Gender Equality and Men: Learning From Practice

Gender Equality
and Men
LEARNING FROM PRACTICE
EDITED BY SANDY RUXTON

Gender Equality
and Men
Oxfam GB
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Gender Equality
and Men
EDITED BY SANDY RUXTON

First published by Oxfam GB in 2004
Oxfam GB 2004
Transforming our interventions for gender equality by addressing and involving men and boys
Michael Kaufman 2004
ISBN 0 85598 514 3
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Contents
Foreword vii
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Sandy Ruxton
Transforming our interventions for gender equality by addressing and

involving men and boys: a framework for analysis and action 19
Michael Kaufman
Masculinities: resistance and change 28

Benno de Keijzer
The things they dont tell you about working with men in gender workshops 50
Maree Keating
How do you eat between harvests? and other stories: engaging men in gender
and livelihoods 64
Thalia Kidder
Mainstreaming a male perspective into UK regeneration: the experience in

South Yorkshire 77
Cinnamon Bennett
Men As Partners: lessons learned from engaging men in clinics and

communities 89
Manisha Mehta, Dean Peacock, and Lissette Bernal
Taking the bull by the horns: working with young men on HIV/AIDS in
South Africa 101
Gaetane le Grange
Fatherwork in the Caribbean: examples of support for mens work in relation

to family life 113
Janet Brown
v
Addressing mens role in family violence: the experience of the Sakhli
Womens Advice Centre, Georgia 131
Rusudan Pkhakadze and Nana Khoshtaria
Liberation for everyone, not just men A case study of the Mens Association
Against Violence (AMKV) in Timor Leste 140
Mario de Araujo
How do we know if men have changed? Promoting and measuring attitude

change with young men: lessons from Program H in Latin America 147
Gary Barker, with Marcos Nascimento, Mrcio Segundo, and Julie Pulerwitz
Strategies and approaches to enhance the role of men and boys in gender
equality: a case study from Yemen 162
Magda Mohammed Elsanousi
What men think about gender equality: lessons from Oxfam GB staff in Delhi
and Dhaka 177
Sharon E. Rogers
Evolving the gender agenda: the responsibilities and challenges for

development organisations 194
James L. Lang and Sue Smith
Conclusion 207
Sandy Ruxton
Appendix: Conclusions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women,

48th Session, The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender
Equality 230
Index 235
vi
return to contents
Foreword
Barbara Stocking
At the forty-eighth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in

March 2004, participating governments agreed an important set of conclusions
on the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality. The text reflects a new
emphasis in international debates, not just on men as holders of privileges or
perpetrators of violence, but as potential and actual contributors to gender
equality.
Of course there are risks to such an approach. For instance, involving men and
boys in achieving gender equality must not be at the expense of the
empowerment of women and girls, and resources for supporting the latter must
not be undermined, as the conclusions of the Commission also recognise.
We must also acknowledge that the identities, experiences, and practices of
different groups of men and boys vary widely, depending on factors such as age,
race, culture, class, and sexual orientation and that their interests may differ as
a result.
Male leaders in dominant social groups will continue to resist attempts to
challenge the power they hold. Other men who feel their masculinity threatened,
particularly those at the sharp end of economic and social change, are likely to
react with hostility towards other social groups (including women, ethnic
minorities, and children), who they wrongly blame for their predicament.
But in all parts of the world, there are also men who are aware of the
straightjacket imposed upon them by traditional notions of masculinity, and
who are more open to reassessing their roles and responsibilities.
If we are to make progress towards gender equality, we must encourage more
men to move out of the confines of rigid gender divisions at home, at work, and
in the community. To reach a tipping point where gender issues become visible,
and therefore important, to the majority of men, it is essential that the benefits
of gender equality for men as individuals and as members of families and
communities should be more widely publicised. Seeing the effects of gender
discrimination on people they are close to, be they wives, partners, girlfriends, or
children; understanding that opportunities to build sustainable livelihoods are
enhanced by more flexible gender roles; becoming aware of the stress of existing
vii
Gender Equality and Men
lifestyles and work patterns on personal health, and its impact on others; feeling
the emotional pull of parenting these are just some of the many triggers that
can cause men to re-evaluate their circumstances and redirect their energy
towards support for gender equality.
I came across a powerful example of this when talking to a small group in a
village in the Rajasthan desert, in India. One man admitted that he now collected
the wood for fires because his wife had become a weaver; it was brave of him to
do it and even more brave of him to confess to it in front of his male peers.
Encouraging greater numbers of men to work actively for gender equality
represents a considerable challenge for states, corporations, communities, and
families. Development organisations also have their part to play in promoting
positive policy and practice. In particular, they must ensure that all staff,
especially men, are committed to gender equality and feel confident and able to
make their own contribution to achieving it.
Within Oxfam GB, the experience gained by our Gender Equality and Men
project in recent years has provided invaluable lessons about how the organi-
sation should engage with men, whether as workers or as beneficiaries. This
publication documents much of this learning, bringing together experience
from practitioners around the world who are exploring in diverse ways how to
work effectively with men for gender equality.
We recognise that much still needs to be done in order to improve our thinking
and programming in this area, and we hope that this book will help to stimulate
further debate and action both within and beyond Oxfam GB.
Barbara Stocking
Director, Oxfam GB
viii
Acknowledgements
Gender Equality and Men: Learning from Practice includes contributions from
those with substantial writing experience and those have not had their work
published before. The majority of contributors are development practitioners
from both the global North and South. Most are employed by Oxfam GB or
partner organisations; in some cases they have links to another of the 12 member
organisations of Oxfam International. A smaller number are external consultants
or researchers, several of whom have played a significant role in advancing
thinking in this area over the past decade or more. The voices and views all the
authors express here are their own.
This book reflects the tenacity and flexibility of the contributors, many of whom
had to overcome significant constraints in order to take part. These included
juggling considerable work and travel pressures with personal and family
commitments one of the authors even gave birth during the period in which
her article was written! For some who wanted to participate, the pressures of
external events, such as seeking to research material in societies where conflict
and curfews are a fact of life, unfortunately proved insuperable; their efforts
must also be acknowledged.
Thanks are also due to people and groups without whom the development and
publication of the book would have been impossible. At institutional level,
Oxfam GB especially wishes to record its gratitude to the UK governments
Department for International Development, which part-funded the Gender
Equality and Men project.
Oxfam GB international programme staff who provided advice and
information, or read and commented on specific drafts include: Aimee Ansari,
Harold Brown, Juan Cheaz, Rose Gawaya, Keti Getiashvili, Maxime Houinato,
Adam Leach, Walid Qawasmi, Jo Rowlands, Claude St Pierre, Tamar Sabedashvili,
Eddie Thomas, Franz Wong, Mandy Woodhouse, and Tahera Yasmin. Staff from
other member organisations of Oxfam International who provided ideas,
contacts, and support were Inga Mepham and Keryn Clark (Oxfam CAA,
Australia), Hazel Wong (Oxfam Hong Kong), and Denise Parmentier and
Marleen Nolten (Novib, Oxfam Netherlands).
ix
A particularly crucial role was played by the readers who commented on the full
draft text: Michael Flood (The Australia Institute), Fiona Gell (Oxfam GB),
Chris Roche and Reihana Mohideen (Oxfam CAA, Australia), and Rajni Khanna
(Oxfam GB, Yemen). The editorial group provided an essential sounding board:
James Lang (formerly development officer for the Gender Equality and Men
project), Caroline Sweetman, Maree Keating, Jon Horsley, and Sue Smith (all of
Oxfam GB). Jon Horsley and Sue Smith deserve particular thanks for co-managing
the GEM project, and for providing advice, encouragement, and comments
throughout. Thanks also to Anna Coryndon of Oxfam GBs publishing team,
who edited this book.
On a personal basis, thanks are due to all my colleagues in Oxfam GB, especially:
Michelle Matheron and Sarah Griffiths, who provided practical assistance;
Ann Marsden, who diligently followed up my regular requests for information;
Xin Moreton and Ruth Emsley, who looked after the budget; and Audrey
Bronstein, who supported my secondment to the project.
Sandy Ruxton
x
Contributors
Mario de Araujo is a founding member of the Mens Group Against Violence in

Timor Leste, and a long-term social activist. For the past two years he has worked
for Oxfam CAA Australia as advocacy officer and programme co-ordinator.
He is committed personally and professionally to promoting greater gender and
social equity, particularly at the community level.
Gary Barker is executive director of Instituto Promundo, a non-government
organisation (NGO) based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that works to promote
gender equality, the health of young people, and equitable community develop-
ment. His doctorate is in child and adolescent development, and he has worked
throughout Latin America on gender socialisation, violence prevention,
HIV/AIDS prevention, and the promotion of sexual and reproductive health.
g.barker@promundo.org.br
Cinnamon Bennett is a local government officer in the UK, holding the post of
gender manager for the Objective 1 programme in South Yorkshire. Formerly a
lecturer in sociology at Sheffield Hallam University, she has worked on several
research projects on gender equality issues in local and regional development.
Most recently, she prepared guidelines for the Scottish Parliament on main-
streaming equal opportunities in parliamentary committees. Her Ph.D.
explored the changing strategies for delivering equal opportunities for women
in British local government.
CinnamonBennett.goyh@go-regions.gov.uk
Lissette Bernal is the Knowledge to Practice co-ordinator for the ACQUIRE
reproductive health project at EngenderHealth. She has 12 years of progressive
experience as a technical adviser and programme manager for USAID-funded
reproductive-health and family-planning programmes, with special expertise in
mens reproductive health and male-involvement strategies. In her role as senior
programme associate for the Men As Partners programme, she organised and
conducted training workshops to stimulate increased attention and innovative
programming for male involvement in reproductive health.
Janet Brown, MSW (Columbia), has since 1981 been social worker, then
director, of the Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC), School of
xi
Continuing Studies, at the University of the West Indies (UWI), based in

Kingston, Jamaica. CCDC serves the wider Caribbean region in curriculum
development, research, training, and advocacy in the areas of early childhood
development and parenting support. Since the late 1980s, she has worked
collaboratively with UWIs faculty of social sciences in the under-researched
area of Caribbean fathers and in the gender-socialisation of children. With
colleagues, she has helped to translate the research into user-friendly outputs for
broad applications in public and parenting education, teacher training, and
policy development.
Magda Mohammed Elsanousi is a graduate of Ahfad University for Women in
Sudan. She holds MAs in Gender and Development and in Rural Development,
both from the University of Sussex. She has mainly worked on development,
poverty reduction, and humanitarian assistance in general, and on gender issues
in particular. She has worked on gender and peace activities with a number of
INGOs and with the UN in Sudan. She joined Oxfam GB in Yemen in 2001, and
in the course of this work, developed interests in approaches to gender equality
and men. She was invited by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women to
participate in the meeting held in Brazil in 2003 on the Role of Men and Boys in
Promoting Gender Equality. Her published work includes Political engagement
of Sudanese women: displaced and rural women as tools for economic
development: the case of Sudan, in Barbara J. Nelson and Najma Chowdhury
(eds.), Women and Politics Worldwide, Yale University Press, 1994.
Gaetane le Grange has been a part of Targeted AIDS Interventions (TAI) since
2001, and during that time she has tremendously enjoyed participating in the
pioneering projects that have been implemented by TAI. She has been involved
in administration, project management, the analysis of research results, and the
monitoring and evaluation of the various projects. Gaetane is currently
completing her degree in Development Studies with a special focus on poverty
and issues relating to human rights.
Michael Kaufman is a founder of the White Ribbon Campaign and the author
or editor of books on gender issues, on democracy and development, and an
award-winning novel. Dr. Kaufman has worked in over thirty countries as a
writer, public speaker, consultant, and workshop leader on gender relations for
governments, corporations, professional firms, trade unions, universities,
NGOs, and bodies of the United Nations. A former university professor, he lives
in Toronto, Canada. A number of his articles are available at:
www.michaelkaufman.com
xii
Contributors
Maree Keating is based in Melbourne, Australia, and since 1998 has managed
country-level development programmes in Indonesia, Cambodia, and East
Timor. She previously worked as a teacher, trainer, and adult educator, as well as
a project manager, musician, and performer. She completed a thesis on The
Womens Movement in Indonesia in the Post-Suharto Era, and has been one of
Oxfam GBs advisers on gender equality since 2002. Maree has recently guest-
edited an issue on trade of the journal Gender and Development.
Benno de Keijzer is based in Mexico, and is an MD with a Masters degree in
Social Antropology and is currently completing a Doctorate in Community
Mental Health. He is founder and current co-ordinator of Salud y Gnero
(Mexico) and the Program H initiative. A teacher and international consultant
in themes related to gender, masculinities, health, and community work in
several local and national educational institutions, he is currently Fellow in
Reproductive Health and Rights with the Open Society Institute and Columbia
University.
Nana Khoshtaria is a psychologist and graduate of Tbilisi State University,
Faculty of Psychology and Philosophy. She was a scientific worker in the 1980s at
the D. Uznadze Institute of Psychology, working on the role of psychological
factors in the development of cancer. Since 2000, she has worked for the Sakhli
Advice Centre for Women, Georgia, as a project assistant, where her primary
responsibilities are psychological consultations and research design and
implementation.
Thalia Kidder has worked since 1997 as a policy adviser on livelihoods for
Oxfam GB. During five years working in Central America, she focused on local
economic projects, microfinance, and gender, and has carried out training in
West Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, as well as publishing articles on the issues
of microfinance and gender. Based on her previous experience in workers
organising in North America, she has recently helped to develop and co-ordinate
research for Oxfam into labour rights in 12 countries in South and East Asia,
Africa, Latin America, the UK, and the USA. She is committed to finding new
and practical ways to communicate and inspire people about gender-equality
issues in economics. She has an MA in Community and Economic Development
from the University of Minnesota.
James L. Lang is an independent consultant working on issues of gender-based
violence and on men as partners for gender equality and social justice. James is
currently working with the United Nations system and the Family Violence
Prevention Fund (San Francisco, USA). He has worked with Oxfam GB on the
Gender Equality and Men project, served as the research co-ordinator for the
United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and as a programme officer and
xiii
researcher for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). James

has published numerous articles and edited books on the topics of poverty, men
and gender, gender-based violence, and other development issues.
Manisha Mehta is currently the senior technical adviser for clientprovider
interaction for the ACQUIRE reproductive health project at EngenderHealth.
Ms. Mehta has 12 years of progressive experience as a technical adviser and
manager in the field of international family planning and reproductive health,
with special expertise in working with under-served populations, most notably
men and youth. During her tenure as programme manager for the Men As
Partners programme at EngenderHealth, she led the development, imple-
mentation, and evaluation of innovative male-involvement strategies and tools
to constructively increase male involvement in reproductive health.
Marcos Nascimento is a clinical psychologist who holds an M.Phil. in Gender,
Sexuality, and Health from the University of Rio de Janeiro. He has conducted
research on young men and gender-based violence in Brazil, and has also carried
out training activities on working with young men in Brazil, Latin America, and
the USA. He is currently co-ordinator of the Gender, Youth and Health Initiative
at Instituto Promundo, an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro.
Dean Peacock is the South Africa programme manager of EngenderHealth, and
technical adviser for the South and East Africa Men as Partners programme. In
South Africa, he provides training and technical assistance to a wide range of
organisations on the development and implementation of the Men as Partners
programme. For the past 11 years, he has worked in South Africa, the USA, and
Latin America to end mens violence and to promote egalitarian, non-abusive
models of masculinity that improve the lives of men, women, and children and
contribute to a more just society. He has worked as a consultant to many national
and international organisations, including the United Nations Division for the
Advancement of Women, the Commonwealth Secretariats Gender, HIV/AIDS
and Human Rights programme, the San Francisco-based Family Violence
Prevention Fund, and the Vera Institute of Justice in New York.
Rusudan Pkhakadze is a psychologist and graduate of Tbilisi State University,
Faculty of Psychology and Philosophy, and carried out scientific work in the
D. Uznadze Institute of Psychology in the 1980s. She worked for Oxfam GB in
Georgia as a social worker in 199798. From 2000, she has been a director of the
Sakhli Advice Centre for Women, and is also a chairperson of the Tbilisi
Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Ms. Pkhakadze is the author of a number
of publications and articles on domestic violence.
Julie Pulerwitz is a behavioural scientist with the Horizons Program at
Population Council/PATH, a global HIV/AIDS research project. Dr. Pulerwitz
xiv
Contributors
received her masters and doctoral degrees from the Harvard School of Public
Health. Her main research areas include HIV/STI prevention, gender and male
involvement, and stigma and discrimination. She is co-principal investigator
with Gary Barker on an evaluation study in Brazil, and is also implementing
studies in Nicaragua, South Africa, and India. She has published articles on
HIV/AIDS and gender in the American Journal of Public Health, among others.
Sharon E. Rogers joined Oxfam in 2002 as South Asia regional campaign adviser
for the Campaign to End Violence Against Women, and works as part of a team
to develop five national campaigns to change the attitudes and beliefs that
perpetuate gender violence. Prior to joining Oxfam, she worked in Kyrgyzstan
on a democracy and civil society strengthening programme and in Nicaragua on
womens human-rights education. In the USA, she was a lobbyist and organiser
for NGOs working for gender and racial and ethnic equality, civil rights, and
reproductive health. A passionate activist against gender-based violence, Sharon
has also been a volunteer for a rape crisis hotline, a legal advocate for survivors,
a shelter worker and chair of a shelter board of directors, and the co-curator of a
multi-site exhibition of art by survivors of violence. She holds a BA in Womens
Studies and an MA in Public Policy and Womens Studies, and has focused on
alliance building and organisational development.
Sandy Ruxton, who edited this publication, works as an Oxfam GB policy
adviser on UK and EU poverty issues. He is the author of Men, Masculinities, and
Poverty in the UK (Oxfam GB, 2002) and co-author of Beyond Civil Rights:
Developing Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in the United Kingdom (Oxfam
GB, 2001). Other published work is in the areas of childrens rights, asylum and
migration, poverty and social exclusion, and European policy. He has worked in
policy and research for fifteen years, having previously trained as a teacher, and
has worked in a range of community settings (mainly with young male
offenders). He is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford, York, and North
London.
sruxton@oxfam.org.uk
Mrcio Segundo holds a Masters degree in Political Science from the University
of Brasilia, Brazil. His expertise is in political and social development, and his
work has focused on the design, implementation, and management of social-
impact evaluation programmes. He has also provided training on research
methodology and strategic planning, specifically for education and health-
related interventions. He currently co-ordinates the research and evaluation
arm of Instituto Promundo, an NGO based in Rio de Janeiro. In this position, he
oversees the evaluation of an intervention to promote health and gender equity
among young men from local low-income communities.
xv
Sue Smith is currently gender adviser to Oxfam GBs UK Poverty Programme.

