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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 11, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2024
DOI:10.14738/assrj.118.17356.
Dunson, K. (2024). Closing the Gender Gap: Women and Men Creating Social Change through Dialogue. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 11(8). 161-183.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Closing the Gender Gap: Women and Men Creating Social Change
through Dialogue
Konyka Dunson
University of the District of Columbia
ABSTRACT
Gender-based conflict, violence, and inequality are intractable social problems that
remain a global challenge. This study proposes a novel approach to creating social
change—engaging women and men together in transformative dialogue. The study
posits that gender-based inequality is deeply rooted in social norms and that
dialogue between women and men can expose, challenge, and transform these
norms and spark personal and social change. The study conducted interviews with
two women and two men who participated in a gender reconciliation dialogue
called “Gender Equity and Reconciliation International,” a facilitated process of
truth-telling, witnessing, and healing that examines the lived experience of gender.
With the goal of identifying new pathways toward gender equity, the study found
that gender reconciliation created a rare, transformative experience where women
and men gained awareness of their unconscious gender assumptions and biases.
Participants valued the compassionate, empathic listening in the dialogue as they
witnessed the harmful impact of gender norms on themselves and each other.
Gender reconciliation left a lasting impact: the women and men forged a
commitment to gender equity, developed enhanced communication skills, and
initiated conversations embracing gender equity in their communities. Rather than
redefining gender norms, participants emphasized that gender equity begins with
recognizing the impact of social norms, respect for the experiences of men and
women, and compassionate communication. For the global work to eradicate
gender inequality, gender reconciliation dialogue offers a strategy to disrupt
harmful social norms and engage women and men to create new pathways for social
progress.
Keywords: gender norms, gender reconciliation, social change, social norms, gender
equity, dialogue
INTRODUCTION
Despite progress on many fronts, gender-based inequality, conflict, and violence remain
problems globally. As the 2023 Gender Social Norms Index reveals, gender bias, ingrained in
cultural and social norms, underlies this endemic worldwide reality (United Nations
Development Programme, 2023; Unobe, 2022). Biased gender norms, “an undervaluation of
women’s capabilities and rights in society,” affect men and women, as close to 90% of women
and men hold gender bias attitudes (United Nations Development Programme, 2023; p. 3).
Gender bias coexists with the global reality of gender-based violence (GBV), threats, harm,
deprivation, and violence directed at a person because of their gender or sex (Dlamini, 2021),
as more than one in four women are victimized by intimate partner physical or sexual violence
(Equimundo, 2022; Gram et al., 2023; Sardinha et al., 2022; Keepin & Brix, 2022). Gender norms
adversely impact men as well, as over 60% of men report “provider identity stress,” frequent
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 11, Issue 8, August-2024
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
stress, and depression due to the lack of income expected of male providers (Equimundo, 2022,
p. 63).
Men and women jointly inherit gender norms that impact nearly all members of a society
(Equimundo, 2022; van Schalkwyk, 2022). In everyday personal, familial, and community
dynamics, men and women experience, enforce, and perpetuate gendered social norms and
“patterns of inequality” (Wall, 2014, p.5; Ridgeway, 2014; Munoz Boudet et al., 2023; UNFPA,
2020; Warren et al., 2023). Examining underlying social and gender norms presents the
opportunity to explore beliefs, culture, accepted norms, and how they undergird problematic
gendered constructs.
Global gender-based violence statistics and the disparate impact of gender norms on men and
women reveal that while women and men inhabit the same cultures, a gap exists between
significant, core aspects of their lived experiences. This study examines the impact of gender
reconciliation dialogue in engaging women and men to raise awareness of this gender gap. The
study defines and theorizes that the “gender gap,” the difference between the core, lived
experiences of men and women in society, enables gender-based inequality to persist, as men
and women are largely unaware of the actual impact of biased gender norms on each other.
Therefore, this study asks: How can gender reconciliation dialogue, women and men together
in a facilitated conversation, close this experiential gender gap, transform harmful gender
norms, and lead to social progress?
