What we know (and do not know) about persistent social norms that serve as barriers to girls’ access, participation and achievement in education in eight sub-Saharan African countries

This paper is a literature review of existing studies on gendered social norms that serve as barriers to girls’ education. The paper: 1) explores and documents social norms that impede girls’ education access, participation and achievement in the eight partner countries; 2) identifies gaps in understanding the multi-level factors that serve to keep these social norms in place; and 3) proposes a research agenda and methodology to bolster practitioner understanding and to effectively inform the piloting of new ways in which multi-level factors can be disrupted so that communities and societies can transform in positive ways that will help them achieve gender equality in and through education.