Based on its international work, Oxfam has a gender perspective on poverty in
the UK, exploring through gender analysis how poverty affects women and men
differently, and how gender relations impact on poverty. Sue has worked for
Oxfam for the last ten years, as resource officer in the Gender and Development
Unit, and information manager in the Oxfam GBs Policy department. She
edited Links, Oxfams newsletter on gender and development, for five years.
She has taught in the Middle East, and lectured in further education.
xvi
return to contents
Introduction
Sandy Ruxton
The main aim of Gender Equality and Men: Learning from Practice is to share
knowledge and experience of work with men on gender equality in programmes
run by Oxfam GB and other organisations. It also seeks to explore how work
with men can be developed to promote broader gender equality and poverty
reduction strategies, and to encourage a more active engagement with men
through gender programming.
The book provides a critical account of practical experience in this field, and
therefore complements other recent edited collections that adopt a more
academic or theoretical perspective.1 A range of key issues is addressed,
including the value of including men in gender equality and anti-poverty work;
the difficulties that are likely to arise both for men and women and how they
can be overcome; practical evidence from different spheres (for example, in
relation to sustainable livelihoods, gender-based violence, sexual and
reproductive health); lessons about the impact of including men in gender
analysis and action; and future strategies and directions for development
organisations and practitioners.
Developing work with men for gender equality is still work in progress for
Oxfam GB and other organisations. Contributors to this book were therefore
asked in particular to reflect on their experience, and to describe, analyse, and
highlight learning for others. While we believe that Gender Equality and Men will
provide an important contribution to the debate and will be relevant to
development practitioners, researchers, academics, students, and policy makers
we accept that it is by no means the last word in this complex field.
This book is the latest of many publications from Oxfam GB on gender and
development, and draws together contributions from authors working in many
parts of the world who are seeking to involve men in gender-equality strategies.
Exploring work with men is not a new departure for Oxfam, as we have
published a range of papers2 and co-hosted a series of seminars3 on this topic in
recent years. Nevertheless, the focus of this book on the practice of working with
men and masculinities confirms the increasing emergence of this strand in the
organisations thinking.
1
This introduction sets out Oxfam GBs approach to gender equality, and
explains the organisations gender policy and how the specific position of men is
integrated into it. It goes on to describe the development of Oxfam GBs Gender
Equality and Men project between 2002 and 2004; this publication represents a
key outcome of the second phase of the project. The introduction then examines
arguments for and against the inclusion of men in gender-equality work.
Drawing on recent research, it outlines a framework for understanding men and
masculinities, and concludes with an overview of the contributions to the book.
Tackling gender inequality: Oxfams approach

Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International, an international grouping of
development agencies whose mission is to work with local partners to alleviate
poverty and injustice, working in more than 100 countries worldwide. Oxfam
GB works in more than 75 countries, and its activities include advocacy,
education, campaigning, and development and humanitarian programmes.
It focuses on five key aims: to uphold peoples rights to sustainable livelihoods;
quality education and healthcare; protection from disasters and violence;
communities participation in the decisions that affect their lives; and the right
to equity (including gender equality and diversity issues).4
Oxfam GBs commitment to gender equality is rooted in 20 years of analysis and
practical action in line with feminist goals. Oxfam5 understands gender as one of
a number of social relations: the various structural relationships within society
which create and maintain differences in the positioning of various groups
according to age, race, ethnicity, class, disability, and sexual orientation.6 Gender
relations are thus about power relations between the sexes, and between
different groups of women and men. Gender analysis explores inequalities in
gender roles and responsibilities in society, and identifies the practical needs
and strategic interests of men and women. It asks key questions such as
who does what?, who has what?, who decides?, who gains?, and who loses?.
Oxfams approach to working for gender equality has tended to focus on
developing programmes aimed directly at improving the lives of women, based
on continuing evidence that women are the majority in the poorest groups in all
societies, and that their experience of poverty consists not only of economic
want, but also of social and political exclusion. For example, in many developing
countries women earn on average only 60 to 70 per cent of what men are paid for
similar work (and in Africa and Asia only 50 per cent). Women also work longer
hours than men, with womens working hours estimated to exceed mens by
about 30 per cent.7
2
Introduction
This reality remains at the core of Oxfams approach, and its updated Policy on
Gender Equality (2003) reasserts that women often have less recourse than men
to legal recognition and protection, less access to public knowledge and
information, and less decision-making power both within and outside the
home.8 The policy also confirms that in many parts of the world, women
frequently have little control over fertility, sexuality, and marital choices. It
concludes that such discrimination increases their vulnerability to poverty,
violence, and ill-health, and results in women representing a disproportionate
percentage of the poor population of the world.
In order to mainstream work for gender equality throughout Oxfams
programme, the gender policy also states that Oxfam will address the policies,
practices, ideas and beliefs that perpetuate gender inequality and prevent
women and girls (and sometimes men and boys) from enjoying a decent
livelihood, participation in public life, protection, and basic services. Oxfams
strategy is to work with both men and women, together and separately, to have a
more lasting impact on beliefs and behaviour. And in an implicit endorsement
of the need to undertake work with men the first time this has been recognised
in Oxfams gender policy it highlights that We will ensure that any work we do
with men and mens groups supports the promotion of gender equality.
The emerging focus on men in this book does not signal a retreat from Oxfams
long-standing concern to tackle poverty among women. Nor does it argue that
men have been left out of gender programming because of an inappropriate
focus on women, and that the former need now to be included. Rather, it reflects
increasing recognition that examining mens power and privilege and responding
to masculinity issues are vital elements of the efforts to build gender equality.
Why work with men to find solutions to gender

inequality and poverty?
The emphasis on work with men in Oxfams gender policy reflects a growing
international acknowledgement of the importance of the issue. Over the past 10
to 15 years, interest in mens involvement in gender equality has increased
significantly. This is demonstrated by the growing body of research, the
emergence of websites9 and academic journals,10 and the establishment of
campaigns (e.g. the White Ribbon Campaign, see chapter by Kaufman in this
volume) and educational programmes focusing on men and masculinities.
At the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women, the Beijing Declaration
committed participating governments to encourage men to participate fully in
all actions towards equality.11 Five years later, at its twenty-third special session
3
(Beijing + 5), the UN General Assembly went on to emphasise that men must
involve themselves and take joint responsibility with women for the promotion
of gender equality.12 Consolidating these commitments, one of the two major
themes addressed at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in its 48th
session in March 2004 was The role of men and boys in achieving gender
equality (see Appendix).
These statements and events reflect long-standing debates within development
policy and practice, where a conceptual shift from focusing on Women in
Development (WID) to Gender and Development (GAD) has been underway
over the past decade. Although these terms have often been used synonymously,
they are intended to describe different approaches. The former tends to focus on
women as an analytical category, and envisages the setting up of separate
organisational structures for the development of women-specific policies and
projects. The latter suggests that gender relations should be the key analytical
framework, and that a gender perspective should be integrated (or
mainstreamed) into all development activities and planning structures in order
to transform the power balance between men and women within society. The
emphasis of GAD on gender relations inevitably encourages a more active
approach to men and masculinity issues than in the past.13 It is important to
note, however, that addressing men through GAD does not necessarily involve
abandoning projects and strategies that focus on women, which may still be
justified by gender analysis.
The extent to which this conceptual shift has been reproduced at grassroots level
is unclear, however, and in practice many projects and programmes continue to
target women without considering the need to transform mens attitudes and
behaviour. In part, this reflects uncertainties about working with men.
Work with men could be seen as a distraction from the fundamental work of
empowering women, or as an attempt by men to co-opt existing gender work for
their own purposes. It could divert (or be seen to be diverting) resources away
from the empowerment of women, raising concerns in the current context of
shrinking development assistance.
Moreover, many men are resistant to changing ideas, beliefs, and behaviours.
Progress towards gender equality can be undermined by boys and mens
expectations of receiving services from women; by difficulties in accepting new
roles (e.g. as carers) and sharing power with women; by cultural or political
support for existing unequal power structures; and by male hostility to gender-
equality programmes. In practical terms, programming in this area is still
relatively new, and strong impact assessments have not yet been undertaken to
evaluate the effectiveness of such work.
4
Introduction
Yet these concerns, although sometimes borne out in practice, ignore the risks of
not engaging with men. Unless mens practices, attitudes, and relations change,
efforts to promote gender inequality will face an uphill struggle. Involving
women in development programmes can lead to overload and exhaustion for
them, and may entrench stereotypes of women (as carers, for example) and men
(as breadwinners).14 The majority of male decision makers will continue to
ignore the relevance of gender, and as a result, it will remain a peripheral issue
and will not be integrated effectively into development policy and programmes
at all levels.
The concerns regarding the risks also fail to acknowledge sufficiently the
potential for positive outcomes of involving men in gender-equality strategies.
Echoing the conclusions of a Gender Equality and Men workshop in Oxford in
June 2002,15 and of a UN-backed Expert Group meeting in 2003,16 a report of
the UN Secretary General on the role of men and boys in achieving gender
equality recently suggested that:
Where men are key decision-makers and holders of economic and
organisational power and public resources, they can facilitate gender-
responsive policy reform and support laws designed to protect the rights of
women and children. Men and boys can play a crucial role in combating
HIV/AIDS and violence against women; in achieving gender equality in the
workplace and the labour market; and in promoting the sharing of family
responsibilities, including domestic work and care of children, and older,
disabled and sick family members.17
In this volume, Kaufman describes the broader benefits for society as a whole,
drawing on his AIM framework.18 He believes that the beneficial impact of
involving men and boys is likely to be felt in the longer-term, and that such an
approach will contribute to raising the next generation of boys and girls in a
framework of gender equity and equality, and respect for human rights. Shifting
the attitudes and behaviour of men and boys should also improve the lives of
women and girls in the home, the workplace, and the community.
Kaufman goes on to suggest that involving men may help to create wider
consensus and support on issues which have previously been marginalised as of
interest to women only (in relation to family, violence, sexual and reproductive
health, for example). Targeting men, especially those who have a powerful role
within institutions, may also unlock additional financial resources and improve
the overall funding levels available to meet the needs of women and girls. And
engaging with men may encourage the development of effective partnerships
between mens and womens organisations. Such efforts may also help to
undermine the position of those men who are working to preserve mens power
and privilege and deny rights to women and children.
5
Exploring work with men: Oxfam GBs Gender

Equality and Men project
Oxfam GBs Gender Equality and Men (GEM) project began in 2002 as a joint
initiative between two Oxfam programmes: the UK Poverty Programme, and
the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and CIS region with funding from Oxfam
and the UK government Department for International Development. That
the project was led by staff located in these geographical areas reflects
the growing debate over the position of men and boys in these countries in
recent years.
The notion that men as a group are in crisis is common in populist discussions
of changing gender relations, but clearly is overstated. It is more useful to focus
on evidence of significant shifts in gender relations as a result of economic,
social, and political change. For example, a World Bank report in 200219 on
27 transition countries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) suggested that there
has been a sharp increase in unemployment, mental illness, suicide, and risk-
taking behaviour among men in some countries in this region.20 But at the same
time, the reduction of state support for women in ECA over the past decade has
led to them increasingly carrying the double burden of working and caring.
A gender perspective implies looking at the connections between the issues
facing men and women. For instance, the negative changes for men outlined
above (unemployment, mental illness, suicide) are also likely to have a negative
impact on women, creating a growing number of women-headed (or maintained)
households, increasing the social and economic burdens on women, reducing
their protection, and so on.
The need to develop responses to trends such as these, and to generate a closer
understanding of the potential and reality of work with men, provided the
impetus for the GEM project. The project has been assisting Oxfam to explore
ways to advance gender equality and poverty reduction by incorporating men
and boys more fully into its gender work.
The first phase of the GEM project ended in a workshop held in June 2002,
bringing together representatives from six Oxfam regions with other
organisations with expertise in working with men.21 As a result, staff in each
region drafted an action plan to generate new thinking and approaches to
including men in work promoting gender equality, and to increase the impact of
poverty-reduction programmes.
Since then, the GEM project has stimulated and contributed to a range of
activities. These include the development of improved tools and frameworks for
gender analysis, the initiation of pilot projects and exploratory seminars, the
6
Introduction
production of good-practice case studies, and improvements to programme

design. For example, the revision of Oxfams gender policy recognises the need
to work with men as well as with women to achieve gender equality. Regional
workshops on men and masculinities have taken place in East Asia and South
Africa, and an internal course has trained a number of key male advocates for
gender equality within the organisation. Progress has been made in developing
pilot approaches in Azerbaijan, Georgia (see the chapter by Pkhakadze and
Khoshtaria), Albania, and the Negev Desert (Israel). The development of Oxfam
GBs campaign to end violence against women in South Asia has involved
consideration of how men can be encouraged to support gender equality (see
the chapter by Rogers). In Yemen (see the chapter by Elsanousi) and the UK,22
changes in policy and practice have been achieved at different levels of
government.
We make reference to some of the learning from these initiatives in the
concluding chapter of this book. While this book brings to a close the second
phase of the GEM project, we are currently exploring ways to consolidate the
lessons learned within Oxfams future policy and practice.
A framework for understanding masculinity

A key part of the GEM projects approach is the recognition that improving
policy and practice in work with men depends on developing a framework for
understanding contemporary masculinities. The available research and analysis
reflects increasing interest among academics over the past 15 years in studying
who men are and what they do. This growing body of literature draws on a range
of intellectual traditions, and in particular diverse feminist and pro-feminist
approaches (for example, Kimmel 1987, Connell 1987 and 1995, Segal 1997).23
These approaches have, in turn, influenced the development of specific studies
of men, for example, in criminology, education, and health.
Much of this theoretical work has originated in developed-country contexts,
especially in the USA, Australia, and parts of Europe (such as Scandinavia,
Germany, and the UK). There is evidence to suggest that the range is expanding,
however, and studies are emerging to fill existing gaps. They include the
exploration of masculinity issues in Southern Africa by Morrell (2001),24 in the
Caribbean by Reddock (2004),25 in Japan by Roberson and Suzuki (2003),26 in
Latin America by Vigoya (2001),27 and in the Middle East by Ghoussoub and
Sinclair-Webb (2000).28
The most significant attempt to outline a comprehensive framework for
understanding masculinity is widely accepted as being the work of Australian
7
sociologist Robert Connell.29 Connells framework amounts to a significant

critique of the often negative expressions of mens power around the world, and
it remains essential to criticise oppressive or destructive aspects of mens
behaviours and attitudes.
However, it is also important to emphasise that men are as capable as women of
being caring human beings and of living in ways that are not damaging to other
men, women, or children. As Connells framework shows, there is no
fundamental or biological reason preventing men from living in this way.
Indeed, it is increasingly accepted that men have a positive role to play in efforts
towards gender equality. As Connell himself emphasised recently, Our task is to
consider men and boys not just as beneficiaries of womens work or holders of
privilege or perpetrators of violence against women, but also explicitly as agents
of change, participants in reform, and potential allies in search of gender justice.
Below, we draw upon and extend Connells summary of the findings of current
research into masculinities.
Multiple masculinities
There is no universal form of masculinity (hence the term masculinities), and
differences among men exist according to class, race, age, religious belief,
disability, and sexual orientation (as they do for women).30 This is confirmed by
various studies: the collection edited by Morrell on Southern Africa, for
instance, explores inter alia the masculinities of Afrikaaner reactionaries, gay
men, migrant labourers, unemployed youth, and white surfers.31 In this volume,
de Keijzer highlights the crucial role played by gay men in Mexico (as elsewhere)
in destabilising heterosexual expressions of masculinity.
The invisibility of mens gender identity

Men as a group occupy a relatively privileged position in relation to women in
the economic, social, and sexual spheres, as Lang and Smith identify in their
contribution. Given their relatively powerful position, men are often unaware of
the fact that many of their privileges (such as higher incomes, care and domestic
services from women) are derived purely from being male; therefore their
gender, and gender issues, remain invisible, and therefore unimportant, to
them.32 In other words, men, both as individuals and as a group, benefit from
what Connell calls the patriarchal dividend the advantage men in general gain
from the overall subordination of women which they can call upon when they
want to.33 One effect of the patriarchal dividend is that most statistics, institutions,
and interventions, although they appear to be gender-neutral, are shaped
around men representing the norm, thus giving them a structural advantage.
8
Introduction
Dominant (hegemonic) expressions of masculinity and other forms

