Diagnosing social norms in women’s financial inclusion programming

Author: Yasmin Bin-Humam

Published by: CGAP

A worker at a silk thread factory in Turkey. Photo: Bulent Suberk, 2016 CGAP Photo Contest

“It is a famous secret that women save money,” laughed Mustafa, when we asked for his views on how women should engage with money and financial services in Turkey. Mustafa is one of more than 80 men and women CGAP has interviewed so far in the city of Gaziantep, as part of our work to understand how social norms in Turkey pose barriers to women’s financial inclusion. As it turned out, he was an outlier among the men we encountered, many of whom expressed their belief that women should not own property or be involved in financial decisions...