Local normative climate
shaping agency and
agricultural livelihoods in
sub-Saharan Africa
P A T T I P E T E S C H , R E N E E B U L L O C K , S H E L L E Y F E L D M A N , L O N E B A D S T U E ,
A N N E R I E T V E L D , W E N D A B A U C H S P I E S , A D A L B E R T U S K A M A N Z I , A M A R E
T E G B A R U
2 N D A N N U A L S C I E N T I F I C G E N D E R C O N F E R E N C E A N D C A P A C I T Y
D E V E L O P M E N T W O R K S H O P , S E P T E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 1 8

My talk today
I. Paper objective and approach
II. Sample & methods
III. Results
a. Two case studies
b. Cross-case findings
IV. Concluding reflections

I. PAPER OBJECTIVE
AND APPROACH
Introduce and test concept of local normative
climate, or the prevailing gender norms in a
community that are shaping women’s and
men’s perceptions of their capacity to exercise
agency and act on opportunities.

Gender norms
“specifically mean differential rules of conduct for
women and men, including rules governing
interactions between women and men.”
(Pearse and Connell, 2016)

Gender norms: Only men are farmers?
“Women are not farmers.
They are their husbands’
shadows …. They support
him. They do what he
does but she is never
considered the main
farmer.”
-- Poor women’s focus group, Village
of Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley
What we
ought to be
and do.
What we
actually do.

Properties of gender norms
Contextual
• Norms operate among individuals who interact frequently -- and intimately.
Relational
• Norms are underpinned by gender power relations and expectations that associate
agentic capacities with men and entitle men to control over women.
Fluid
• Men and women uphold, negotiate and alter norms in their day-to-day lives -- as they
pursue their interests and move through their life cycle, and as their local institutions and
opportunities evolve. Restrictive norms co-exist with relaxed norms. Norms also often
vary among social groups in a village.

II. SAMPLE AND
METHODS
SSA
region
Country # Case studies
West Mali 5
Niger 3
Nigeria 4
East Burundi 2
DR Congo* 1
Kenya 2
Rwanda 1
Tanzania 4
Uganda 2
24 GENNOVATE case studies
from sub-Saharan Africa

 A module with four questions
 For two single-sex focus groups or semi-
structured individual interviews
 Perceptions of local women’s and men’s
capacity to take important decisions – now
and ten years ago
 Generates numerical and narrative data
Local people engaging with & measuring concepts themselves.
http://gender.cgiar.org/themes/gennovate/
Ladder of Power and Freedom:
Valuable entry point for assessing local normative climate

TWO CASE STUDIES
CROSS-CASE FINDINGS
III. RESULTS

Focus of case studies
◦ How is the local normative climate shaping and being shaped
by women’s and men’s perceptions of their capacity to take
major decisions, innovate in their rural livelihoods, and better
their lives?

Ilu Titun – remote Yoruba village of Oyo State, Nigeria
A normative climate where highly patriarchal norms prevail
alongside very relaxed norms that enable women to exercise
significant economic roles.
◦ [A good woman farmer?] “… must know how to process
her farm produce such as cassava into garri, maize into
pap, and yam into yam flour, and so forth.”
◦ (Gender equality?) “We believe that the women
themselves know we can’t be equal. They become very
rude and disrespectful when they have freedom.”
(Focus group of poor men)
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Amatuma - peri-urban Luhya village of Vihiga county in
western Kenya
A normative climate where men fear emasculation but
norms for women are relaxing as they take on expanded
roles in their family and local economy.
◦ “Back then women were less informed, but today we attend
seminars like this one so you find that [now] women even can
keep cattle for milk produce, which gives them cash.”
Women’s middleclass focus group
◦ “There is a crisis in this area. Men are dying at a fast rate!
Women are then the heads of the home . . . .”
Female key informant, community leader
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Examples of relational and fluid properties of norms
“Old people did not want to share
wealth or their land with their
children. Then children started on
square one.”
“Girls should be well educated and
join women’s groups so they
participate in development.”
“[Women] need to understand and
accept they are number two, and
not the head of the family.”
--Men’s middleclass focus group of Amatuma

Ladder of
Power &
Freedom
ratings, 24 case
studies
2.60
1.84
3.07
2.85
1
2
3
4
5
Men's focus groups Women's focus groups
Medianladderstep
Ten years ago Now

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Marital
roles
Housework,
parenting or
care roles
Household
authority
Finance or
asset mgmt.
Agricultural
activities
Stress or
conflict
Frequencyofmentions
Women's focus groups Men's focus groups
Common topics in the discourse about village men’s and women’s positions and movements on their Ladder of
Power and Freedom (48 focus groups, GENNOVATE coded dataset)
Comparative findings from 24 cases: Men quieter about their agency, rarely mention wives

IV. Concluding reflections:
Local normative
climate
The prevailing set of gender norms in a
community, and how they are interacting with
other dynamics in that context to differentially
shape women’s and men’s sense of agency and
opportunities in their lives.

Local normative
climate +
Ladder of
power and
freedom
Cases reveal variable ways that women and
men negotiate, uphold and alter norms as
they move through their life cycle and as local
institutions and opportunities evolve.
Data about perceptions of change in agency
offer a powerful lens on how women and men
often interpret and experience opportunities
and barriers very differently.
Norms for women are relaxing while for men
have remained more stable, often making for
stressful gender relations & impeding
normative change.