There is usually a dominant form of masculinity that subordinates, co-opts, or
marginalises other forms (as well as women); this has been described as
hegemonic masculinity.34 Men as a group, in particular those in higher income
groups, hold a relatively powerful structural position in relation to women and
to young men, to men from ethnic or religious minorities, gay men, disabled
men, and men on lower incomes (or some combination of these factors).
Meanwhile, men in the subordinate groups feel entitled to the patriarchal
dividend, but in practice do not see how they benefit from it. This situation is often
a cause of male hostility and aggression, particularly towards other groups that
lack power, such as women and children. However, a number of contributions in
this collection notably those of Kaufman and de Keijzer show that such
tensions can also provide an opportunity to shift gender relations towards equality.
Globalised masculinities
Hegemonic masculinity is often based on economic success, racial superiority,
and overt heterosexuality and reinforced, especially in developed countries, by
the growth of transnational business and the wider circulation of the symbols
and imagery of individualism and competition (through sport, for example).
However, some commentators are cautious about the extent to which such
features of globalisation can be said to be having an impact on masculinity
generally.35 They argue that although the forces of globalisation are having an
increasing influence on the development of gender relations, local diversity
remains hugely significant. Moreover, the global and the local are inextricably
linked to each other, interacting in diverse ways.
Collective masculinities
Masculinities are also collectively constructed and enacted within cultures, groups,
and institutions beyond the individual, such as the classroom, factory, the military,
the sports club, and the mass media. Using the example of violent masculinities,
Connell highlights how such violence is not just a matter of individual pathology,
but is collectively defined or institutionally supported, whether in informal peer
groups, formal armies, or militias somewhere between the two.36 In this volume,
Pkhakadze and Khoshtaria explore the dismissive attitudes and behaviour of
male police officers towards violence against women and children, and how this
relates to the culture within the police force. Similar work has been undertaken by
the non-government organisation (NGO) ROZAN in Pakistan.37 The importance
of Connells insight overall is that if change is to be achieved, it is essential to
focus not only on individual, but also on institutional transformation.
9
Masculinities are actively constructed

Although cultural differences may exist in the ways in which masculinities are
constructed, in general it appears that they are produced through social inter-
action, rather than being programmed by genes or fixed by social structures.
A good example of this process is the way in which individual boys (and girls) in
schools constantly negotiate and re-negotiate gender relations within peer
groups, formal classes, and adultchild relationships, as research in British
schools has shown.38 As Barker observes in his chapter, young men in Latin
America are not just sponges of cultural norms; learning about gender involves
a more active process than the passive and linear socialisation model implies.
Masculinities are dynamic

Masculinities change according to specific historical circumstances. For
example, in an essay on Soviet masculinities, Novikova describes how, from the
1917 Revolution onwards, the State was formally committed to equal rights for
women (through the education of girls and women, childcare provision, and
health services, for example), although in practice the reality for many women
was far from the principle of gender equality.39 Following the collapse of the
Soviet system at the end of the 1980s, strong pressure to reject its heritage fuelled
the idea that men had become emasculated during the Soviet period. There
followed a celebration of competitive masculinity in the adjustment to the new
structures of capitalism, resulting in the reassertion of male power and privilege
among some men, and in unemployment and poverty for others. This insightful
analysis mirrors the development of gender relations in Georgia described by
Pkhakadze and Khoshtaria in this volume. Similarly, de Araujo charts how,
following independence in East Timor, a small number of men are beginning to
challenge the widely accepted norms of male power and violence established
under Indonesian occupation.
Negative impacts of masculinities

Conformity to restrictive definitions of masculinity (be tough, compete, dont cry)
can lead to disengaged fatherhood, poor health, aggression, overwork, and lack
of emotional responsiveness. It is important to understand and respond to
effects such as these especially among men at the sharp end of social and
economic change. The contribution of Mehta, Peacock, and Bernal, and that of
le Grange, highlight how narrow notions of masculinity can lead to risk-taking
behaviour among such men.
10
Introduction
However, acknowledging effects such as these can slip too easily into making
misleading claims that men are losing out to women, or even oppressed by
them. The difficulties some men undoubtedly face in particular societies are
often misinterpreted by small but vocal mens rights groups, who argue that it is
essential to reinforce traditional masculinities, usually by seeking to undermine
the important advances that have been achieved in the status and rights of
women and children. In her chapter, Brown argues that it is important to listen
to the voices of fathers, particularly those on the margins, but she highlights the
risks of men and women developing opposing perspectives. De Araujo goes
further, drawing attention to the importance of collaboration between mens
and womens organisations, and the long-standing role of the womens move-
ment in generating analysis and action in relation to men and masculinities.
Challenges in achieving change: the contributions to

this book
The contributions to this book suggest that there is a nascent shift in the
attitudes and behaviour of small numbers of men around the world, who are
increasingly involved as fathers to their children, are keen to develop more
egalitarian partnerships with their wives and partners, who support opportunities
for women to earn an income outside the home, and who reject domestic and
other forms of violence.40 Positive change is by no means universal, however, nor
can it be expected to become so. It remains a crucial task for men and women to
nurture, promote, and sustain such change. The contributions in this volume,
outlined below, are intended to help them achieve this.
The book is divided into four sections, responding to some of the key challenges
facing practitioners and organisations developing work with men.
Why is it important to include men in gender equality and anti-

poverty work?
In the first section, Michael Kaufman puts the case for involving men and boys
in working for gender equality. He argues that development interventions have
usually failed to focus on men and boys, and that as a result male power remains
dominant in gender relations, and women and womens struggles are
marginalised. He suggests that in societies where male power is threatened, there
is a risk that addressing the challenges to men and boys can encourage erroneous
analyses of men as the new victims. Kaufman believes, however, that it is also
possible in such circumstances to open up space for a more progressive gender
discourse. He outlines a range of potentially positive outcomes of involving men
11
and boys, and concludes with a set of principles for guiding the development of
programmes and interventions in the future.
Benno de Keijzer identifies economic and social changes affecting masculinities
in Mexico, and highlights important shifts in family relations, such as the
erosion of mens breadwinner role. While these changes provide opportunities
for altering unequal power relations, the risks (of domestic violence, unemploy-
ment, and alcohol abuse, for example) tend to dominate. Nevertheless,
de Keijzer argues that positive change is possible, influenced by a range of factors
including: significant life events (relationships, the birth of a child); the
influence of schools, peer groups, and older men; the experience of migration;
and the support of women and womens groups. Drawing on the activities of the
NGO Salud y Gnero over the past decade, de Keijzer analyses how change
occurs, and the tensions and contradictions that surround it. Finally, he
explores key entry-points to work with men, including reproductive and
sexual health, fatherhood, gender-based violence, and youth work.
What works with men in practice?

In section two, Maree Keating reflects on her own experience of facilitating
gender workshops with men and women in a range of countries (including
Afghanistan, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, and Nigeria),
and explores why many facilitators shy away from sensitive discussions related to
gender. She argues that it is critical in gender workshops to bring into the open
power and equality issues (for example, changing social and family norms, or
male violence), even with predominantly male groups. Failure to engage with
such issues means that opportunities are missed that could help participants
develop the tools to discuss gender equality beyond the workshop. Furthermore,
women in the group may be left frustrated at the lack of progress, and men may
remain secure in their view that changing gender relations is either unnecessary
or unachievable.
Thalia Kidders chapter first identifies the common limitations of gender
analyses of livelihoods programmes, which tend to focus on social factors and
fail to address gendered economics. Drawing on examples from workshops in
Albania, El Salvador, Haiti, Indonesia, Malawi, Nicaragua, and Senegal, she
describes attempts to encourage male participants to value womens unpaid
contributions to households, and to allow women space to market their
products and use financial services. She also acknowledges that some men may
be disadvantaged by gender stereotypes and roles in relation to livelihoods.
Rather than raise gender issues explicitly in workshops (as Maree Keating does),
Kidder sets out methods that rely more heavily on indirect economic efficiency
arguments; in her view, men may be more receptive if they appreciate that
12
Introduction
gender stereotypes are making projects less effective. She ends by observing,
among other things, that it is vital in each setting to find key questions that jolt
men (and women) into thinking and acting differently.
Magda Elsanousi outlines the socialisation process for men and women, and the
key factors that maintain gender inequality in the conservative society of Yemen.
She then describes attempts by three womens groups to work with influential
men as allies in combating violence against women. Given the lack of power and
voice that Yemeni women have, she believes that this is the most effective way of
getting womens concerns on the agenda. Identifying the key principles of such
partnerships, she argues that, although change is slow and hard to sustain, these
initiatives demonstrate the enormous potential of alliance building of this kind.
EngenderHealths Men As Partners programme (MAP), has been implemented
in a number of countries worldwide (including Bolivia, India, Nepal, Pakistan,
and South Africa), and its experience is described by Manisha Mehta, Dean
Peacock, and Lissette Bernal. The authors show how MAP encourages men to
prevent gender-based violence and to take greater responsibility for improving
their sexual and reproductive health and that of their partners. To be effective,
they suggest it is essential that programmes enable men to play a positive role,
build organisational cultures that are committed to working with men, involve
key stakeholders from the outset, and develop strategic alliances.
Two specific initiatives established by the Targeted AIDS Intervention Project to
educate young men in KwaZulu-Natal about sexual and reproductive health
are examined by Gaetane le Grange. The initiatives are attempts to respond
to the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa, which has been fuelled by increasing
risk-taking behaviour by men particularly those affected by poverty,
unemployment, and alcoholism. The author describes how the project
contacted groups of young men through soccer clubs and schools, and how
networks of peer educators were trained to disseminate accurate information to
their friends and partners about issues such as puberty, sexually transmitted
diseases, HIV/AIDS, and condom use. Le Grange describes the surprisingly
enthusiastic response of young men, and suggests that this was due to the
participatory approach of the educators, the space the project provided for
young men to discuss sensitive topics, and the fact that project activities came to
be seen by young men as cool.
Janet Brown reviews fatherhood initiatives in the Caribbean region, arguing that
narrow perceptions of fathers as providers and protectors are deeply embedded
in society, and undermine positive efforts to support men as fathers.
She identifies a range of programmes, including work with vulnerable men;
men-only public forums; parenting and public education activities; and
reproductive health interventions. Although little impact analysis has been
13
carried out on these programmes as yet, Brown believes that developmental

approaches based on mens own expressed needs and views are more likely to
engage men. She also suggests that there is a need to create spaces for men alone,
but warns that there is a danger of polarising mens and womens positions on
family issues.
Rusudan Pkhakadze and Nana Khoshtaria describe in their article how gender
relations have changed in the post-Soviet period in Georgia. They highlight in
particular the links between economic hardship, unemployment, and mens
violence within families, and argue that womens roles increasingly involve not
only caring, but also breadwinning. Drawing on their practical experience with
the unique Sakhli Womens Advice Centre, they show how counselling services
can help men to respond positively to their changing circumstances. They also
describe wider action to prevent domestic violence, including public-awareness
campaigning and a programme to raise awareness of the issue among police
officers.
Another perspective on tackling domestic violence is provided by Mario de
Araujo. He has been a prime mover in the work of the Mens Association Against
Violence (AMKV) in East Timor, a country which only gained independence
from Indonesia in 2002. As in other states which have recently emerged from
domination or occupation by a larger neighbour, the level of violence against
women and children is high. Learning from an international exchange with
mens groups in Nicaragua and Brazil and working in collaboration with
womens groups in East Timor, AMKV have used popular education techniques
to initiate discussion in communities and schools. Their approach is rooted in
practical everyday experience and avoids the dissemination of gender theory,
because they believe that the former has a more immediate impact on attitudes
and behaviour.
What is the impact of including men in gender analysis and action?

In the third section, Gary Barker explores the impact of programme
intervention with young men, drawing on a case study of the joint work of a
number of NGOs with low-income men in Brazil. He describes the activities
undertaken by Program H, which seeks to help young men to question
traditional norms related to manhood using educational manuals, videos, and
marketing campaigns. Recognising the importance of measuring changes in
attitudes and behaviour a crucial aspect of interventions with men which is
rarely considered he outlines how researchers developed an appropriate tool
(the Gender-equitable Attitudes in Men Scale) to undertake such evaluation.
Although the efforts need to be sustained, the early findings demonstrate the
value of the programme and of the evaluation method.
14
Introduction
How should organisations develop work with men?

The final section begins with the only contribution to analyse in depth the
development of a funding programme to support initiatives targeting men.
Cinnamon Bennett describes the design and development of the Objective 1
programme in South Yorkshire in the UK. She explores how men who have lost
their jobs and their self-esteem as breadwinners can be drawn back into
educational and employment contexts. Bennett is aware of the risk of recruiting
men to traditional training projects that fail to challenge outdated notions of
masculinity, and she highlights the view of practitioners that this can only be
achieved indirectly. She concludes with recommendations for integrating a
gender perspective into every stage of policy making and project delivery.
Sharon Rogers explores the thinking about gender equality of male staff in
Oxfam GB in Bangladesh and India. The interviews and group discussions she
initiated show that the men acknowledged that male dominance and gender
inequality was central to their societies. However, they tended to believe that
women as well as men had a role in maintaining such domination, and that
simplistic stereotypes were unhelpful. Citing the influence of families, education,
and NGO work on the development of their own gender awareness, they
identified several obstacles to progress, including the fear of condemnation and
conservative interpretations of Islam. Interviewees concurred that they often felt
uncomfortable and defensive when discussing gender issues with women, and
recommended that more space should be made available for informal, open
dialogue. This would allow them to explore more fully the personal perspectives
(on relationships, children, and the media, for example) that influenced their
understanding and commitment to gender equality.
James Lang and Sue Smith address the responsibilities and challenges facing
development organisations in engaging men, using the examples of the UN
Working Group on Men and Gender Equality and the gender mainstreaming
efforts in Oxfam GB. In particular, they highlight the constraints conceptual,
structural, policy, and personal to greater male involvement. If these are to be
overcome, they suggest it is essential to explore the linkages between personal
and organisational change, to undertake internal advocacy, to establish male role
models, and to implement gender-sensitive policies for all staff.
In the concluding chapter, we draw together lessons from the rest of the book.
A range of issues is explored, such as effective practice in engaging men, and
learning from work on specific issues. We end with some reflections on how
development organisations and practitioners should work with both men and
women in the future, if their programmes are to enhance and support gender
equality.
15
Notes
1. For example, B. Pease and K. Pringle (2001) A Mans World? Changing Mens Practices in a
Globalized World, London and New York: Zed Books; F. Cleaver (2002) Masculinities Matter!
Men, Gender and Development, London and New York: Zed Books.
2 C. Sweetman (1997) Men and Masculinity, Oxford: Oxfam GB; S. Chant and M. Gutmann
(2000) Mainstreaming Men into Gender and Development, Oxford: Oxfam GB.
3 C. Sweetman (ed.) (2001) Mens Involvement in Gender and Development Policy and Practice:
Beyond Rhetoric, Oxford: Oxfam GB.
4 See www.oxfam.org.uk for further details. Oxfams recent research on women workers in
global supply chains is reported in Trading Away our Rights, Oxfam International (2004),
available online at www.maketradefair.com
5 Oxfam for the purposes of this introduction refers to Oxfam GB and its programmes.
6 N. Kabeer (1994) Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, London:

Verso.
7 UNPFA (2000) Womens Empowerment and Reproductive Health: Links Through the Life
Cycle, available at www.unfpa.org/modules/intercenter/cycle/index.htm (last accessed
February 2004).
8 Oxfam GB (2003) Policy on Gender Equality, available at

www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/policy.htm
9 See The Mens Bibliography for a comprehensive list of international academic publications on
men and masculinities: www.xyonline.net/mensbiblio/
10 For example, Men and Masculinities, published by Sage.
11 Paragraph 25: United Nations (1995) Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Report of the
Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 415 September, UN Document A/CONF 177/20,
New York, NY: United Nations. The accompanying Plan of Action reaffirmed the principle of
shared power and responsibility between men and women, suggesting that womens concerns
could only be addressed in partnership with men towards gender equality.
12 Paragraph 6 of the Political Declaration, 59 June 2000, available at

www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/reports.htm
13 S. Chant and M. Gutmann (2000) op. cit.
14 C. Sweetman (1997) op. cit.
15 J. Lang (2002) Gender is Everyones Business: Programming with Men to Achieve Gender
Equality, workshop report 1012 June 2002, Oxfam GB. Available on
www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/gem/
16 The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality, report of the Expert Group
Meeting, Brasilia, Brazil, 2124 October 2003, UN Division for the Advancement of Women,
EGM/MEN-BOYS-GE/2003/REPORT, 12 January 2004.
17 See UN Economic and Social Council, The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender
Equality, report of the Secretary General, E/CN.6/2004/9, 22 December 2003.
16
Introduction
18 M. Kaufman (2003) The Aim Framework: Addressing and Involving Men and Boys to
Promote Gender Equality and End Gender Discrimination and Violence, UNICEF.
Available on www.michaelkaufman.com/articles
19 P. Paci (2002) Gender in Transition, Washington DC: World Bank. Available in pdf format on:
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ECA/eca.nsf/General/F55E7337BA69423985256BFA0053F091?
OpenDocument
20 The World Banks Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region consists of the following countries of
the former Soviet Union: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan, and the following countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, FYR Macedonia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Kosovo.
21 For further details, see www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/gem/
22 S. Ruxton (2002) Men, Masculinities, and Poverty in the UK, Oxford: Oxfam GB.
23 M.Kimmel (1987) Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinities,
Newbury Park, CA: Sage; R.W. Connell (1987) Gender and Power: Society, the Person and
Sexual Politics, Palo Alto, CA: University of California Press, and (1995) Masculinities,
Cambridge: Polity Press; and L. Segal (1997) Slow Motion, London: Virago.
24 R. Morrell (ed.) (2001) Changing Men in Southern Africa, London and Durban: University of
Natal Press and Zed Books.
25 R. Reddock (2004) Interrogating Caribbean Masculinity, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the

