Shifting gender norms can drive equity, food security and nutritional outcomes

“Norms and intrahousehold dynamics” was the focus of a parallel session during the Gender in Food, Land and Water Systems Conference 2025.  The session highlighted the significance of understanding and addressing gender dynamics within households for creating a more equitable environment for women working in agrifood systems.

In many areas of the world, deeply embedded gender norms influence who controls resources, whose knowledge is trusted and how decisions are made within households.  The first speaker in the session, Stellamaris Aju [PhD Candidate, Wageningen University & Research] said that based on her research,  positively framed edutainment can promote joint decision-making.

 “We see inefficient allocation of resources in the household, which is often to the detriment of women,”  she said.

Gender biases within households can also affect how extension services are received by women and men. Aju found in her study that “men wanted to listen to men and women wanted to listen to women” when showed a TV drama (edutainment) promoting new production technologies.

However, Aju’s work has found that positively framed edutainment targeting both spouses can challenge stereotypes and promote joint decision-making. It is shown to be a promising way of facilitating joint collaborative intra-household decision-making and reducing gender biases.

Gender norms and intrahousehold power shape agricultural and nutrition outcomes

Another speaker, Catherine Ragasa [Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute] discussed her research analyzing whether positive or negative framing of gender-attitude statements influences survey respondents’ support for gender equality. She compared how positive and negative framing affects attitudes towards gender equity in four countries (Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda). The results showed that gender attitudes are sensitive to framing, with positive messaging increasing support for equality statements.

For those seeking to impact food security and nutritional outcomes, it is crucial to first understand the intrahousehold dynamics and how decision-making happens, according to chair of the session and speaker Lucy Apiyo Adundo [PhD student, Antwerp University].  Her research looked at the nutritional value of food sold by 3000 vendors in low-, middle- and high-income socio-economic areas of Nairobi in Kenya. She found that women dominate informal food vending while men were more present in formal food markets, which has implications for how gender norms affect urban food environments and nutritional outcomes.

Joint participation strengthens household collaboration

Speaker, Aletheia Amalia Donald  [Economist at the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab] presented research in Ethiopia investigating what happens when agricultural and nutrition information is delivered through video to both spouses within a household. Many programs tend to target  nutritional information to women and agricultural content to men.  Yet, targeting the same information to both spouses improves household coordination, communication and productivity. “Women articulated that if they were the sole viewer, their spouse might be less likely to trust or would questions the agricultural information they shared,” said Donald. “It is best that both spouses within a dual farmer household see the videos… hearing information secondhand is less powerful than receiving it directly. Women especially wanted men to see videos that modelled men participating in household tasks. Receiving the same information reduces intrahousehold friction and helps build household consensus.”

Donald also highlighted complementary research from the Côte d’Ivoire where joint training and action planning by spouses led to 20 percent higher tree planting and large economic returns, illustrating the productivity gains of collaboration.

However, while joint participation does help shift household gender norms it does not necessarily lead to transformative changes to women’s power within households. “If your main theory of change is to change women’s power, this might not be the intervention to do it,” cautioned Donald.

Similarly, Aju’s experiment using a 24-minute edutainment video and debriefs to address gender stereotypes and encourage joint decision-making found that while there was a shift in gender norms, it did not necessarily lead to women being more empowered within households.

Policies and programs need to be aligned with local contexts, norms and constraints

Adundo argued in her talk that gender needs to be integrated into food and nutrition policies: “Gender equality and women’s empowerment need to be part of food security and nutrition action plans, especially in low- and middle-income countries”. All speakers in the conference session highlighted how well-designed interventions, including edutainment, framing and role modelling, can shift gender norms. However, rather than assuming that one-size-fits-all, gender-responsive policies and initiatives also need to be designed according to the local context, norms and constraints on delivery.

For example, Donald highlighted the importance of considering practical implications of joint involvement of spouses when designing interventions: “While we know both spouses should be invited, realities like childcare and time constraints often prevent joint participation.”

Understanding the geographic extent of the problem in a region may also influence the approach that is chosen. “Where gender inequality attitudes are concentrated, targeted interventions may work better; where they are widespread, mass media may be more cost-effective,” said Ragasa.

Policies and interventions that are designed with an understanding of local contexts, norms and constraints and that use innovative, often visual, techniques targeting both spouses in a household can help shift gender inequality attitudes and norms. Such shifts can then form the basis for more transformative gender, food security and nutritional outcomes.