On 4-5 February 2025, UN Women convened a two-day Expert Group Meeting (EGM) to address one of the most persistent barriers to gender equality in political and public life: discriminatory social norms. The event brought together feminist scholars, policymakers, activists, and practitioners to chart a path forward for transforming social norms and ensuring women’s full and effective political participation. This experts’ meeting was organized under the WYDE | Women’s Leadership, funded by the European Union, and under the leadership of UN Women’s Political Participation team, which is a collaborative global effort aimed at advancing women’s full and effective political participation and decision-making at all levels, especially those most often left furthest behind.

Despite decades of international commitments and mobilization, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals, women remain significantly underrepresented in political decision-making worldwide. Social norms continue to shape perceptions of women’s roles in decision-making, restricting their access to leadership positions, prescribing what their roles should be and reinforcing structural inequalities. 

Read more at: https://unric.org/en/transforming-social-norms-to-advance-womens-political-participation/