Addressing Gender Norms to Increase Financial Inclusion: Designing for Impact

Gendered social norms, a subset of social norms, are an inescapable reality shaping the lives of women around the world. To advance women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment, funders and market facilitators need to acknowledge gender norms and understand how they limit women’s ability to access, use, and benefit from financial services. Ignoring gender norms can limit the effectiveness and impact of financial inclusion interventions, and in some cases, ‘gender-neutral’ approaches can even have unintended negative consequences.

This guide is aimed at helping funders and market facilitators design interventions that address the gender gap and increase women’s financial inclusion and economic empowerment by taking gender norms into account.