West Indies Press.
26 J. Roberson and N. Suzuki (eds.) (2002) Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan:
Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa, London and New York: Routledge
27 M.V. Vigoya (2001) Contemporary Latin American Perspectives on Masculinity, Men and
Masculinities, 3 (3).
28 M. Ghoussoub and E. Sinclair-Webb (2001) Imagined Masculinities: Male Identity and Culture
in the Modern Middle East, London: Saqi Books.
29 R.W. Connell (1987) Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics, Palo Alto, CA:
University of California Press; (1995) Masculinities, Cambridge: Polity Press; (2000) The Men
and the Boys, Cambridge: Polity Press; and (2002) Gender, Cambridge: Polity Press.
30 Some commentators have argued that focusing on masculinities (who men are) has tended to
divert attention from gender relations, and they prefer the term male practices to highlight
the importance of what men do. See, for instance, J. Hearn (1996) Is masculinity dead? A
critique of the concept of masculinity/masculinities, in M. Mac an Ghaill (ed.), Understanding
Masculinities, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
31 R. Morrell (ed.) (2001) op. cit.
32 M. Kimmel (2000) The Gendered Society, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33 R.W. Connell (1987) op. cit.
17
34 Hegemonic masculinity is a concept that draws on the ideas of Gramsci. It refers to the
dynamic cultural process that guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of
men and the subordination of women. See R. Connell (1995) op. cit.
35 B. Pease and K. Pringle (2001) op. cit.
36 R.W. Connell (2000) op. cit.
37 M. Rashid (2002) Giving men choices: a Rozan project with the police force in Pakistan, in
J. Lang (2002) op. cit. www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/gem/
38 S. Frosch, A. Phoenix, and R. Pattman (2002) Young Masculinities, Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan; M. Mac an Ghaill (1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and
Schooling, Buckingham: Open University Press.
39 I. Novikova (2000) Soviet and post-Soviet masculinities: after mens wars in womens
memories, in I. Breines, R. Connell, and I. Eide Male Roles, Masculinities and Violence:
A Culture of Peace Perspective, Paris: UNESCO.
40 M. Flood (2001) Mens Role in Achieving Gender Justice, available on

www.xyonline.net/Mensrolesingender.shtml
18
return to contents
Transforming our interventions for gender

equality by addressing and involving men
and boys: a framework for analysis and action
Michael Kaufman
Among NGOs, governments, and international institutions such as the United

Nations, there has been a tremendous surge of interest in the last few years in the
subject of men and boys. This interest reflects several overlapping perspectives.
There are those who understand we must reach men so that interventions for
women and girls are not derailed by male resistance. There are those who see the
quest for gender equality as being enhanced by specific initiatives aimed at men
and boys, such as awareness campaigns to end gender-based violence. And there
are those who realise that meeting certain needs of men and boys will actually
enhance an equity and equality agenda (and vice versa). This chapter endorses
all these approaches, and therefore rejects the competing view that the rush to
improve the lives of women has resulted in males being ignored or even harmed
this assertion simply doesnt bear scrutiny.
My concern in writing this chapter is two-fold, firstly that this new-found
interest in the lives of men and boys doesnt become a passing fad, and secondly
that we analyse the lives of men and boys and develop appropriate programmes
in the context of achieving gender equality, equity, and social transformation.
I believe it is only the latter approaches that will ensure that the focus on men
and boys is an enduring one. Only if organisations see the productive results of
men and boys taking co-responsibility for gender transformation will new
approaches for men not only gain a lasting place in the development world,
but also maintain a transformatory edge.
This chapter will discuss a framework for such approaches, drawing on some
examples from the White Ribbon Campaign, a campaign that aims to engage
men and boys in the struggle to end mens violence against women.
Leaving out boys and men: a recipe for failure

This interest in masculinities, in the lived realities of men and boys and in the
capacity of men to play a positive role in challenging sexism and patriarchy, has
been cultivated by over two decades of work by a small number of individuals
and organisations around the world. We have seen ourselves as allies with the
19
womens movement and the struggles led by women.1 It is not surprising,

however, that a widespread acceptance of our approach has been slow in coming.
After all, our work has developed within a critique of patriarchy, the very system
that has given undue power and privileges to men. As a result, many women have
been concerned that any attempt to include men and boys in working for gender
equality would not only redirect scarce resources back to men (who, worldwide,
already monopolise resources), but would also rob women of hard-fought social
and political spaces. Meanwhile, many men and male-dominated institutions
resist our initiatives for the same reasons that they resist equality work led by
women: many men feel threatened by direct challenges to their own definitions
of manhood, and some share the concerns raised by some women.
There is validity to such concerns. However, these fears arise from an assumption
which is, at least partially, false. The goal of our work to promote womens
empowerment is not only a matter of directing resources to women and girls but,
in a broader sense, is also aimed at meeting the needs of women and girls.2 By this
I mean not only immediate needs, but also what we might think of as womens
transformatory and strategic needs within a framework of their empowerment.
This is one place where men and boys fit in. To cite but two examples:
programmes aimed at men in order to increase fathers involvement in day-to-
day parenting and domestic tasks may be money spent on men, but it is part of
the process of gender transformation to the benefit of women and girls.
Similarly, money supporting a mens organisation to carry out awareness
programmes with men and boys to end mens violence against women and girls,
is not money spent on women and girls, but is money spent to meet the needs of
women and girls.
Another way to approach this issue is to ask what will be the consequences of not
addressing and involving men and boys. There are a number of reasons for such
an omission being a recipe for failure.3 Most obvious is the fact that men are the
gatekeepers of current gender orders and are potential resistors of change. If we
do not effectively reach men and boys, many of our efforts will be either
thwarted or simply ignored. At best, male leaders will pay lip service to the goals
of womens rights, but these goals will not be fully integrated into local, national,
and international priorities. In addition, if we dont involve men we are de facto
removing men from the gender equation. In doing so, we effectively marginalise
women and womens struggles. It should be no surprise, then, that our best
efforts are thwarted in moments of national or international crisis or in the
midst of economic cutbacks, or that they are virtually ignored at the highest
levels of social, economic, and political decision making.
Ultimately, gender is about relations of power between the sexes and among
different groups of women and men. Although practical programmes to
20
Transforming our interventions for gender equality
empower women are one part of changing these relations of power, there also
need to be systematic and systemic efforts to change the lives of men and boys if
we are to change power relations at their root.
In contrast to these negative consequences, there are potential positive outcomes
of addressing and involving men and boys. Such efforts could:
create a large-scale and broad social consensus on a range of issues that has
been previously marginalised as issues of importance only to women,
when in fact they are often also issues for men;
mobilise resources controlled by men and mobilise the social and economic
institutions controlled by men. In other words, such efforts could result in a
net gain in resources available to meet the needs of women and girls;
develop effective partnerships not only between women and men, but also
between a range of institutions and organisations, some representing the
interests of women and girls, and others de facto representing the
traditional interests of men and boys;
increasingly and patiently isolate those men working to preserve mens
power and privilege and the denial of rights to women and children;
contribute to raising the next generation of boys and girls in a framework
of gender equity and equality and respect for the human rights of all;
by changing the attitudes and behaviour of men and boys, improve the lives
of women and girls in the home, the workplace, and the community;
result in new and perhaps unexpected insights into current gender relations
and the complex forces that promote discrimination against women and
prevent gender equality;
result in new insights into other social, cultural, and political issues.
For example, we can deepen our understanding of fundamentalist religious
movements by understanding the insecurities of men within societies
which have defined men as powerful.
These, however, are only potential gains. I will return in a moment to the
question of how to turn this potential into reality.
What men and boys will gain from gender equality

and equity
Talk of the potential for men to gain from womens equality has often been
mired in generalities about mens lot in life and, in some cases, from faulty
analyses that men are the real victims and losers in our current systems of gender
relations faulty for the simple reason that such analyses play down the real
21
benefits men enjoy from patriarchy. I believe, though, that we can develop a
cogent understanding of these issues by rooting our analysis in the notion of
mens contradictory experiences of power; that is, the relationship of mens
power and what, in shorthand, we can call mens pain. It is not simply a matter
of saying that men experience both power and pain as a result of gender
relations. Rather, it is about the link between the two. Specifically, it is the ways
in which we have constructed our dominant definitions of masculinity, the
institutions of patriarchy, and the relations of power among men and with
women which are, paradoxically, the sources of disquietude, pain, fear,
insecurity, and alienation for many men.4
Let me give an example. Men have defined childcare as womens work; they
have devalued such work, and have made sure that they do not have to spend
much time doing it. In a sense this is a privilege, because it means that most men
have only one job compared with most women, for whom work never seems to
stop. It means fathers are able to relax at night, or pursue work or sports. And yet,
how often do we hear older men talking about having worked their whole lives
for their families, but that now they are retired, with their children gone, they
dont even know them. The very thing that was a source of privilege has become
a source of alienation and emotional pain.
Although men will actually benefit from a world of gender equality and fairness,
this should be seen only as an outcome, and not necessarily a motivation to gain
mens support. In societies where mens power and social hegemony remains
largely uncontested, or where the day-to-day privileges that men enjoy far
outstrip those of women, we are unlikely to convince many men that they will
gain from sexual equity. In such societies, the balance between mens power and
mens pain is decidedly tipped in the direction of mens power.
On the other hand, in societies where there has been an ongoing challenge from
women to the domination of men, or where economic or social changes have
eroded traditional forms of mens privilege and control, then the balance begins
to tip the other way, so that the experiences of personal loss occupy an ever-
greater place in mens experiences. In itself, this doesnt automatically lead to a
pro-feminist consciousness. In fact, as men grasp the straws of religious
fundamentalism and conservative political ideologies, a backlash against
feminism is more often the case. My point is that the challenge to mens power
opens a huge new space for an anti-sexist discourse among men. Finding ways to
enter and exploit that space successfully must be one of our objectives.
22
The White Ribbon Campaign

In 1991 in Canada, a small group of men started the White Ribbon Campaign
(WRC). The campaign engages in public education in order to end mens silence
about mens violence against women, to raise awareness among men and boys,
and to mobilise them to work for change through their schools, workplaces, and
communities. To our surprise, the WRC received tremendous attention in the
media. This was, in part, because of our strategy of asking prominent Canadian
men from across the social and political spectrum to add their name to the
founding statement. WRC quickly became a national institution and has spread
to over thirty countries around the world.
Various features, some of them unique, define the approach of the WRC.
The campaign focuses on mens violence against women. In some countries,
it does this in the context of using explicit language about supporting womens
equality; in others where a belief in gender equality is widespread among men,
its messages focus on ending physical and sexual violence. WRC embodies the
belief that, in most countries, the majority of men do not use physical or sexual
violence; that we have been silent about that violence, and through the silence
have allowed the violence to continue. The campaign uses the white ribbon as a
symbol of ending this silence and as a public promise by a man never to commit,
condone, or remain silent about violence against women.
The campaign is politically non-partisan, including and reaching out to men
across the political spectrum. Working together, we agree to disagree on many
important issues, including some issues relating to feminism. We work closely
with womens organisations (and, in some cases, white ribbon campaigns have
been started by womens groups). In many countries, WRC campaigns raise
money for womens programmes.
Organisationally, WRC is very small we see our role as being catalysts for
action. We strive to encourage schools, corporations, trade unions, religious
institutions, sports clubs, youth groups, governments, and non-government
organisations to hold their own white ribbon activities. That way we know we
can reach hundreds of millions of men.
In most countries, the annual focus of the campaign is between November 25,
the international day for the elimination of violence against women, and early
December, although educational activities take place throughout the year.
Groups distribute ribbons and leaflets in schools, workplaces, and markets.
Some groups sponsor advertisements in newspapers or on television and radio,
using donations from advertising agencies and the media. They distribute
posters and hold public meetings. In some countries, they also hold events
23
around Fathers Day to highlight more nurturing roles for men as part of the
long-term solution to ending mens violence.
WRC is a decentralised campaign, choosing to act as a catalyst and example to
other men and boys. While such a decentralised approach could create problems,
it is also the factor that is responsible for the rapid spread of the campaign.
The AIM framework

As noted above, the gains from addressing and involving men remain only
potential. There still lurks the problem that programming for men and boys
could cause a net drain of resources away from the needs of women and girls.
I have suggested that we need a strategic approach, with a goal that goes beyond
working with males per se. Rather, we need to envision new initiatives, or develop
new components of existing programmes to mobilise men and boys to work
in partnership with women and girls in order to transform destructive
masculinities, end oppressive gender relations, and to promote gender equity
and equality and human rights.
The framework I have suggested for this approach is based on a number of
conceptual tools, and a series of principles to guide the development of
programmes and interventions involving men and boys.5 These principles, with
some examples from the White Ribbon Campaign, are:
1 Whatever we do, the primary aim should be to work to end
discrimination against women and girls, to achieve gender equality and
equity, and to promote the human rights of women and girls.
Otherwise, we risk undermining the efforts of women, and we fail to
transform the very system of patriarchy that is at the root of the problems
we address. For example, in some countries the messages of the White
Ribbon Campaign focus on the links between mens violence and the
discrimination women suffer. Campaigns work to establish links with
womens organisations, to support those groups, to develop joint initiatives,
and to encourage men to listen to the voices of women.
2 Successfully reaching men requires constantly navigating through mens
fear. We should never underestimate the huge individual investment some
men can make in maintaining power and control. Our approaches must
find ways to appeal to some of the very values we are ultimately challenging.
An example is reaching men and boys with the message, You have the
power to end violence against women in your community. White Ribbon
posters attempt to affirm the positive.
24
3 Strive to use the language of responsibility rather than blame. Similarly,

we need to avoid using generalisations and stereotypes when discussing
men. Generalised blame reduces sexism to individual relationships and
individual identity, rather than understanding patriarchy and sexism as also
being systemic and institutional. Nor is blame pedagogically useful.
Language that leaves males feeling responsible for things they havent done
or for things they were taught to do, or feeling guilty for the sins of other
men, will alienate most men and boys and promote backlash. Rather, we
challenge men and boys to take responsibility for change, and we focus on
the positive benefits to all. One example is a Canadian White Ribbon poster
which has been widely translated. It has the headline, These men want to
put an end to violence against women followed by a number of lines.
Some lines are pre-signed by prominent men from that country, the other
lines waiting to be signed by men and boys when the posters are put up in
schools or places of work.
4 Successful approaches depend on creating and nurturing groups of men.
This is not only so that men will be organised to take action, although it is
important. It is also that in challenging patriarchy, men working in such
groups begin to shift their relationships with other men. Looking around
the world, such new organisations tend to develop a supportive and non-
competitive environment, and often include support groups and close
informal ties with other men. Although some groups maintain links with
old boys networks, the direction of their work is to challenge the
institutions of patriarchy. White Ribbon groups take pride in being
supportive and co-operative, relying as much as possible on collective
leaderships.
5 Mens and boys voices have an important place. Men assess their
masculinity through the eyes of men, boys measure their masculinity
through the eyes of other boys and men. It is critical to mobilise the
voices of males to speak to other men and boys. We must also involve
them to help to design the message to their peers. Of course, many men
who come to feminism do so because of the impact of women in their lives,
but if we are to reach large numbers of men, men themselves must take
responsibility. The sheer diversity of white ribbon activities in Canada
alone is a good example of this, with each school or union or sports team
itself deciding what it will do to reach the men or boys in their community.
6 Create a politics of compassion, and work with men and boys to develop
their emotional life and a language of emotions. In our work to end the
oppression of women, we must not shrink from compassion and empathy
with men and boys. This means never losing sight of the negative impact of
25
contemporary patriarchy on men and boys themselves, even though they

gain many privileges as males. Although the White Ribbon Campaign itself
is not a service provider and does not work directly with men who use
violence, some of our supporters do such work. Many of them approach
this work by insisting that men take responsibility for their use of violence,
but combine this with compassion and a desire to create spaces for these
men to change their lives. To cite another example, where WRC works on
issues of the greater involvement of men in fatherhood, we do so in part
because we know that through nurturing, individuals develop strong
emotional ties and need to develop a language of emotions.
7 Reaching particular age groups requires finding specific entry points.
To be effective, we must understand what are, at different ages, the specific
links of men and boys to gender issues. Speaking to teenage boys about
domestic violence is important, but speaking with them about building
healthy relationships is an even more effective way to make the same points,
for it actually speaks to their most pressing concerns. The participatory
model of WRC facilitates this by encouraging specific groups to design
their own campaigns.
8 Find ways to measure mens attitudinal and behavioural changes and the
effectiveness of new initiatives aimed at men and boys, as much of our
work in recent decades has been rather intuitive and impressionistic. In
Canada, for example, at the time of writing, WRC is beginning an
evaluation of its educational materials.
No panaceas
Such a framework, together with the emerging practices of organisations around
the world, gives us a set of tools that will help us advance our interventions and
avoid many pitfalls.6 There is no one model of correct practices that fits all
societies or age groups or arenas of intervention. However, I do believe that one
framework can help to create and nurture diverse approaches.
Putting such a framework into practice requires examining our past and present
activities and future plans in the light of a series of conceptual tools such as the
ones I referred to above (although not elaborated there), and the type of guiding
principles briefly presented here. For many organisations, an internal process is
needed where spaces for discussion are created, so we are able to challenge
ourselves in supportive environments. This may require workshops and
discussions aimed specifically at involving men as partners for change, and
participatory evaluations of gender relations within the organisation. It requires
26
ongoing scrutiny and evaluation to ensure that our work is meeting its goals
including, of course, supporting the efforts of women. Ongoing vigilance, and
discussion with womens organisations and women at the community level will
be the best guarantee that our efforts to address and involve men and boys do not
work against the interests of women and girls.
Without such measures, resistance is inevitable. This can come either from those
men who still feel threatened by the prospect of change, or from those men and
women who see efforts to achieve gender equality as work only for women, or
from those women who remain suspicious of mens capacity to be respectful
partners for equality.
Luckily, however, there is an increasing number of organisations and individuals
on all continents and in most countries who are working together, as women and
men, to achieve gender equality and gender equity, social justice, and an end to
destructive gender definitions and relations.
Notes
1 I refer to we and our to signify my own participation within organisations, campaigns, and
activities aimed at addressing and involving men and boys.
2 This and other sections of this chapter are based on my article, The AIM Framework:
Addressing and Involving Men and Boys to Promote Gender Equality and End Violence
Against Women, (M. Kaufman 2003, a paper originally prepared for UNICEF, and available
online at www.michaelkaufman.com/articles).
3 See M. Kaufman (2003) op. cit.
4 See M. Kaufman (1993) Cracking the Armour: Power, Pain and the Lives of Men, Toronto:
Penguin/Viking (available online in pdf format at www.michaelkaufman.com), and
M. Kaufman (1999) Men, feminism and mens contradictory experiences of power, in Joseph
A. Kuypers, (ed.) Men and Power, Halifax: Fernwood Books, pp. 5983. An earlier version of
this article appeared in Harry Brod and Michael Kaufman (eds.) (1994) Theorizing
Masculinities, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Available online at
www.michaelkaufman.com/articles
5 M. Kaufman (2003) op. cit.
6 See M. Kaufman (2002) The White Ribbon Campaign: involving men and boys in ending
global violence against women in Bob Pease and Keith Pringle (eds.) A Mans World?
Changing Mens Practices in a Globalized World, London: Zed Books, (also available online at
www.michaelkaufman.com), and M. Kaufman (2003) op. cit.
27
return to contents
Masculinities: resistance and change

