This case study profiles the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and its Gender Equity Movement in Schools programme, one of the most rigorously evaluated models for shifting gender norms through education.
The ICRW is a global research institute founded in 1976 to generate evidence that advances the rights of women and girls. Since the late 1990s, its Asia Regional Office in New Delhi has led applied research and programming on gender, education and violence prevention, developing the Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) in 2008 in partnership with CORO and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
GEMS works with students in grades six to eight through Group Education Activities: interactive, discussion-based sessions using stories, role-play and games to explore gender roles, violence and empathy over two academic years. Teachers are central to the model, receiving intensive training to reflect on their own biases before becoming facilitators and role models for students. The programme has since been adapted in India, Viet Nam and Bangladesh, and ICRW has extended its approach through related programmes such as UMANG, which brings the school-based model into communities to help reduce child marriage and increase school retention in rural India.
GEMS is one of the few programmes in this field to be evaluated through a randomised controlled trial. In India, this found statistically significant improvements in students' gender-equitable attitudes, reduced acceptance of violence, and more respectful relationships, with stronger gains among students exposed to more sessions. UMANG evaluation showed that child marriage rates in intervention areas rose substantially less during and after the COVID-19 pandemic compared with control areas. At the same time, school retention increased in intervention areas, even as it declined in control areas.
Since 2008, GEMS has reached over 2.8 million students and 28,000 teachers across 26,000 schools, and has been integrated into government systems including Maharashtra's Meena Raju Manch initiative and Bangladesh's ministry of education.
Key messages
- ICRW's Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS) is one of the most rigorously evaluated school-based programmes for shifting gender norms, tested through a randomised controlled trial in India.
- The programme found statistically significant improvements in gender-equitable attitudes, reduced acceptance of violence, and more respectful relationships among students, with stronger gains linked to more sessions attended
- Teachers are central to the model: training focuses first on helping them reflect on their own biases before equipping them with participatory teaching tools.
- GEMS has been adapted and evaluated in India, Viet Nam and Bangladesh, and integrated into government systems including Maharashtra's Meena Raju Manch initiative, reaching over 25,000 schools.
- UMANG, a related programme addressing child marriage in rural India, found that child marriage rates in intervention areas rose substantially less during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with control areas.
- ICRW's research has helped shape how global organisations, including UNICEF and UNFPA, measure gender-transformative change in education.
- Since 2008, GEMS has reached over 2.8 million students and 28,000 teachers across 26,000 schools in three countries.
