on gender norms and child marriage.
The law as a tool for changing gender norms affecting adolescent girls: The case of child marriage laws
This report explores the role of law reform as a tool for changing gender norms that affect adolescent girls, with a focus on child marriage laws. It finds that law reform is most effective in changing gender norms when it is building on changes in behaviour or attitudes that are already starting to occur. For reforms to have maximum impact, there needs to be widespread awareness of new laws and public confidence that they will be enforced.
Social Norms and Girls’ Well-Being: Linking Theory and Practice
This report reviews the landscape around social norms theory and investigates two projects that have facilitated change around norms and practices of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage. Improving girls’ well-being requires not only working with girls, but also with boys, women, and men, by creating safe spaces where communities can question existing norms.
Transforming the world for girls
This three-part ODI podcast series explores how harmful gendered norms effect the lives of girls in developing countries. Through interviews with girls, their families and communities, and gender and development researchers, the episodes discuss topics around gender norms theory and history, the complexities of changing norms, and positive interventions to empower girls' and transform their futures.