Social norms in the economy are about gender norms and roles (e.g., asset ownership, or violence against women), as well as ‘economic norms,’ such as what is considered work, versus leisure, and the perceived skill and value placed on different economic activities. Norms that lead to gendered occupational segregation, and accord those jobs typically done by men with a higher social value, maintain the gender pay gap and skew prices for products and services considered “female” versus those that are “male.” These norms shape and distort markets and economic policy by influencing cost-benefit analyses and investment decisions. For example, where norms privilege productivity of market labor over unpaid and care labor, this can lead to financial policies that exclude household water systems and prioritize irrigation systems, with negative implications for investment in women’s work, productivity of labor, and empowerment.
Interventions for women to be economically empowered must be complemented by broader, integrated strategies to address social norms in the economy. Such norms limit women's choice of economic activities, participation in the paid economy and the benefits they gain.
Development efforts may promote women within existing market systems, but fail to achieve transformational change because they do not challenge the social norms in the economy that systematically discriminate against women in the selected markets. As a result, market-based programs increasingly aim to design interventions for WEE that address social norms in the economy.
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