Benno de Keijzer
This chapter is part of a long-term joint research effort in Mexico, focusing on

mens violence,1 and a more personal analysis of men and change carried out for
a doctoral thesis.2 It is the outcome of a first distillation of findings from
practical work carried out since the early nineties. The chapter focuses on the
relationship between change, continuity, and resistance in the context of a slow
transition towards gender equity with women in Mexico, and begins with an
analysis of how masculinity is constructed and the risks involved in the process.
The main body of the chapter seeks to explore the dialectics of change and
resistance: the sources or catalysts of change in men, the levels and processes of
change itself, and the contexts in which change is happening or is actively
promoted. Concrete examples will be drawn from the experience of Salud y
Gnero (Health and Gender), a Mexican non-government organisation (NGO)
formed by men and women for the promotion of gender equity through
educational and advocacy activities in sexual, reproductive, and mental health;
and through personal contact with other programmes, mainly in Latin America.
On men and masculinities

Why should men change? Masculinity as a risk or limiting factor
Many health, education, family planning, and development programmes
targeting women in various parts of the world find that men are an important
obstacle and often the main one to womens participation and to a projects
success. Addressing key issues with men can have a significant impact, in
preventing the problems they sometimes create.
The need to work with men on issues such as reproductive health, sexuality,
violence, addiction, self-care, or other aspects of well-being has been clear to the
core team of Salud y Gnero since the early 1990s.3 That men, as perceived
beneficiaries of a patriarchal social structure, would respond to this initiative
was not so clear. But the experience of the organisation has shown that many
men do respond, at least partially, overcoming different kinds of resistance.
28
Salud y Gneros approach to working with men arises from working with
women on various health issues, mainly sexual and reproductive problems,
mental health, and domestic violence linked to alcohol abuse. It is increasingly
clear how hegemonic masculinities (dominant forms of masculinity, see
Introduction, page 8) affect the lives of women and children in these areas.
This approach to health issues is based on Kaufmans violence triad,4 a model of
the relationships between various risks for men, in which the most visible axis is
the risk towards women, while the other two sides represent the risks to other
men and the risks to oneself. Men remain relatively unaware that many
masculine traits (seeking power, being unemotional, competitive, uncaring, and
rule-breaking) also have highly negative effects on their own lives.5 For example,
life expectancy for men in Mexico is 6.5 years less than for women (although
women face specific risks related to reproduction), a gap that has grown during
the last century.6
Understanding how men are socialised

We cant think about how to change mens behaviour until we have a developed
understanding of how masculinities are constructed in a given culture. In a
country like Mexico, many of the principal characteristics of hegemonic
masculinities are a strong influence on the ways in which most men are
socialised. Salud y Gneros work with men has led us to analyse the construction
of male identity as a way of understanding, deconstructing, and modifying it.
We have reflected on:
the beliefs about power that we grew up with as men, concerning our
essential authority over women, and the sense of our cultural entitlement
to services we should receive from them;
the way in which men handle emotions (especially the censored ones such
as fear or sadness), which are often transformed into anger;
the social and cultural validation of violent responses, often seen as a
legitimate correction of female behaviour;
the different costs of hegemonic masculinity in various aspects of health,
sexuality, and family life.
Salud y Gneros methodology relies on promoting and achieving change
towards health from a gender-equity perspective, drawing on Paulo Freires
theories of consciousness raising and participation in education.7 However, a
necessary balance to Freires optimism is Pierre Bourdieus theory, which
explains why change is so difficult.8 As socio-culturally constructed beings, we
function though an array of representations, thoughts, and feelings. All these are
29
structured in what Bourdieu calls the habitus: structures of perception,

thought, and action that last over time and are adaptable to different situations.9
These structures tend to be reproduced in the socialisation of others though an
educational process instilled by authority (for example, by parents, teachers, the
church, the military).
For men, this habitus, structured from early childhood largely by the family and
the school, determines the way in which we perceive the world, and understand
and act in it. By the time boys arrive at adolescence, most have learned the main
lessons that shape masculine behaviour and identity and that limit certain forms
of emotional expression and encourage others, such as anger and violence.
These patterns have a clear influence on sexual behaviour and reproductive
health, often leading men to ignore or violate womens rights. This development
of restrictive masculinity makes it difficult for many men to be flexible and
sensitive as partners and parents.
As adults, mens privilege leads them to believe they are entitled to greater rights
and authority, and services from women from cradle to tomb. If these are denied
or questioned, violence in various forms may be the consequence. Meanwhile,
within a traditional culture, women also internalise their subordination. Thus
the concept of habitus is not only about individual and collective masculinities,
but the construction of the culture as a whole.
Relationships between men are established through demonstrations of power
and through competition, as men strive to appear strong and invulnerable.
Elizabeth Badinter characterises mens socialisation as taking place along a
straight but very narrow path, and men fear to fall on one of two sides: the fear
of being seen as female (which may lead to active misogyny), or of being seen as
gay (which may lead to homophobia).10 Men are submitted to this gender
policing from early childhood far into the adult years. From this perspective,
masculinity, and the denial of femininity, is something that men have constantly
to demonstrate, both to women and to other men. By denial, we mean not only
recognising the possibility of being different from women, but also the active
rejection of everything that is perceived as feminine.11 In Mexico, it is still
common for schoolchildren to run quickly when one of them shouts, the last
one there is vieja (an old woman). Among adult men, we find homophobic
crimes in many parts of the country, where homosexuals are harassed, raped,
and even killed by gangs of men. This homophobia could also be partly
responsible for an increase in late diagnosis of prostate cancer, due to mens fear
and embarrassment of physical examination by medical personnel. Some men
even joke, so many years preserving my virginity, to lose it with the urologist!
Women are often viewed by men (and by women themselves) as having a
negative influence on mens socialisation. Male participants in mixed workshops
30
sometimes say accusingly, What are you women complaining about, if you are
raising the new generation of machos? But although women play a central role
in socialisation, they shouldnt be blamed for all its consequences, which they
generally suffer. Women carry out child rearing under the weight of generations
of tradition. They are often supervised by men or by older women, who are
dedicated to upholding male superiority. So although teachers, mothers, sisters,
grandmothers, and aunts bring up children, the process is embedded in a social
system that changes slowly and that supports the persistence of patriarchal
values.12
Boys becoming men: can we promote right rites?

Change is part of the life cycle the different stages a person passes through from
childhood to adulthood. Transition rites for boys and men are important in
simultaneously marking differences with women and with younger boys, en
route to becoming a real man. In many societies, these rites are rigidly
established and are generally performed by older men. They can involve a great
amount of physical and emotional pain, instilling both violence and power.
Boys tend to accept these rites as inevitable, and they hold out a promise of a
change in their social status. But as with rites for girls (the most appalling being
female genital mutilation), boys are not asked whether they want to participate.
I wanted a bike! shouts Rafael, when remembering how his older relatives took
him to a sex worker for his sexual initiation when he turned thirteen.
Similar differences in the responses of individual men can be seen in the
experience of many young men who witness domestic violence, and see in this
suffering the promise of them being powerful in their turn when they eventually
become adults and head a family. In processes not fully understood, other young
men who undergo the same experience develop in the opposite direction and
reject domestic violence.
In urban settings, transition rites may appear to be absent, but are actually
diversified, and still observable in certain landmark experiences that are central
in mens lives on their path to manhood. In any workshop with men in Mexico
we can ask, When did you feel you were a man for the first time? The men will
highlight a wide range of events: graduating from high school or starting work,
having sex or getting drunk for the first time, becoming a father, or migrating to
a major city or to the USA. The challenge is how to assist young men to advance
through life stages such as these without risks, and without reinforcing gender
inequalities, thus developing a healthier and more equitable adulthood.
31
The dialectics of change and resistance

Transformation in men occurs in the wider context of shifts in gender relations
promoted mainly by women. In the rest of this chapter, we will analyse four
aspects of this changing context, and review the sources, the dimensions and the
contexts in which men are changing.
A crisis for hegemonic masculinities, and gender transition?

During the last fifty years in Mexico, gender relations and relations between men
have been influenced by several direct and indirect factors. Traditional ideas and
beliefs about masculinity have been called into question by changes in policies,
institutions, and families. One of the main influences for change is the continuous
struggle of women towards gender equality in all spheres of society. This is
linked to social change,13 such as the huge rise in the numbers of women in the
labour market (mainly in services and manufacturing); the acceleration of levels
of poverty associated with falling wages; increasing urbanisation and rural
migration to the cities and to the USA; an increase in women-headed
households; an increase in step-families; and a reduction in family size (as a
result of 30 years of family-planning programmes).14
In this context, the male role of exclusive provider and family authority is
eroding, and men are confronting new needs and demands that reconfigure
family arrangements. As for every crisis, this should be seen as both a risk and an
opportunity. Men who are in a state of surprise and confusion argue or negotiate
with women, and even with their children, who expect something different from
them. As a woman in a Nicaraguan workshop put it,Men are looking for women
who dont exist any more and women are seeking men who dont exist yet.
This tension, often poorly handled by many men, serves as a common male
justification for problems like domestic violence, unemployment, and alcohol
abuse. While increasing numbers of men are involved in child rearing and
domestic work, many are not ready to address deeper inequalities in relation to
critical issues such as the administration of money; more subtle forms of
domestic violence; alcohol abuse; and the ways in which decisions are made. One
of the most difficult areas is that of couple relationships and sexuality, where
feminists sense that the hard core of mens gender power and discrimination is
alive and well.15
Gay and lesbian movements are having an increasing impact too, although they
are not advancing in linear fashion. Could there be a more complete change in a
mans life than to come out to men and women in his immediate social
network? In Mexico, to defy heterosexuality, one of the mainstays of dominant
forms of masculinity, remains a very radical statement.
32
Many men who have sex with men, however, maintain misogynistic and even
homophobic attitudes in public to cover up their clandestine homosexuality.
Some of the leaders in the Mexican gay movement recognise the need for gay
men to reflect on the construction of their masculinity. As in other countries,
gays in Mexico have been the first men to openly oppose hegemonic masculinity
and sexuality in an organised way. This movement is also questioning existing
gender norms, as is the reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has revealed,
among other things, the male-male sexual practices of heterosexually identified
men.16
Pro-feminist men (individually and in small groups) have been reflecting and
theorising on masculinity since the 1960s and 1970s in Europe and North
America,17 and men in Latin America started to do so in the early 1990s. Men
react to the propositions of gender equality in various ways, ranging from open
opposition (based on religious or biological considerations) to public support.
Between these opposites we find a whole range of reactions, including passive
resistance, adaptation, and even a chameleon-like approach among some men
who adopt the discourse of equality but not its practice.
The 1994 Cairo conference on population and the 1995 Beijing World
Conference on Women18 were catalysts for work with men for gender equality in
Latin America and the rest of the world, multiplying the changes already
brought about by the gender change and feminist movements. But although we
have programmes and sectors of the population (including a minority of men)
moving towards more equitable attitudes in the family and the workplace,
conservative movements are trying to drive women back home, as a strategy
to curb social problems (such as poor schooling results, substance abuse,
delinquency), particularly among adolescents. Such conservative forces are
represented in parts of the current administration in Mexico, as well as in the
USA, and in many Muslim countries. The main driving force behind it is the
desire to impose a renewed religious hegemony over sexuality and gender and
over family relations.19
The seeds of change

In this section, we review some of the ways in which change enters the lives of
men: in their socialisation, through the influence of women, when they are in
crisis, and when they come into contact with change programmes.
There are many sources of transformation in peoples lives; for men, change can
happen through first experiencing love and sex, during a partners first
pregnancy, or on learning to be a parent. Change is a very ambivalent process for
men, however. Many men seem interested in the possibilities provided by
more equal gender relations, having suffered the consequences of hegemonic
33
masculinity in their relationships with their fathers, brothers, or other men.

At the same time, they may enjoy or appreciate the advantages of being a man in
an unequal society. Men who have been socialised differently, with gender-
equity messages conveyed by strong women and (less frequently) sensitive men,
find relief in our workshops, saying that they have finally have found a space
where they can express themselves. For a large part of their lives they have felt
that they do not match up to the model of hegemonic masculinity, and they have
frequently witnessed and suffered the consequences of it.
Positive influences for change can also come from schools, peers, or older men.
Sergio, a mechanic in his forties, who was a member of the first groups reflecting
on masculinities, and who grew up in a violent neighborhood, put it like this:
You saw a lot of violence there, especially between the guys. A lot of fighting,
and you had to make yourself strong because otherwise the other guy would eat
you alive [abuse you], thats the truth. If someone attacked you, you had to
respond and he had to know you could respond anytime to anyone.
I was about 17 when I got to know my sisters boyfriend, a tranquil person,
very calm, who was from somewhere else in the city. He was one of those who
would negotiate before fighting. I remember that, at first, we thought he was a
fag or scared. But no, the guy had the opportunity to show he could [fight] also,
but he always started negotiating. I learned a lot from him about being nice
that I had never had learned at home: how a man should be kind, especially to
women. But also to men ... he would always arrive with the words, How are
you friend? everyone was his friend even if they didnt know him.20
This coincides with the perspective of the organisation Promundo a partner of
Salud y Gnero in its work in Brazil, which demonstrates the importance of
building on the aspects of gender equality that are already present in some
men.21 Rather than focus on how the reproduction of hegemonic masculinity
generally occurs, Barker explores why certain men emerge with non-violent and
more gender-equitable attitudes, even though they come from violent back-
grounds (see Barker, this volume). Based on ethnographic research in Brazil and
the USA, he notes that these young men have, for instance, observed the costs of
traditional masculinity; been victims of or witnesses to domestic violence and
reflected upon it; had the opportunity to reflect on their own violence; had
contact with positive male models; experienced alternative peer groups
(through culture, music, or the church); or become fathers.22
Change also comes about through migration a major issue for Mexico and
other Latin American countries. A great proportion of migration to the USA is
by men from rural areas in Mexico, who risk entering the country illegally to find
work and to support their families. The way they have been socialised can lead
them to take extra risks, and many violent deaths occur, linked to accidents,
34
violence, or drugs. The spread of HIV/AIDS in rural Mexico is similarly related

to migration, as these men increasingly have unprotected sex on the other side of
the border.
Research by Rodrguez and de Keijzer in the state of Puebla identifies two
interesting trends among men who stay longer in the USA.23 Some learn to adapt
to more equitable gender norms, sharing housework with their wives and being
less abusive, knowing that the laws on violence in the USA are stricter, and
actually enforced. Yet when these men come home to Mexico each year, they
soon reassume the dominant form of masculinity and accommodate themselves
once again to be attended to by their women, starting with their mother. The
other trajectory is of men who genuinely adopt long-term gender-sensitive
ideals and practices towards their wives and daughters.
Please tell our husbands The role of women in change

Women play a central role in the promotion of gender equality, not only through
what they are slowly and painstakingly achieving for themselves, but also by
their direct influence on the men who are related to them. Though a significant
proportion of feminists are ambivalent about the possibilities and results of
working with men, a majority of women at community level ask for and support
these initiatives.
In over ten years, Salud y Gnero has encountered this engagement time and
again in rural, urban, and institutional settings in Mexico, Central America, and
Peru. We understand or, We already know, please tell our husbands is the
common response of women to the promotion of work with men. These women
may be family members (wives, mothers, daughters) or colleagues in government
and civil projects. Sometimes it is women leading health, education, or develop-
ment projects with other women who realise the need to inform or sensitise
men, or neutralise their opposition to womens progress. Most of the men we
work with men who are sent (and even sponsored) by their partners, men who
are curious or sincerely interested in our work come as a result of this
transition among women.24
Women are also promoting change at various levels, mainly in relation to critical
issues like domestic violence and reproductive health. In the report of the Cairo
population conference, men appear as an important part of the problem, and
working with men is included in the recommendations.25 This international
movement, mainly led by women, has helped to produce the social conditions
for men to start organising and responding to public and private initiatives from
a gender perspective. From the late 1980s and early 1990s, research and action
projects were established in countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and
Nicaragua. During the same period, major UN agencies (WHO, UNICEF,
35
UNFPA, and others) and private foundations and institutions (such as