THE NECESSITY OF WOMEN AND MEN IN DIALOGUE TOGETHER
Practitioners and researchers recognize the importance of involving men and women in efforts
to reduce gender inequality (Olowu, 2011). Practically, certain issues are addressed most
effectively with separate women’s and men’s spaces and interventions (Olowu, 2011). Program
H by Equimundo, focused on young men, effectively employed an educational curriculum and
male-led community campaigns that shifted young male attitudes toward greater gender equity
and reduced acceptance of domestic violence (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023; Miller et al., 2020;
Doyle & Kato-Wallace, 2021). Women’s groups focused on surviving intimate partner violence
create safe spaces for women to share their experiences, heal, and be supported in moving
forward (Evans et al., 2023). While targeted programs reveal the effectiveness of supporting
personal change in women and men separately, the breadth of gendered issues underscores
the enormous potential for women and men to dialogue together to examine gender-based
issues. As dialogue is well documented to impact personal transformation (Nagda & Roper,
2019), this study theorizes that the gender reconciliation dialogue process can: (1) surface
awareness of the gender gap between the core, lived experiences of women and men regarding
gender norms; (2) allow men and women to examine social norms that underlie limiting,
harmful gender constructs in society; and (3) as a result of dialogue, the awareness of social
norms can lead to new beliefs and actions in individuals to create social change toward gender
equity. Ultimately, the study seeks to understand how gender reconciliation dialogue impacts
men and women and how it can generate substantive, lasting, and global progress.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL NORMS
Social norms are the “informal rules of behavior” that define what societies expect, accept, or
deem appropriate in social settings and contexts (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023, p.3; Cislaghi &
Heise, 2020; Guthridge et al., 2022; Biccchieri, 2006). Social norms are upheld by power
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Dunson, K. (2024). Closing the Gender Gap: Women and Men Creating Social Change through Dialogue. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 11(8). 161-183.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.118.17356
interests within cultures, those with social, legal, and economic power. Girls and boys growing
up in a culture absorb identities, behaviors, beliefs, and roles that are internalized as normal,
the way life is, and the way they are supposed to be (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023; Nartey et al.,
2023; Iddrisu, 2020; UNFPA, 2020). The International Men & Gender Equality Survey, which
analyzed data across 32 countries, found that children who witness male domination in
household direction internalize this dominance and gendered pattern as normal (Equimundo,
2022).
Social rules exert power with social sanctions for not following the norms. People believe in
social norms, conform to them, and expect others to do so (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023; Bicchieri,
2017; Legros & Cislaghi, 2020; Anderson & Dunning, 2014). At the most personal level, the
social norms affect the internal norm, what individuals normalize within themselves, and their
beliefs about what is expected of them (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023). There are costs for not
adhering to social norms, being, acting, and thinking differently (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023;
Legros & Cislaghi, 2020; Anderson & Dunning, 2014). When women do not conform or deviate
from any number of social norms, they are more likely to experience social consequences,
including violent threats and domestic violence (Gram et al., 2023). Women and men recognize
the cost and risk of deviating from the social norms around gender. When people hold a high
value on social approval or standing, the more people uphold the social norms (Munoz Boudet
et al., 2023; Bursztyn & Jensen, 2017; Bursztyn & Yang, 2022).
Social and biased gender norms persist even among younger generations. The International
Men and Gender Equality Survey (2022) found that while most young women have gender- equitable attitudes, young men sometimes do, but mostly do not (Equimundo, 2022). While the
well-being of women varies from country to country, with women’s greater well-being
correlating with more democratic and peaceful countries, the widespread disparate impact of
gender inequality merits a serious examination of underlying social and gender norms to
transform this prevailing reality (Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and
Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2023).
SOCIAL NORMS AND SOCIAL CHANGE
A deliberate strategy to transform social norms can create change in society, as social change
occurs when customs, demands, and policies “contradict the status quo” and “compete for
acceptance” (Dobash & Dobash, 2003). Social change can be understood through a tipping
point, where new norms become widely held (Munoz Boudet et al., 2023; United Nations
Development Programme, 2023). Building on work by the United Nations Population Fund, “A
social norm perspective sheds light on issues that seem complex and sometimes intractable and
offers insights that put attitudinal and collective behavioral change at the forefront of positive
social change” (UNFPA, p.12, 2020). Therefore, as social norms underlie gender constructs that
can cause harm and limit the rights, opportunities, and benefits of all people (United Nations
Development Programme, 2023), the study posits that gender-based dialogue can create
awareness of social norms and generate attitudinal and behavioral changes that collectively
challenge the prevailing status quo.
THE POTENTIAL OF DIALOGUE
Dialogue, as it engages individuals at the most personal level, has the potential to uphold the
collective consciousness of a society. Dialogue engages the power of relationships and can