Why an understanding of social norms should be at the core of gender transformative policies?

The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take the world 131 years to reach gender parity unless things drastically change. Women’s economic empowerment is a foundational pillar in achieving this goal. To that end, women’s financial inclusion can be seen as a key tool in ensuring that women access financial products and services and can have the agency to use these monetary resources. In recent years, we have seen greater focus on women’s financial inclusion at the policy level.

This can be seen in National Financial Inclusion policies, where women’s financial inclusion is identified as one of the goals, as well as in stand-alone policies, frameworks, and roadmaps focused on increasing women’s access to and usage of financial resources. Financial sector regulators in some countries have also dedicated Gender Monitoring Offices to incorporate greater accountability toward gender inclusion across all stakeholders. Some countries have been able to go as far as legislating the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act aimed at gender equality in social, economic, and political spheres.

Financial sector policymakers are in a unique position to lead by example when propagating a whole-of-government gender-centric approach to policy making. Consequently, it is upon policymakers to set the depth at which gender-focused initiatives will be taken up across policy, regulation, and service levels. The gender transformative continuum helps financial sector policy makers assess whether their policies are gender blind/neutral/aware/transformative. However, this is only the first step in addressing barriers that constrain women’s financial inclusion. Some of the most pressing challenges facing women’s inclusion go beyond formal financial inclusion. Without considering these deep-rooted issues, policies might just be able to address the problem at the surface and not be truly gender-transformative.  

Social and cultural norms impact most interactions and engagements women undertake as part of their day-to-day lives. More often, social norms may originate from restrictions around ownership of land, a deep-rooted perception of gender roles, and a level of acceptance of gender violence, among others. Since cultural norms are rooted in individuals, communities, and societies at large, they invariably influence policies and legislation, some of which are archaic. Globally, 167 countries have at least one law that restricts economic opportunities for women and more than one-third of economies have laws constraining women’s decision to join the labor force and work consistently. In 101 economies, women cannot run a business in the same way as men. Even now, nearly 40 percent of economies limit women’s property rights which ultimately stunts the growth of women-owned enterprises.

Social norms significantly impact women’s access to and usage of financial services. Reports suggest that one in five unbanked women are constrained by a lack of ID to open their accounts. Even if they do own a bank account, very often, male members in the household, typically spouses, are the proxy users of these bank accounts. Social norms could be a key barrier in these cases, dictating that women do not need a standalone ID, or do not need an independent bank account as they cannot manage their finances on their own owing to restrictive norms and/or limited capabilities to take financial decisions. In the context of digital financial services, social norms manifest in the form of limited ownership of mobile phones, or having phones as a shared asset, with minimal privacy and confidentiality in banking.       

In recent years, there has been increased focus on understanding the impact of social norms (both for women and men) on women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment. However, there is limited focus on systemic analysis of these barriers and understanding of how policymakers can address social norms to the extent that they do not limit women’s access to economic opportunities and financial services. Social norms are tough to address, as they originate from cultural practices and are passed on across generations. They also vary across  cultures and thus addressing them without a deep understanding of this nuance, can do more harm to community cohesion and women’s welfare. It is unlikely that financial sector regulators and policymakers will be able to address social norms in their own capacity. However, acknowledging the role of social norms in constraining women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment can support financial sector regulators to liaise with adjacent sector policymakers and influence the design of norm-aware and norm-transformative policies. 

For instance, the Bank of Ghana set up a movable collateral registry, to enable access to credit for women entrepreneurs, bypassing the social norms that prohibits women from owning or inheriting land under the customary law. The Central Bank of Egypt, initiated formalization and digitization of Village Savings Groups to enable access to formal financial services for women and Sex Disaggregated Data for Banks, indirectly addressing social norms constraining women’s ownership of bank accounts and mobile phones. These can be seen as norm intentional interventions, where policy makers are intentionally designing initiatives to address social norms to the extent they can enable women’s access to financial services, all the while following a “do no harm” approach. 

In conclusion, while many norms-linked challenges can be addressed through suitable enactments and dedicated enforcement of these laws, some can be changed through nudges. These could include building norm awareness among internal staff to counter conscious and unconscious biases, and including norms-linked indicators in program monitoring and evaluation plans. It is also important to have women as policymakers to bring focus on understanding norms. Furthermore, engaging with men, who have a gatekeeper role, can either perpetuate or counter norms and it is important to have them as allies, to bring a lasting change. Policymakers also have a crucial role in guiding and nudging financial sector institutions to be more norm-aware and adopt “do no harm” approaches when trying to work around or with social norms. It is however crucial to acknowledge that norms will not change overnight. It may take generations to completely change a norm, but with intentional policy design, policy makers have the power to begin the process of change now. 

Authored by: Ishita Sharma, Bhavana Srivastava