Advancing Gender Equality: Research & Resources

We support research on child marriage and other manifestations of gender inequality—working closely with women and adolescent girls to identify promising solutions to complex challenges.

AJWS takes a feminist approach to global research, disrupting traditional power dynamics by treating study participants not as subjects, but as experts on the challenges they face. By supporting grassroots researchers, we ensure the findings will be useful to local communities, activists and organizations—and more likely to fuel gender-transformative change.

Insights from research and evaluations guide AJWS’s evidence-based strategy for reducing child, early and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU), from our grassroots grantmaking to our global advocacy efforts. We fund opportunities for researchers to network, share new knowledge and collaborate, so that organizations around the world can more effectively advance the sexual health and rights of adolescent girls. Many of our grantees now bring their research findings back to local communities in creative ways that make a difference in girls’ lives.

Explore findings from our research partners below, or check out brief highlights in our Emerging Evidence series.

Since 2014, AJWS has funded 37 research projects on gender inequality and CEFMU in India.