2023 Gender Social Norms Index: breaking down gender biases: Shifting social norms towards gender equality

The Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published this report on June 12, 2023. This is the second report in the series; the first was published in March 2020.The index intends to quantify the various biases faced by women and evaluates people’s responses to women in different parts of society. It assesses responses related to four dimensions: political, educational, economic and physical integrity. The figures in the report are based on data for 2017 to 2022 collected from the World Values Survey. It covered 80 countries and territories accounting for 85 per cent of the world’s population. The index advocates for a reassessment of policies and reforms to gauge how social contexts shape attitudes towards women.The 44-page report contains five sections: Achieving gender equality requires eliminating biased gender social norms (Section 1); A world of widespread biases against women (Section 2); Gender biases inhibit women’s agency and deprive the world of the benefits of women’s leadership (Section 3); Norms are persistent–but they can change (Section 4); and Call to action: towards comprehensive action tackling social norms (Section 5).