The dynamics of gender norms in the context of community health

Roy*, a male participant at a gender workshop tweets on gender discussions ongoing in the meeting. Roy* immediately receives a call from a fellow man: “What are you doing at a gender workshop?” Roy* shares this with fellow participants at the workshop to everyone’s utmost shock and sarcastic laughter followed by heated conversations with a mixture of grunts from one side of the audience, rolling eyes from another and nods from the corner section.  

Gender norms and power plays demonstrated above are not only at this high level but also influence the work community health workers (CHWs) do at the household level, community level and societal level. Harmful gender norms shape vulnerability to ill health and impact on health seeking behavior and access to health services in negative ways.

During a recent meeting in Nairobi on Building Health Systems that transform gender norms, participants concurred that with support, CHWs are well positioned to challenge gender norms as they are the interface between communities and the health system and are intimately aware of how they play out...