MacArthur, Ford, IPPF, and EngenderHealth) have promoted mens involve-
ment in initiatives on reproductive health, gender-based violence, and
fatherhood. In this area too, women with a gender perspective have played a
critical role (see chapters by Mehta et al. and Lang and Smith).
An example of personal and institutional change in Mexico can been seen in the
womens organisation called Lillith, an NGO with a focus on domestic violence,
based in Tecate. When the first male perpetrators of violence against women
asked them for help, it seriously challenged the organisation. Lilliths discovery
of the need for and the potential of working with men was so profound that it
even changed its statutes. Lilliths director, a female lawyer, said, We never
imagined how our vision would change towards working with women and
men.26
The long route: hitting rock bottom

In many cases, men have to face a serious life crisis as a first step to trans-
formation. This is well known from the experience of Alcoholics Anonymous,
and seems to be the case for many men who are abusive in their family relations:
aggression that goes too far, combined with the possibility (or reality) of their
partner leaving them, is a frequent trigger for men to seek help. The situation
often arises from the consequences of, say, a heart attack, an accident, substance
abuse, or other health problems. Many men hit rock bottom when unemployed,
upon retirement, after a divorce, or on the death of someone significant to them.
The clarity that comes with facing a personal crisis is sudden: Miguel, a white-
collar worker in his thirties, is part of a Salud y Gnero programme on domestic
violence, and was present as a child while his mother was beaten. He relives the
scene from the other side:
My father came in drunk and yelling, as always, and I remember he pulled my
mother towards the sink and was going to beat her. My mother grabbed a knife
[raising his voice] and I stood up I swear I was three or four and saw that,
and he turned to see me and then let go of my mother, and that scene remained
in me ...
When I was fighting my wife it was like reliving that time when I saw that my
Dad was going to beat my mother ... [lowering his voice] my daughter saw me
and she crept under the bed. I never forget that, never, never. It is something
that helped me share it [with the reflection group]. 27
This kind of experience leads some men to seek help.Yet a significant proportion
of men cannot face being confronted through programmes designed to help
them control and understand their own violence. Some even manage to
36
negotiate a reunion with their partners using the assistance of the programme as
a way to obtain it. In the USA and Mexico, it is only a minority of men that goes
though the process and emerges with a substantially more equitable attitude and
practice.
When the reality of mens health is revealed in our workshops, starting with the
analysis of their own and their peers experiences, men tend to see themselves as
victims: our situation is worse than womens. We stress that the idea is not that
they should feel they are the new victims of the twenty-first century. Instead,
addressing mens health is an important opportunity to analyse their situation,
and provides a convenient strategy for men to work with.
Promoting change
In the last decade many programmes have been developed which target men.
Salud y Gnero has constructed a methodology for working with men and
women in different age groups, drawing inspiration from various sources,
including Paulo Freires theories, and mental-health and feminist approaches.28
The work of Salud y Gnero is based on three basic educational tools: dialogue,
experience sharing, and reflection. We have learned that it is necessary to provide
spaces where men and women can share experience and negotiate alternative
ways of relating. An initial period is necessary when the men and women in the
group work apart, and we carefully seek ways of bringing them together,
fostering communication rather than conflict. The men who participate in our
activities join voluntarily, or are contacted through institutions and networks in
most states of Mexico and in some countries in Central and South America.
Over the last seven years, Salud y Gnero has worked with around 500 men every
year, in workshops that range from a half day to a full diploma course over a year.
Every workshop tends to unsettle a significant number of participants. What
happens after this shake-up depends very much on the support or resistance
encountered at home from partners, extended family, peers, and co-workers.
This dialectical relationship between individual and collective change has, at
times, both disappointed us (when hoped-for change hasnt come about) and
surprised us (when change does occur unexpectedly). Change seems more assured
when it is collective when it occurs among groups of men and women who
support each other during the process, and who seek to expand on the experience
in their work and their primary relationships. This process can also be enhanced
when there is strong and explicit institutional support for gender equity. We are
still seeking to understand these processes in a more profound way.
ReproSalud in Peru promotes such change by combining educational activities
with various communication strategies aimed at shifts in culture towards a
37
respect for womens rights and reduced tolerance for violence against women.29
The same applies to the work with young men of Promundo and Program H
associates (see Barker, this volume).
Peers are often reported to be an obstacle to change. A man who is changing his
life is a threat to other men, who will criticise or ridicule him as unmanly, as
dominated by his wife (his chicken orders him around), or as a sissy. Although
he begins to see the advantages of change, this criticism works on his own
understanding of masculinity and may undermine his resolve. This occurs with
problems like alcoholism or violence, and also in the reproductive decision
making around vasectomy. Some men have covert vasectomies, getting them
done in their annual vacation as a way to hide the operation from family and
peers, who might question the mens masculinity and sexuality. The organisation
Coriac has labeled certain kinds of men closet tenders because they are
affectionate with their children in private, but never in public (something seen
as unmanly for an important man).
Men are increasingly drawn to attend our workshops through the influence of
peers who have already participated in some process of reflection. If this
process lasts long enough, and a new network of peers can be constructed,
transformation is on more solid ground. Eventually there should be an
increasing number of men moving in the same direction. They become potent
agents of change, because they have credibility with other men. This has
clearly been the case for men struggling with alcohol abuse and violence in their
lives, but it can also happen around reproductive issues: in the traditional state
of Coahuila, Mexico, a group of factory workers overcame criticism of their
decision to undergo vasectomy, reaffirming their action by forming the
Pistols Without Bullets group, which promotes vasectomy through factories
and associations.
Finally, change can be elusive. The old, dominant concept of masculinity has
become confusing and ambiguous, because it is a stereotype. Most men wouldnt
dream of calling themselves machonow (a concept that was valued until the 1970s),
but their actions may still reflect those persistent attitudes. To fail to recognize
that the Neo-macho man continues to wield power, albeit in different guises than
before, means that we miss out on opportunities to understand what is happening.
The dimensions and process of change

Although many women are expecting and promoting change in the men close to
them, it is clear that change is a complex process. First of all, transformation has
to do with the desire to change. Men who only attend workshops as a result of
partner, institutional, or peer pressure will eventually drop out. The stages of
38
change are not necessarily sequential. During the initial phase, change is more
perceptible in mens discourse, especially in urban settings. In rural settings,
change in practice can come about in a more direct way. Time must elapse
between desire for change and practical change.
Mens discourse is a manifestation of the process of collective reflection between
men, rehearsing and disseminating a different way of narrating their own
experiences, and later even confronting sexist jokes or the comments of other
men. An example of an initiative focusing on this first step is the White Ribbon
Campaign (see the chapter by Kaufman in this volume), in which the white
ribbon a man wears provides the opportunity for him to publicly reject violence
against women. But this level of discourse is inadequate if it does not lead to
practical results. Women are especially sensitive to men who incorporate new
discourse as political correctness only, the skin-deep adaptation of a chameleon.
Workshops and reflection groups lead men to share and question the way in
which they have been socialised. To have a group of men talking about their
experience and listening to others in an emotional way, without competing or
being drunk that is a little miracle in Mexican culture. This reflection may or
may not lead to the appreciation of new possibilities for living and relating.
As a middle-aged man in a Tijuana barrio puts it:
To have information, to know that there are other alternatives is very
beneficial, because one can break with the daily routine, break with a lot of
things, a model ... a traditional mould.
Men learn to be more aware of their emotions and the masks they use to cover
them. In the experience of an adult male health promoter in the same city:
I always used a mask or something, because I was afraid I would be rejected if
I were vulnerable with everyone around me: my family, my parents ... 30
In mens workshops, Salud y Gnero works directly on self-esteem. Low male
self-esteem is sometimes overlooked, owing to the influence of the assumption
that men already think more than enough of themselves! Frequently, however,
the male attitude of bravado and confidence is no more than a mask though
one which men are extremely reluctant to remove. In our experience of working
with men, only twice have participants voiced the desire to work on self-esteem.
They bravely expressed this wish in front of their peers in a prison near the city
where Salud y Gnero is based.
Through the workshops, men become more sensitive to how they are present (or
not) in their family relationships. Their awareness of the nature of their contact
with their children increases. Dealing with couple relationships can be more
challenging, and workshops frequently uncover problems that had existed for
39
some time. To identify these problems and to start working on them is generally
easier for women than for men. According to a Tijuana health promoter:
We were reared to be macho, to show manhood to disseminate respect and to
win respect. And in certain ways to be always above the weaker sex ... women.
In these sessions we have learned to mend, in many cases, the mistakes and
vices we have carried since childhood, and to apply other ways to the ones who
come behind, our descendents, our children.
The real proof of change is practice that men will progressively emerge with
attitudes tending to gender equity, family democratisation, and a coherence in
what they say and what they do in their institutional and community work. This
process is not linear. Men can begin under pressure to change, or the stimuli can
come unexpectedly, as part of an institutional programme. After a time, these
men develop an acceptance of gender-equity perspectives, and a minority even
become role models for other men. However, we also know men who start to
change, but find it too stressful because of internal or external pressures and later
fall back into previous attitudes and privileges.
This conflictive process can also have psychosomatic repercussions. A man in
one group dealing with violence said, She was the one with colitis. Now Im the
one suffering it. Stopping a violent reaction leads to the question of what men
should do with the accumulated tension, some of which can rebound on
themselves. In many cases, this anxiety is a necessary component and motor for
change; as Freire puts it, a learning process charged with emotions. This stress,
malaise, or suffering has to be voiced in order to help transformation.
In the experience of ReproSalud in Peru with rural and indigenous men, many
men no longer want to be labeled machista, but lack an alternative model, while
being suspected by others of being hen-pecked. As in other contexts, the fear
arises of roles reversing, and women bossing them around. One can only guess
at the size of mens accumulated guilt that leads to this fear of women taking an
equivalent gender revenge. But some men have learned to laugh it off,
particularly because there is a collective process going on. A male community
worker in Ucayali described his experience:
They might see you cooking and they say Hey! Saquito (diminutive for
saco largo or hen-pecked). Before, men used to get mad, they could tell you to
go jump in a lake, but not now, they all joke with each other.31
But change also has to happen at the level of programmes, and eventually, of
public policy. The process of change at this level often begins with initiatives
taken by civil society organisations in their local area, and may lead in the end to
the slower process of institutional change. Many public institutions in Mexico
are increasingly open to campaigns and programmes that address and include
40
men in issues like fathering, reproductive health, and domestic violence. This is
slowly leading to an increasing public awareness of these issues.
And what about the volunteers and trainers? It is clear that a gender perspective
has to influence us as well participants, the trainers we train, and ourselves as
trainers and must affect our lives deeply to be meaningful. Otherwise it will be
nothing more than political correctness.
Areas of change
We will briefly examine thematic and problematic fields or areas where change is
happening or being promoted. These could also be considered fields in
Bourdieus sense: areas where competing theories and strategies develop for
addressing issues like sexuality and reproduction, violence, fathering, and
youth.32 Some of them have attracted more attention and resources (such as
reproductive health and violence), while others (fathering, for example) appear
to have the potential to engage larger numbers of men. Change in one of the
areas could promote change in others, for example, many men dealing with
their own violence have reported that they have started to drink less (or stopped
altogether) and that they have developed richer relationships with their
children. But this change is far from widespread or automatic, as shown by the
example of men who try to be more involved fathers, but do little to improve
their relationships with their partners. Very often it is divorce that leads men to
intensify, and even compete in, their relationships with their children.
Reproductive and sexual health

A great deal of effort has been invested in male involvement or male participation
programmes in this sector, many of them growing from family-planning
programmes, and validated by the international conferences in Cairo and
Beijing. This has led to programmes in Mexico and in other countries
developing initiatives to work with men as a way to improve womens health and
situation.33
One of the first, and frequently the only, windows of male participation in
reproductive health has been the promotion of vasectomy. Many government
health institutions in Latin America have limited their strategies for mens
involvement to this area, and have only recently started to envisage other
opportunities. Though the percentage of men in Latin America having a
vasectomy has increased, it still lags behind the number of sterilization
procedures for women. But the impact of this practice on womens equality in
reproductive health issues is complex: a vasectomy can be undertaken by a man
as an egalitarian act (She has had two caesarean sections already its my turn),
but research shows that some men decide on it as a way of controlling their
41
partners sexuality, (If she gets pregnant, I will be sure it was not me).
Other men deflect criticism or suspicion about their masculinity by asserting
themselves with humour as sacharinos (we sweeten without fattening).
Some controversial initiatives are successful in reaching men, but lack a gender
perspective that sensitises men and empowers women. Slogans directed at men,
as in the Zimbabwe campaign (You are in control!), or in Mexico (Are you
really so macho? So plan your family) openly reinforce patriarchy. If a campaign
like this contributes to a backlash for women, it is better to eliminate such
strategies.34 Many other programmes and campaigns have found creative ways
to promote reproductive goals from a gender-equitable perspective.
Other sexual health issues for men have not been addressed to the same extent,
though initiatives have emerged in the last decade as a result of the recognition
that men are driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The need for a holistic approach
has been clear from the early development of strategies against the epidemic,
when information giving alone proved to be ineffective. The incorporation of
safe-sex strategies has been effective among the gay community (after an
appalling number of deaths), and the use of such strategies appears to be
increasing among the younger generation, many of whom use them from the
time of their first sexual experiences.
Fathering
In Mexican culture, especially in urban settings, many men (particularly young
men) play a greater role in child rearing than previous generations did. This is a
logical consequence of the entry of women into the labour market, although the
extent of mens participation in childcare and domestic work is still limited
compared with that of women.
Fathering seems to be a useful entry point to start working on with many men.
Discussion of fatherhood can elicit mens beliefs about authority and
negotiation, domestic work, discipline and violence, emotions, and reproduction.
In Brazil, PAPAIs work with young fathers and adolescents has stressed that
taking care of others (a partner or children, for example) is perfectly compatible
with being a man. This can lead to thinking about caring for oneself and about
risk taking.35 Other Brazilian initiatives link the health sector with civil society
organisations, addressing fathering by creating Fathers Week.36
In an effort to celebrate Fathers Day in a new way, Salud y Gnero worked with
schools to ask fathers, mothers, and children (in separate groups) to draw a life-
size picture of a father with children, and to write down anonymously what they
liked and disliked about fathers. The exercise culminated in the exhibition of
three mega-drawings, observed by everyone. The drawings acted as a reflection
of mens relationships, and helped them to become aware of the reality of them.
42
Children today play an important role in mens transformation into engaged

fathers, especially in middle- and upper-class communities and in urban
settings. Reflection on the importance of fatherhood in childrens development
is well established, but the role of children in their fathers development is still to
be studied in depth.
How do men learn to be fathers? Sometimes it is only through the experience of
having been their fathers sons. In Salud y Gnero workshops, if there is enough
time and openness, we access and work on our experience of having been
children as a way to understand our attitudes as fathers. This exercise has lead to
some of the most intense and interesting workshop experiences.
It is hard for many men to talk about fatherhood, because of their own negative
experiences. The father figure in a family is often missing or rejected. The father
can be the breadwinner, but emotionally isolated from the rest of the family;
rarely, the father can be a warm and friendly guide. Affection and everyday
commitment are more rare. Men may indeed dispute the validity of the
traditional father figure as being repressive, violent, drunken, and womanising.
But they also point out that this was the model handed down to them, the way
they were taught to be men they know no other way. Fatherhood is not as
visible as motherhood is. Thus, men construct their own roles as fathers using
fragments of their own previous experience.
A significant proportion of men in Mexican culture are not able to change their
attitudes as fathers, and only become involved in caring when they are
grandfathers, often to the surprise (and jealousy) of their own children: Look,
my Dad is changing diapers; or crying; or playing with my children! It seems
that these men not only retire from work, but are also able to retire to some
extent from the masks and obligations of patriarchy, easing into a more flexible
role. Of course, more involvement of fathers is important, but it is the quality of
this involvement that can enrich the lives of men, their partners, and their
children.
Men and violence

In no field is change so critical and necessary as in the prevention of violence
against women. Although the perennial naturenurture debate on violence is
still alive, in the view of Salud y Gnero, everyone is capable of violence. Human
culture can produce both Ghandis and Tysons at the same time, and if the
capacity to be violent can develop, so can the potential for respect and
negotiation.
In the methodology we use, men who attend the group voluntarily are
encouraged to become aware of their expectations of their own authority and
the services they expect from their partners and families. Through the
43
examination of specific cases, many of the men are surprised by the different
ways in which violence and control are present in their intimate relationships.
They slowly recognise the costs of violence, and they come to understand how it
develops in them, as part of a strategy to get them to hold back before expressing
anger. Learning to retreat from a heated discussion is a feat that can take several
months, and is a prerequisite for reflecting on the origin of these reactions in
early life, and acquiring the tools to negotiate conflicts.
The two main forces for change are the understanding of power dynamics in
relationships and contact with emotions. Men may have been emotionally
limited by cultural tradition, commonly restrained from expressing fear,
sadness, and tenderness. The process of addressing these feelings, mens power,
and the services men feel entitled to, is unexpected to many, and leads to a high
drop-out rate in voluntary programmes. Many men eventually return to a
programme after being involved in a subsequent conflict.
Some interesting approaches to addressing mens violence have been developed
over the last decade. For example, the White Ribbon Campaign can be a first step
for many men to breaking their silence and speaking out against violence against
women (see chapter by Kaufman). The challenge of redefining messages for men
in a positive and creative way has been taken up by the US organisation Men Can
Stop Rape, with an excellent example of the redefinition of the concept of
strength.37 The campaigns emphasis is on mens strength to listen, to negotiate,
to ask, and to accept a no so simple and yet so difficult for most men.
Youth and change

