Gender Norms and Youth Development: A Minnesota State Report from the George Family Foundation

We’re very pleased to announce the recent publication of “Gender Norms and Youth Development: A Minnesota State Report from the George Family Foundation,” co-funded by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota and produced by TrueChild.

This report emerges out of the George Family Foundation’s multi-year effort – beginning in 2014 – to bring gender norms into the broader conversation among Minnesota’s youth-serving foundations and non-profits.

Gender norms are the rules, beliefs, and expectations most of us hold for how we should look, act, and dress as women or men. Decades of research tell us that when young women and men internalize narrow feminine and masculine ideals, they have markedly lower life outcomes in a cluster of related areas that include basic well-being, mental and physical health, education, and economic security.

This report details why philanthropies like ours must include gender and gender norms in our intersectional approaches to research, grant making, and community conversations. To learn more, download and read the report here.