The Global Center for Gender Equality at Stanford University, along with a Steering Committee comprised of global thought leaders in gender and health, investigated key relationships between gender norms, gender equality and the health and wellbeing of women, girls, men and boys globally, across the life course in the Lancet Series on Gender Equality, Norms and Health.

The Series highlights the mechanisms through which gendered social norms—the often implicit “rules” that shape how women, men, boys and girls think and behave—affect the health of entire segments of the population. It promotes a new understanding of the importance and implications of gender inequality and restrictive gender norms on a wide range of health outcomes along the life course and across the world, and shares how to advance change. The Series aims to achieve three main objectives:

1. To marshal evidence demonstrating whether and how gender inequality and restrictive gender norms affect health systems and the health and well-being of all people.
2. To identify opportunities to improve health and strengthen health systems through programs and policies aimed at transforming gender norms and addressing inequalities.
3. To inspire new conversations, new partnerships and new methods of analysis that change practices and move people to action across health and development sectors.

The Series recommends propelling a movement to knock down the barriers to gender equality. Health systems can be disrupted. Programs can change gender norms and improve health outcomes by engaging multiple stakeholders from different sectors. Laws and economic policies, such as tuition-free education and paid parental leave, can change gender norms and improve health outcomes by markedly increasing gender equality in key areas including education, work and family.

We cannot wait any longer to shift norms, reduce inequalities and set the course for good health for generations to come. Addressing gender inequality and restrictive gender norms holds the potential to yield multiple downstream benefits for the health and development of all genders and is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and protecting human rights for all.

The Series was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (the Gender Equality, Integrated Delivery, HIV, Nutrition, Family Planning, and Water Sanitation and Hygiene program strategy teams) and by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.