Like other organisations, Salud y Gnero gives great priority to work with young
men a sector that is largely ignored. It is crucial to work with younger men and
adolescents at a stage when many aspects and practices of their identity as men
are forming. Boys are easier to reach at an early stage than later, especially if they
are out of school.
Yet the challenges are enormous. We need to acknowledge the growing
difficulties faced by young people, particularly those from a working-class or
rural background. Opportunities to continue studies and to find a job get more
difficult every day. The high death toll due to HIV/AIDS, violence, and drugs is
leading to a decreasing adult life expectancy in many countries. Many
researchers have identified changes in attitudes among young people in these
situations. Among young men in urban areas of South Africa and Brazil, and
young rural migrants in Mexico, the idea of a short, but intense and risk-taking,
life may appear attractive in contrast with the lives that older relatives have led,
which may have resulted in imprisonment, alcohol abuse, or diseases such as
tuberculosis. Nevertheless, our aims and expectations for young people remain
44
high, particularly in the light of the initial results from the Program H initiative
described by Gary Barker in this book, in which Salud y Gnero is actively
participating.38
Conclusion
Although men as a group have been omnipresent in all aspects of culture, it is
only recently that they have been subjected to analysis from a gender perspective.
Viewed in this way, hegemonic masculinity can be identified as a risk and
limiting factor for both women and for men themselves. Most men are relatively
empowered during the process of their socialisation, only to find the costs of
masculinity in their later life. Thus, for many analysts and development projects,
men are often seen as a major problem. This chapter has tried to picture men as
part of the solution.
We have reviewed some of the processes, contradictions, and opportunities that
occur when men approach change or, more often, when change comes in their
lives. A process of change will not necessarily result from an educational activity,
but opportunities for change can be a consequence of significant life events.
In Salud y Gnero we believe that work with men can and should meet both
womens and mens needs from an equity perspective. Women can certainly
benefit from programmes with men on alcohol abuse, or from strategies aimed
at sensitising men to domestic violence, sexuality, and reproductive health
issues. A surprise for many programmes like ReproSalud in Peru is the way in
which men get involved, moving from being obstacles to being passive acceptors
and even to being active collaborators. These programmes have tried to be very
careful that this male participation doesnt limit womens empowerment. Many
women feel vulnerable when men actually do get involved in family relations,
child rearing, and even in domestic work, especially when men do so in a
competitive way.
The potential areas of male participation are not free of conflict. Working on the
idea of mens rights is threatening to many women struggling for their own
rights. This is especially true when the focus is on sexual and reproductive rights.
It is more useful to talk of mens involvement and participation in sexuality,
reproduction, and family relations, and approach mens rights in a relational
context considering them vis vis womens rights, and in the light of womens
reproductive responsibilities.
Salud y Gneros experience has shown us that working with men must include
dealing with the emotions and the pain involved in the processes we initiate.
Understanding these emotions can enhance the development of what has been
45
called emotional intelligence, as opposed to the supposedly typical male

rational intelligence. Successful work with men should also include questioning
the ways in which we establish different types of power relations with women
and with other men.39It must also include an assessment of the costs of
masculinity to mens health and to the lives of others, and the potential gains in
changing, not only for women and children, but also for men.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Salud y Gnero, the MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Institute,
and the University of Columbia for their continuous support of the development of
ideas and strategies for work with men. I also thank Sandy Ruxton, the editor of this
book, for his patient harassment so that this article would be on time.
Notes
1 This project, developed by CRIM (Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research) at the
National University, Salud y Gnero and CORIAC (Men for Egalitarian Relationships
Collective), seeks to understand the social factors linked to male violence and the processes of
change and resistance among men attending the two latter institutions workshops.
2 A significant proportion of this chapter draws on two prior papers: the Salud y Gnero case
study (Constructing new gender-equitable identities: Salud y Gneros work in Mexico, in
IGWG, Involving Men to Address Gender Inequities, Washington, DC: Population Reference
Bureau, 2003), and B. de Keijzer, Sexual-reproductive Health: What About Men?, forthcoming
2004, New York: Columbia University and the Open Society Institute.
3 Salud y Gnero, 2003, op. cit.
4 M. Kaufman (1987) Beyond Patriarchy, Toronto: Oxford University Press.
5 B. de Keijzer and G. Ayala (2003) Hombres Construyendo Democracia en las Relaciones

Familiares, UNDP and INMUJERES, Mexico.
6 The mean gap in Latin America is 5.2 years more for women, and it tends to grow parallel to
the degree of development (see T. Valds, 1995, Mujeres Latinoamericanas en Cifras, Tomo
Comparativo, Instituto de la Mujer, Spain, and FLACSO, Chile). In Latin America, men
accounted for 62 per cent of deaths in the 5 to 19 age range in 195055; this percentage
increased to 70 per cent or more in the 1990s. Violent deaths, including homicide, accidents,
and suicide, together with reduced risk to women associated with reproduction, account for
these differences. The costs of the HIV/AIDS epidemic are also part of this toll the ratio of
AIDS cases in men and women was six to one in Mexico during the 1990s (see INEGI, 2001,
Mujeres y Hombres en Mxico, Aguascalientes, Mexico). Since then the proportion of women
with AIDS has grown, due to heterosexual transmission from their partners. It is an
acknowledged internationally that men, many of them young, are driving the epidemic
(UNAIDS, 2001, available from
www.unaids.org/worldsaidsday/2001/EPIgraohics/EPIgraphic1_sp.gif).
46
7 See P. Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York, NY: Continuum.
8 P. Bourdieu (2001) Masculine Domination, Stanford University Press.
9 Bourdieu sometimes includes emotion and bodily attitudes as part of this construction
the embodiment of class and gender difference as power and privilege that appears as natural
to most men and many women.
10 E. Badinter (1995) XY: On Masculine Identity, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
11 N. Fuller (2001) Masculinidades: Cambios y Permanencias, Lima: Pontificia Universidad

Catlica del Per.
12 Salud y Gnero (2003) op. cit.
13 B. de Keijzer and G. Ayala (2003) op. cit.
14 Up to a fifth of households in Latin America were headed by women in the early 1990s
(see Valdes 1995, op. cit.). The fertility rate has dropped in Latin America in the period
195095 from 5.9 to 3.1 children per woman (with extremes of 5.4 in Guatemala and 1.9
in Cuba). Mexico has gone from 6.8 to 3.2 in that period, and was 2.6 by 2000 (Ministerio de
la Mujer, 1995 and INEGI, 2001), with over 70 per cent of couples using some contraceptive
method in 2000.
15 G. Rodrguez and B. de Keijzer (2002), La Noche se Hizo Para los Hombres, Edamex and
Population Council, Mexico.
16 B. de Keijzer (2003) op. cit.
17 V. Seidler (ed.) (1991) Achilles Heel Reader: Men, Sexual Politics and Socialism, London:
Routledge; M. Kaufman (1993) Cracking the Armour: Power, Pain and the Lives of Men,
Toronto: Viking; M. Kimmel and T. Mosmiller (1992) Against the Tide: Pro-feminist Men
in the United States 17751990, A Documentary History, Boston: Beacon Press; R. Connell
(1995) Masculinities, Cambridge: Polity Press.
18 The International Conference on Population and Development, 513 September 1994, Cairo,
Egypt; the Fourth World Conference on Women, 415 September 1995, Beijing, China.
19 K. Clatterbaugh (1990) Contemporary Perspectives on Masculinity: Men, Women and Politics in

Modern Society, Colorado and Oxford: Westview Press; E. Brusco (1995) The Reformation of
Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Colombia, Austin: University Of Texas Press.
20 Quotations drawn from the research report of R. Castro (CRIM), B. de Keijzer and G. Ayala
(Salygen), and R. Garda and E. Liendro (Coriac), Factores Sociales Asociados a la Violencia
Masculina Contra las Mujeres en Mxico, (Social Factors Associated with Mens Violence
Towards Women in Mexico) forthcoming, 2004.
21 G. Barker and I. Lowenstein (1997) Where the boys are: attitudes related to masculinity,
fatherhood and violence toward women among low income adolescent and young adult males
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Youth and Society, 29(2): 166-96.
22 Studies in Chile show how a young man can have a legitimate excuse to leave the barra brava
(local soccer hooligans) upon becoming a father (see H. Abarca and M. Seplveda (2000) El
Feo, el Sucio y el Malo: Un Estudio Exploratorio Sobre Masculinidad y Violencia entre Varones
de dos Barras del Ftbol en Chile, mimeo, Rio de Janeiro: Fundacin Carlos Chagas).
23 G. Rodriguez and B. de Keijzer (2002) op. cit.
47
25 The concluding Action Programme of the 1994 Cairo conference calls for special efforts
emphasising mens shared responsibility and promotion of their active involvement in
responsible parenthood; sexual and reproductive behaviour; childcare and education from the
earliest ages; shared control of and contribution to family income; health and nutrition; and
the recognition of the equal value of children of both sexes. It also stresses the prevention of
violence against women and children.
27 R. Castro et al., forthcoming 2004 op. cit.
29 Movimiento Manuela Ramos (2003) Opening Our Eyes: A Work Experience with Men on
Gender Issues and Sexual and Reproductive Health, Lima.
30 These testimonies come from the evaluation carried out by Salud y Gnero of a Medicina
Social Comunitaria project with men in the region of Tijuana, Mexico.
31 Movimiento Manuela Ramos (2003) op. cit.
32 P. Bourdieu (1984) Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
33 The Alan Guttmacher Institute (2002) In Their Own Right: Addressing the Sexual and
Reproductive Needs of American men, Washington.
35 Project H: Instituto Promundo, Papai, ECOS, and Salud y Gnero (2002), Working with
Young Men series, Rio de Janeiro.
36 V. Branco Masculinies, Reproductive Health and Public Policies, presentation to the

Conference on Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All, Interagency
Gender Working Group (IGWG) Dulles, Va., USA.
37 In their Strength Campaign the mottos always start with: My strength is not for hurting,
so when she said no, I said OK; so when I wanted to and she didnt, we didnt; so when she wanted
me to stop, I stopped; so when I wasnt sure how she felt, I asked. Men Can Stop Rape (2003),
the Strength Campaign, presentation to the Conference on Reaching Men to Improve
Reproductive Health for All, op. cit.
38 This joint project with Instituto Promundo, Papai and ECOS (all Brazilian organisations)
creates and implements interventions to engage young men in the promotion of gender
equity, addressing problems such as sexuality and reproduction, prevention of HIV/AIDS,
gender-based violence, mental health, and fathering.
39 M. Kaufman (1999) Men, feminism and mens contradictory experiences of power, in

J. Kuypers, (ed.) Men and Power, Halifax: Fernwood Books.
48
Bibliography
Barker, Gary (2000) What about the boys?, Geneva: WHO.
Barker, Gary (2003) The Status of Men in Sexual and Reproductive Rights since Cairo: Obstacles,
Partners or Subjects of Rights?, Power Point presentation at the Conference on Reaching Men
to Improve Reproductive Health for All, Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG) Dulles,
Va., USA.
De Barbieri, Teresita (1992) Sobre la Categora gnero: Una Introduccin Terico-metodolgica,

in Fin de Siglo: Gnero y Cambio Civilizatorio, Ediciones de las Mujeres, no. 17, Santiago,
Chile: Isis Internacional.
de Keijzer, Benno (2000) Reaching men for health and development, in Questions of Intimacy:
Redefining PopulationEeducation, Hamburg: UNESCO Education Institute.
de Keijzer, Benno (2001) Hasta donde el cuerpo aguante: gnero, cuerpo y salud masculina, in
Cceres, et al., La salud como derecho ciudadano: perspectivas y propuestas desde Amrica Latina,
Lima, Peru: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.
Gutmann, Matthew (1996) The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City, Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Kimmel, Michael (1997) Masculinity as homophobia: fear, shame and silence, in Harry Brod and
Michael Kaufman, Theorizing Masculinities, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
back to contents
49
return to contents
The things they dont tell you about working

with men in gender workshops
Maree Keating
Working with predominantly male groups, however enthusiastic they are, raises
specific challenges for aid and development agency staff facilitating gender
mainstreaming in programmes.
At the beginning of a gender workshop, male and female participants alike will
often list among their fears potential conflict in the group, or being unable to
say what we really think, even in programmes where gender equality has been an
accepted and acceptable topic of discussion for years. The fear of tension and
conflict is clearly related to the gender divide, although other issues to do with
power relationships such as the position and length of service of the
participants within their organisations, their status in the community, and
their caste also naturally play a role in limiting peoples openness in a group.
Common fears expressed in workshops, though, include,Will men be able to say
what they think without being attacked by the women? and Will women be
able to express their experience without being belittled by the men?.1
Given these apprehensions, which arise from peoples repeated experiences in
volatile, confusing, or poorly facilitated mixed-group discussions on gender, is it
better to avoid the sensitive discussions of power, and focus instead on practical
issues? This article examines why I believe it is critical to discuss and make visible
power and equality issues in gender workshops, even when we are working with
predominantly male groups, and the terrain seems difficult. It also offers
reflection on some of the difficult issues that make many facilitators decide to
avoid the subject of male power, and on my own experiences running workshops
where these issues have arisen. I conclude that advisers and trainers are better
able to give teams the tools to improve overall programme development by
facilitating open discussions of what constitutes male power, especially with
predominantly male groups.
The vexed issue of gender and power

Kamla Bhasin writes of working with men for gender equality, that in mixed
groups many participants get extremely upset when, drawing on their data,
50
The things they dont tell you about working with men in gender workshops
we conclude that we have to look at power relationships within the family,

and that often men who very deftly and passionately analyse caste and class
as a system ... are too afraid and resistant (and intellectually dishonest?)
to consider patriarchy as a system.2
Similarly, facilitators including myself often prefer to avoid exploring the
issue of power in a workshop, in order to maintain group cohesion and
agreement about how to address the practical needs of men and women.
Colleagues have often stated that when they run workshops they can often
manage a discussion of poverty in such a way that the group comes to
conclusions about the ways in which rigid views about gender relations inhibit
economic capacity, without the facilitator having to take on the ensuing
discussion about challenging and changing social and family norms. Many
facilitators prefer to steer discussion away from a deeper debate about the basis
of social rules around womens exclusion and the implicit power men have over
women as a result of these rules. However, my experience has been that if the
power issues are not specifically addressed, then the outcome of the workshop
can raise more questions than answers, and either leave people frustrated or
secure with the notion that it is too hard to change these things.
For example, in a regional gender workshop I recently co-facilitated in Ghana,
the group had no overt problems agreeing on the links between gender and
poverty, and the ways in which gender discrimination leads to poverty. There
had been agreement about the need to challenge attitudes which prevent girls
and women from having access to basic services, such as education. There had
been discussion about whether practices such as early marriage, keeping
children out of school, cutting rituals, and circumcision could be violations of
both male and female childrens rights and lead to poverty and to health
problems. However, we needed to dedicate some time to developing a shared
analysis of whether socially accepted and unquestioned male dominance of the
family and social hierarchy plays a role in maintaining womens disadvantaged
and therefore vulnerable position.
A critical moment of tension in a workshop gives facilitators several choices.
Do we step in and spell out our organisations position on the issue? Do we move
quickly on to safer ground, and talk about how to address practical needs and
achieve equal participation of women? Do we leave everyone to their own
interpretation of what equality might mean in the particular context in which
they work? Or do we give people the time to work through their ideas about
power in a semi-structured discussion?
We decided in the Ghana workshop that the session following the plenary
discussion would be spent in small groups, defining the issue of power in
relation to our gender from a personal rather than an organisational viewpoint.
51
As we had started the workshop with a small-group discussion of How gender

has affected you and your family, people returned to these original groups to
discuss How does gender and power affect you in your life?. This was an
opportunity to re-establish the programme discussions we had been having
within a personal framework, and it allowed the issues to be explored in a less
potentially confrontational manner. As a result, the issues raised in the feedback
session were powerful. One woman, who had not spoken at all before then, gave
a personal testimony about a forced marriage. Several women and men talked
about the impact of malefemale power relations on their sexual rights within
their relationships. They discussed the power dynamics within their own
families, for example, who was able to make decisions about the future, and who
had economic, land, religious, legal, and family rights. A very attentive group
then talked about the ways in which power can be used with, against, or over
others, and from there the meeting continued smoothly on to the next scheduled
activity, which was to look at how practical development programmes can
simultaneously address inequality between men and women, and womens
participation.
Despite the fact that the discussion had commenced with some tension, overall,
this session received excellent feedback from participants, who felt that they had
learned something important in separating out different kinds of power.
Emotion had entered the workshop, and as a facilitator I learned that this was
not a bad thing. It did not lead the men or women in the group to feel under-
mined or wrong, and it did not damage the friendly atmosphere. An underlying
discomfort had been present in the room, and it had been addressed.
Allow time for exchange

