Strategies for Localizing Gender Equality Norms: The Case of Sesame Street

In this article we ask: What on-the-ground strategies do advocates of gender equality use to overcome the challenges of localizing gender equality norms in meaningful ways in different environments? We use locally adapted versions of Sesame Street , the children’s program produced by the nonprofit organization Sesame Workshop and its local partners around the world, to examine how cultural brokers work on the ground to localize gender equality norms. We focus on three different environments—Mexico, Palestine, and India—where Sesame Workshop faces two significant challenges in localizing gender equality norms: it lacks knowledge of local culture and norms, and lacks access to local networks, brokers, and gatekeepers. Using data from interviews and intensive ethnographic fieldwork over seven years, we argue that Sesame Workshop uses two key localization strategies to overcome these challenges by incorporating local cultural brokers—what we call gender equality advocates— into their transnational team, who: 1) customize gender equality norms—in part by including local community voice—to meet local needs and goals, and 2) build alliances and networks of support with local elites. Customization addresses the lack of knowledge problem, and alliance building addresses the lack of access problem. We expand upon the literature by examining what gender equality advocates do on the ground and how they do it. And we show how gender equality advocates use their embeddedness and autonomy to help activate gender equality norms that are already present, at least at some level and among key actors, locally.