Reshaping Gender Attitudes to Promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment: What Can We Learn from the Evidence?

Webinar
Hosted by:
Timeline:
to (18 November 2021 - 8:30 to 10:00pm EST)
Location:
Live via Zoom
Image: Women at a market in Indonesia.
Photo: Shutterstock.com

Gender norms and biases continue to constrain human potential around the world. Like in many countries, the role of women and girls in Indonesia are reinforced through both formal and informal institutions, and perpetuated by the social norms on gender that disadvantage them. Historically, gender norms have put barriers for women and girls in receiving education, accessing health care, participating in the labor force, and having full autonomy over key life decisions like marriage and childbirth. While Indonesia has made some significant progress to address gender inequality, the gender gap remains high. Improving gender awareness and reshaping gender attitudes are important steps to changing long-held norms towards gender and ultimately closing the gender gap in Indonesia. 

This webinar aims to provide insights from the Government of Indonesia’s policy and programs that promote gender equality and discuss learnings from evidence related to women empowerment around the world. 

Discussion topics:

  1. Working with laws and institutions: Structural constraints from legal restrictions, customary practices, institutional arrangements contribute to long-held social norms on gender that often disadvantage women and girls. Changing gender norms is difficult if not accompanied by supportive regulatory frameworks and commitments from both formal and informal institutions.

  2. Designing programs that work: Many existing studies offer evidence that social norms related to gender limit the effectiveness of programs that target women. Therefore, it is important to dig deeper on what to consider in order to design programs that work.

  3. Improving gender awareness: Gender norms are difficult to change because they are pervasive and held in place by behaviors, beliefs and institutions. The speakers will talk about addressing gender inequality through programs that focus first on raising gender awareness.

Speakers

  1. H.E. I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati, Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection of the Republic of Indonesia (as keynote speaker)

  2. Lenny Rosalin, Deputy of Gender Equality at the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection of the Republic of Indonesia (as panelist speaker)

  3. Seema Jayachandran, Chair of J-PAL’s Gender sector; Northwestern University (as panelist speaker)

Webinar Recording