‘Let’s stop thinking it is normal’

Identifying patterns in social norms contributing to violence against women and girls across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Pacific

Publication date: 25 November 2018
Author: Saskia van Veen, Bethan Cansfield, Sandrine Muir-Bouchard

Oxfam’s worldwide ‘Enough’ campaign to end violence against women and girls aims to challenge and change the harmful social norms that justify abuse – to ones that promote gender equality and non-violence. The Enough campaign focuses on developing and delivering national campaigns based on formative research that identifies the most relevant social norm in that context. Campaigns are co-created with women’s rights organizations and feminist activists. 

This collated research report is based on formative research from 12 countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Pacific. The report identifies dominant and common patterns in the social norms that perpetuate violence against women and girls; and discusses how formative research can be used to inform a campaign to influence behaviour change.