• Ann M Weber, Beniamino Cislaghi, Valerie Meausoone, Safa Abdalla, Iván Mejía-Guevara, Pooja Loftus, Emma Hallgren, Ilana Seff, Lindsay Stark, Cesar G Victora, Romina Buffarini, BarrosAluísio J DAJDFederal University of Pelotas, Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Pelotas, Brazil., Benjamin W Domingue, Devika Bhushan, Ribhav Gupta, Jason M Nagata, Holly B Shakya, Linda M Richter, Shane A Norris, Thoai D Ngo, Sophia Chae, Nicole Haberland, Katharine McCarthy, Mark R Cullen, Gary L Darmstadt, and Gender Equality, Norms and Health Steering Committee.
• Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: annweber@stanford.edu.
• Lancet. 2019 Jun 15; 393 (10189): 245524682455-2468.

AbstractDespite global commitments to achieving gender equality and improving health and wellbeing for all, quantitative data and methods to precisely estimate the effect of gender norms on health inequities are underdeveloped. Nonetheless, existing global, national, and subnational data provide some key opportunities for testing associations between gender norms and health. Using innovative approaches to analysing proxies for gender norms, we generated evidence that gender norms impact the health of women and men across life stages, health sectors, and world regions. Six case studies showed that: (1) gender norms are complex and can intersect with other social factors to impact health over the life course; (2) early gender-normative influences by parents and peers can have multiple and differing health consequences for girls and boys; (3) non-conformity with, and transgression of, gender norms can be harmful to health, particularly when they trigger negative sanctions; and (4) the impact of gender norms on health can be context-specific, demanding care when designing effective gender-transformative health policies and programmes. Limitations of survey-based data are described that resulted in missed opportunities for investigating certain populations and domains. Recommendations for optimising and advancing research on the health impacts of gender norms are made.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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