December 9, 2020 The deep-set nature of gender norms explains why change is slow, and why it demands more than a few individuals changing their own attitudes and behaviour - change is needed across society. Gender norms are the implicit informal rules about appropriate behaviour for people of different genders that most people accept and follow. This report from Overseas Development Initiative (ODI) s Advancing Learning and Innovation on Gender Norms (ALiGN) platform examines how gender norms have changed in the 25 years since the United Nations (UN) s Beijing Platform for Action on women s rights was set out in 1995, and their role in progress and setbacks to achieving these rights. Drawing on global data and learning, it also explores what has supported and blocked changes to gender norms in a number of sectors, and how to ensure that change is faster and robust enough to resist backlash and crisis.