Gender stereotypes are more than beliefs; they shape who gets power
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For many people, gender stereotypes sound harmless, outdated, the kind of thing found in old traditions, family expectations, or social media arguments. Recently a group of experts agreed that stereotypes are far more powerful than that. They shape who owns land, who is believed in court, who stays in school or gets promoted in the workplace, who is safe online, who controls money, technology, and political power. In some cases, they can determine who lives and who dies.
The convening by UN Women and OHCHR, brought together diverse women and youth-led organizations, feminist activists, lawyers, researchers, religious and traditional leaders, as gender and human rights experts from across East and Southern Africa. Their goal being to shape a General Recommendation under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the international treaty widely considered the world’s most important framework on women’s rights. These discussions moved beyond policy language and legal theory. The message from the consultation was direct: that gender stereotypes are not just ideas in people’s heads; they are tools built into systems and used to perpetuate discriminatory social norms. That means changing them requires much more than awareness campaigns or inspirational slogans. It requires changing the structures that keep inequality alive. More than culture across East and Southern Africa, the effects of gender stereotypes are deeply visible in everyday life. Women continue to lose property through discriminatory inheritance systems, girls are pushed out of school because of pregnancy, poverty or gendered expectations around marriage and caregiving, survivors of violence are pressured into mediation instead of justice, and older women accused of witchcraft face dispossession, abuse and even killing. In many places, women must still navigate both formal courts and customary or religious systems that may treat them unequally.
These are not isolated incidents of abuse but part of larger systems that distribute power unevenly. One expert described stereotypes as instruments of power, not just harmful beliefs, and that distinction matters. If stereotypes are treated only as attitudes, governments can respond with public campaigns and symbolic commitments. But when they are recognized as vehicles for maintaining discrimination embedded in institutions, schools, courts, labor markets, religious systems and technology, then deeper reforms become necessary. That includes laws, budgets, digital regulation, education policy and stronger accountability systems.
The consultation repeatedly stressed that gender inequality survives not because societies lack evidence of harm, but because institutions often continue to benefit from unequal systems.
A case of growing backlash
The discussions reflected growing concern on organized resistance to gender equality across the region. Attacks on women’s rights and gender equality are becoming more coordinated, political, and digitally amplified. Shrinking civic space, surveillance and threats against human rights defenders, , online misogyny, including anti-LGBTIQ+ rhetoric, and the spread of manosphere and trad wife content across social media platforms are trends that shouldn’t be ignored. Rather than viewing backlash as random or isolated, they described it as an organized political movement involving public and private sector actors, religious groups, , and online networks. This shift is important because it changes how governments and institutions must respond. The debate over gender equality is no longer only about social progress. Increasingly, it has become tied to larger efforts to redefine boundaries and rights in the context of nationalism, religion, identity, and power- and nowhere is that battle more visible than online.
AI did not invent bias, it learnt it
One of the strongest conversations during the consultation focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology. Experts argued that AI is not creating sexism or discrimination from scratch. Instead, it is absorbing existing inequalities and reproducing them at enormous speed and scale. In other words: AI did not invent bias but learned it. Many AI systems are trained on data and knowledge systems dominated by the Global North, while African data is increasingly extracted without meaningful local control or regulation. The result is a new form of digital inequality where old stereotypes are repeated through algorithms, online platforms, and automated systems.
It's important to highlight the rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), including online harassment, image abuse and digitally amplified misogyny. There must be a unanimous call: stronger regulation of technology companies, better online protections for women, girls and people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, expressions and sex characteristics and greater accountability for digital harms. Online violence occurs on a continuum with offline violence. The same beliefs that normalize abuse in homes, schools or workplaces are often reinforced online, only faster, louder, and with greater anonymity.
Who gets to shape the rules?
Across much of East and Southern Africa, statutory law exists alongside customary courts, religious institutions, and informal community justice systems. Women often rely on these systems in matters involving marriage, inheritance, custody, and family disputes. Rather than calling for these systems to be abolished, governments must do more to ensure that women and girls’ rights are protected within them. This includes stronger oversight, legal aid, rights of appeal, and accountability when discrimination occurs. Stakeholders can amplify attention to female chiefs and faith leaders who are breaking stereotypes and have helped stop child marriages, challenge discriminatory customs, and support survivors of violence. By showcasing the cultural leaders that are using their power to uphold rights, it will be easier to call attention to the institutions and leaders which continue to shield abuse, silence women and girls, or reinforce unequal power structures.
So, who gets to shape the rules that govern society? It is known that gender inequality exists, that international and national laws already exist, and that human rights commitments already exist. What must be done is implementation of the laws, commitments, and enforcement. As individuals and members of communities and institutions that hold and perpetuate gender stereotypes, we must push for stronger accountability systems, public reporting, gender audits, legal protections, regulation of digital platforms, support for survivors, and investment in care systems and public services.
The discussions reflected a growing understanding that gender equality is not only a social issue, but one of governance weighing on who controls resources and gets access to their rights and justice. There’s a need to interrogate who benefits from unpaid labor, who is protected online and who is represented in leadership. These questions remind us that gender stereotypes are ultimately about power and that shifting stereotypes cannot occur without shifting structures of power. The experts affirmed that gender stereotypes survive not simply because people believe in them, but because powerful systems continue to uphold and reproduce them. History has shown that changing stereotypes is possible when we move from changing minds to changing the systems that structure our society.