I often hear it said that it is difficult in gender workshops to get men to
acknowledge the power-related dimensions of gender roles. And yet once
outside a workshop environment, men often seem as intensely interested as
women in discussing changes in gender roles and gendered power in their
personal lives. In informal settings between or after sessions, where people have
the opportunity to talk about their families, their own upbringings and
influences, and their hopes for their children, some of the barriers that exist in
peoples working lives come down. Conversations can take on a very different
tone, and give people a chance to learn about each others lives, hopes, and
aspirations. When facilitating a workshop, it is important to know the group you
will be working with, in order to bring some of this more open style of listening
and sharing into a workshop atmosphere to attain a better result. Often, the way
in which a facilitator introduces arguments and ideas into the discussion will
52
provide male and female participants with tools to use within their families and
networks afterwards.
In gender workshops, men often refer to the pressure they are under from other
men to conform to the masculine stereotypes of being controlling and powerful
leaders in the family, despite whatever private arrangements they have with their
wives and daughters. For example, at the beginning of one gender workshop in
Democratic Republic of Congo, everyone gave an example of one man and one
woman they admired and the admirable qualities they had. Several men
spontaneously spoke about their esteem for men who had non-traditional and
respectful relationships with their wives despite the pressure they came under
from their fathers and their friends. When we discussed it in more detail, it
seemed that most of these men had come to agreements with their wives that
their arrangement stay a private one, and that in public the man could still play
the traditional role of autocrat and leader in the family. Given the frequency with
which this pressure is mentioned, working in predominantly male groups can be
an opportunity for facilitators to help participants to develop arguments to use
in their own conversations with each other.
In the same workshop, participants provided a brief poverty analysis, and people
listed common root causes of poverty, including exploitation, war, colonialism,
corruption, abuse of power, exclusion of groups from representation, control of
resources, wealth, and land. Later in the workshop, most of the men said that it
was inevitably bad for families and communities if women had control of
money, because they would then seek independence, or even divorce from their
husbands; I reminded them of the sorts of things that they had said about
colonialism, and about the ways in which exclusion from control of resources
and decisions kept communities poor. We then shared several examples of the
ways in which rigid adherence to gender roles had entrenched or deepened
poverty in their own families and communities. In the evaluations of the
workshop, many of the men reported that their most profound learning was in
making the link between the language of colonisers and the language of men
who wished to retain control. They said they would use this insight when challenged
in their families, and it would be a useful way for them to respond to criticisms.
In one discussion I facilitated in Nigeria, there was a very lively debate about the
roles of men and women.3 Could women climb trees to get sugar? No! roared
the men,Yes! roared the women giving personal stories of doing so when they
were teenagers, and of mothers and grandmothers who did so into adult lives.
Could men manage money?No! roared most of the women and some of the
men as well. And yet as the discussion progressed, one by one men stood up and
told stories of responsible men and unmarried men who seemed perfectly
capable of doing so.
53
One member of the support staff had expressed the fear that if he let his wife
earn an income, she may subsequently wish to be head of the household.
We analysed a range of situations in different countries where war and socio-
economic change had forced families to go through a painful process of
reassessing the respective economic roles of men and women. Was it always bad
for men when these changes took place? One of his male colleagues responded to
his concerns by saying that reducing adversarial approaches to leadership and
the household economy is also good for men. Think, he said, about how much
energy men expend in maintaining power at home and how much we lose
from the damage we do to our personal relationships. He equated maintenance
of male dominance in the family to a situation of war, where people are always
tense, and must be ready to assert their dominance. The conflict analogy
appeared to have a powerful effect on the men in the group, and afterwards men
and women commented individually that the session had given them some good
ideas about how they could challenge colleagues and partners on their rigid
attitudes to mens and womens roles.
Facilitating discussion when womens rights are not

seen as human rights
When people have emerged from war, or have been through long periods of
chronic conflict where human-rights abuses are commonplace, existing
inequities in society can appear normal and therefore invisible in peoples
social analysis. Through all the trauma, it can be difficult for people to
distinguish abusive behaviours resulting from the accepted and feared
hierarchical systems to which they have learned obedience. Powerful men from
powerful families often have unlimited access to resources, and people do not
challenge them. In addition, the daily abuses documented by NGO staff in
villages may not be raised with village heads because they are often resolved
unsatisfactorily. Such was the case in Cambodia, where the gender officer for an
INGO reported that a widow was being preyed upon by a man who would come
to her house each night and rape her. When the village head was informed of this
situation, the woman was forced to marry her rapist. Clearly, in this situation
male and female staff of NGOs need to develop ways of preventing, challenging,
and addressing such gross violations of womens human rights.4
I co-facilitated my first training on mainstreaming gender equality in 1999, in
Cambodia. Most of the participants were men, because the majority of staff and
partners were men. By the middle of the second day, the workshop had covered
sex-role stereotypes, case studies of how gender discrimination influences the
direction of development programmes, and a gender and poverty analysis of the
54
country. We then began to talk about CEDAW5 and womens human rights.
The group saw discrimination against women as a big obstacle to development
and a big contributor to poverty. Participants were extremely enthusiastic about
the training material, and there was a comradely spirit of learning together in the
room. However, the notion of equal rights posed a dilemma for participants,
most of whom had not challenged the cultural norms that put women
essentially below men in the social hierarchy.
On the question of whether male violence against women is acceptable, some
unconvincing responses arose from the group, including, The UN says it is not
OK or, The INGO says it is not OK. Eventually someone said, It is bad for the
children to see it. Another ventured, It is embarrassing for the neighbours to
hear it. No one described the violence as a violation of women as human beings.
An influential male staff member then announced that in his view, it is
acceptable to hit your wife, and that he himself did so. In fact, he said, he would
recommend that men hit their wives in order to ensure that they are obedient
and behave correctly. Others were asked to respond to this comment, and a
woman from the Ministry of Womens Affairs concurred that if a woman was
disobedient time and again, it was important for a husband to hit her to show her
the right way to behave. For example, if a woman did not manage money well,
did not keep the children clean, and did not prepare meals on time, her
behaviour needed to be sanctioned seriously. A young man, also a staff member,
was then brave enough to stand up and say that, in his view, if this man hit his
wife, he was a perpetrator of violence. He said he had grown up in a family in
which his father respected his mother, and the children were taught to do the
same. He was able to challenge his colleague and the senior official in a way that
female staff in the room were probably not comfortable to do. It was a brave act
on his part, given the power and prestige of the man he was challenging.
It is probably the nightmare of many facilitators to have these sorts of personal
views aired by members of a team in a workshop. How does one deal with the
fact that many of an organisations staff or partners may openly tolerate or
themselves perpetrate violence within their families, or even promote it as
appropriate? Despite the tension of the moment, the incident proved to be a
powerful catalyst for learning. It brought out into the open the fact that many
people who have survived long and brutalising periods of war do tolerate
violence of all sorts on some level, even though they do not necessarily like to see
it. It also helped us to discuss the issue of male collusion and the fear of reprisals
surrounding interventions in violence against women; issues which participants
may not have been able to articulate otherwise.
After the situation just described, a few participants acted a role play of a real
situation they had encountered in a village, which had led to domestic violence.
55
What came out most strongly was that although participants may not have
personally agreed with domestic violence, they themselves felt at risk of hostility
(particularly the men) if they intervened or challenged the practice. For this
reason, the men argued, it was safer for women to raise the issues of domestic
violence with men in the village. Also, because women were seen to be morally
superior to men in some way, many participants felt that women would be
listened to more readily than men. However, they all eventually agreed that
although women staff may be listened to at the time, the violent behaviour did
not necessarily change in the long term, and that male staff had to find a way to
address the issue as well.
By contrast, in 2003, in a workshop in the eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo, a reasonably senior workshop participant stood up after a woman had
explained the high incidence of rape during the conflict, and said that he did not
agree that this was rape. It was simply a man relieving himself , which was
natural. Every man in the workshop vehemently objected to what the man had
said, arguing with him and expressing their outrage at his views. The peer group
clearly disagreed with the mans point of view, and the co-facilitator did not have
to do anything but insist that views be put respectfully. It seemed to be a shock to
the participant that all his male colleagues rejected his viewpoint. Once people
had said their piece, I steered the conversation back to womens experiences of
harassment and trauma during the conflict. The women said that although men
are often killed outright, at least then it is over. After rape, a woman has to live
with the consequences for the rest of her life. This brought a flurry of defensive
responses from the men. As a facilitator, I intervened in the discussion only to say
that conflict and war naturally traumatises every man woman and child, and
that one cannot easily describe one form of suffering as worse than another, but
that as development workers we need to listen to and understand the differences
in peoples experiences in order to take them properly into account in our work.
At this everyone agreed, calmed down, and went back to a discussion about our
public health programme, and how we could address the issue of sexual
violence.
I have outlined the progress of this discussion to show that flash points
constantly arise around womens human rights in mixed groups, especially with
regard to sexual violations and domestic violence. Mens rights over women are
being called into question fundamentally in these fora. Men and women can
learn from having a well-guided discussion, in which women can express their
experiences without being belittled, and men can express their opinions without
being silenced. But as a facilitator, I have found that it is crucial to manage the
group in such a way that participants can find points of common belief, and
disagreements can be aired without having to destroy a safe environment.
56
Using identity for leverage

Like some other gender trainers, such as Kamla Bhasin,6 I have not found that
being female has necessarily interfered with the quality of workshop outcomes
when working with men in groups. However, that is certainly not to say that it
does not play a distinct role in the dynamic. As a white, unmarried woman,
facilitating gender workshops in many different cultural environments with
predominantly male groups, I have found that it is essential to set up the training
in such a way that neither the facilitator nor the participants slip into defending
their gendered positions. But it is obviously not just my gender that is being
noted by men and women in the group. My colour, religion, familiarity with the
language, and the context all contribute to or detract from my credibility.
When I was running a workshop for a team in Afghanistan, I heard that a female,
Muslim trainer had run a session with the same team, and that a male staff
member who might have been thought of as being resistant to gender equality
responded very positively to the ideas she raised. Her familiarity with Islamic
ideas and beliefs was obviously part of her success, particularly her ability to
quote Quranic scripture as evidence.7 However, her Asian appearance and age
were probably also very relevant. Interestingly, in the session I ran, the same
member of staff was hostile to the suggestion that womens rights could ever be
addressed at the policy level in Afghanistan. He said that we should not even be
discussing womens position, because if you challenge the Quran you will die.8
In this workshop, I asked people to reflect in small groups on the gender-role
changes that they had seen take place in their own families since their
grandparents time, and to suggest why they thought these changes had come
about. My co-facilitator, an Asian man who had grown up in Afghanistan and
had lived for many years in the UK, joined one of the groups. In the feedback
session, his group said that they had learned interesting things about various
kinds of families in Britain, and wanted to learn more, in order to think about
alternative approaches to gender through exposure to new ideas. My colleague
informed me afterwards that he had told the group about lesbian couples raising
children in the UK. He attributed the genuine openness of the group to the fact
that his identity permitted him to raise the issue without it seeming to them to
be a challenge.
Our identities always matter. Am I able to raise gender and power issues in the
particular ways that I do, precisely because to men from developing countries I
am an outsider, a single, white, middle class female? Are they behaving in ways
they think I would like to see? When I work with predominantly male groups,
how do I know for sure that I am not simply providing an opportunity for men
to indulge in a pretence of commitment, and to display their fluency in the new
57
idiom of gender politics in front of their teams? I have started to suggest to

country programme managers that in some of the meetings of my follow-up
visits, we invite the wives of male staff to join in, in order to ensure that
discussions about power relations in the family are reflecting the whole picture
accurately, to provide an opportunity for husbands and wives to communicate
their views in front of each other, and to break down the barriers between a
workplace analysis of family and community power structures and our personal
lives. If I am providing an opportunity for showmanship, then that could be a
creative opportunity for everyone to step outside the familiar and to look
differently at things. The important thing is to find ways in which this can be
translated into action later on.
Does mainstreaming gender equality mean we barely

have to mention it?
Of gender-equality training, Chris Roche reflects that Personal exploration
must be buttressed and complemented with intellectual argument.9 This is why
it makes sense to start gender workshops with a discussion of the causes of
poverty, and the different kinds of poverty that exist for different groups of
people. However, I have seen gender trainers tie themselves (and their
audiences) in knots by using efficiency arguments for gender equality. In some
cases, the economic arguments for maintaining gender inequality seem to win
hands down! And our trainees often know those arguments well.
Using efficiency arguments can be very useful, however. For example, some
colleagues told me of their facilitation process in a workshop on livelihoods.
A group of livelihoods staff and partners are led down a path of enquiry such as:
What are all the sources of income in a household?
How are they acquired?
Who does what?
What are the most lucrative forms of activity?
What are the constraints to maximising income?
Mens and womens roles are not specifically mentioned by the facilitators at this
point. The group is led into a discussion about how livelihoods opportunities are
maximised in the household. Participants eventually come to the conclusion
independently that gender inequality is a major factor curtailing the potential
for income generation in the household, and as such is an obstacle to the
achievement of sustainable livelihoods. The group realises that attitudes, beliefs,
58
and practices around gender inequality need to be challenged and changed if

communities are to achieve sustainable livelihoods. Approaching the issue of
gender equality through a discussion of economic prosperity seems to provide
one solution to the facilitators dilemma of how to facilitate, or even avoid, the
critical moment of resistance or tension in a group around issues of power and
gender equality, and yet still allow participants to make the links between
poverty and gender inequality.
My experience is that even when gender inequality is seen as an obstacle to
prosperity, it does not mean that (largely male) staff and partner organisations
will be able to challenge it. That is a stage of thinking which requires focused and
overt attention, and it is hard to imagine how it can be done without some
personal reflection and modelling of good behaviour. What behaviours do the
norms of male power maintain within communities and households, and what
empowerment could both men and women gain in exchange for the surrender
of mens control over resources, decisions, and even womens bodies? What are
the risks faced by men and women in challenging male power and control, and
what strategies can we adopt, what stories can we tell, what examples can we give
to decrease fear and resistance?
Most facilitators would dearly love to be able to avoid the tricky issue of gender
relations and power. It makes running gender-mainstreaming workshops so
much easier if we do not have to steer a path through these potential risk areas.
However, if we do not take up this challenge, we are missing an opportunity to
offer examples and strategies to staff, and to provide a model for finding ways
through the objections and fears that they themselves will face in the field in the
implementation stages of mainstreaming gender into a programme.
A key issue here is the sex of the facilitator. Milton Obote Joshua, a gender trainer
with experience in Africa, says of trainees, Gender training offers men a perfect
opportunity to assert their control over women trainers.10 He states that while
male trainees will challenge the notion of womens subordination with a female
trainer, they do not with a male trainer. While it can therefore be easier for men
to facilitate male or mixed groups on gender equality, there can also be a
tendency for male trainers to avoid the critical issues. And training sessions run
by a man can often be hijacked by the use of abstract conversation or polemic
about the inequality or vulnerability experienced by men.
Is this possibility of hijacking stronger because male facilitators often use their
privilege to bond with male participants from the start, and so cannot uncover
the difficult issues later on without breaking this male-to-male bargain? If so, to
be successful in gender training, male facilitators need to have a clear
understanding of gendered power dynamics themselves, be aware of their own
gendered behaviour, and identify and address the malemale bargain in the early
59
stages of the workshop. Otherwise, power remains ambiguously referenced only,

and the gendered status quo is not touched.
Provoking across the enemy line: getting past the battle

of the sexes
An experienced female colleague recently told me that in mixed groups, women
are often the ones to raise personalised and provocative points, using the
opportunity of the forum to express all their grievances about mens failure to
understand womens position. It is important right from the beginning of a
gender workshop to set clear ground rules to ensure that these situations do not
become corrosive, and that participants are guided away from defending
gendered positions towards analysing power, its manifestations, and its impact.
Chris Roche refers to womens resistance to men entering into gender
discussions and debates by saying of male gender advocates that men who wish
to undertake this role must accept that, in the eyes of some, they can never win.
If they succeed ... this will simply confirm that the institution listens to men
rather than women. If they fail, critics will say that they lack true commitment.11
Kamla Bhasin argues that when working with all male or predominantly male
groups, The problem is how to respond to mens oppression seriously and
sincerely without at the same time depoliticising or diffusing the issue of
womens subordination.12 This is a delicate issue, and one which many
facilitators are loathe to touch. It will inevitably arise in any mixed-group
discussion of power, and perceptions of power. If we do not manage these
discussions carefully, women can leave feeling that men have had another chance
to demean their experiences, and men can leave feeling they have been blamed
again (despite their goodwill).
I am reminded of a workshop I ran recently for a number of organisations in
Nigeria, with six men and five women trainees. From the beginning, the
participants described their repeated experiences in mixed workshops in which
discussions had turned into heated arguments between men and women. I told
them I would help them to ensure that did not happen in our workshop, as long
as they were prepared to be aware of the potential as well, and we would work
together to get through the difficult moments.
My strategy was to build a structure from the start in which we identified the
types of experiences that leave people vulnerable to poverty (including
marginalisation, isolation, lack of representation, exposure to violence, lack of
protection), and moved on to discuss the impact on people of internalising
negative role descriptions of themselves (dumb, incompetent, weak, powerless,
60
inarticulate, uneducated, or unworthy). While we discussed women, we also

discussed other categories of people who experience marginalisation and social
exclusion. We concluded, as a group, that one of the side effects of negative role
casting is that people start to feel isolated and to believe that they really do
possess all of those negative attributes and they even act out the behaviour
expected of them and pass on the negative ideas to their own children.
On the second day of the workshop we were discussing programme strategies to
address gender inequality. One man suddenly declared that he had been
systematically working for womens equality for many years and had even
lobbied for womens representation on local councils. However, he said, women
are their own worst enemies, because they do not organise. They complain that
men do not do anything, and then they themselves do not even come to the
planning meetings and support the process for their own equality! Predictably,
the women started to respond angrily, accusing the man of not seeing how much
work women do all the time for equality, and how frustrated they, too, feel.
The disagreement was about whether women perpetuated their own situation,
or were caught in a system which was set against them.
This was obviously one of the situations the participants had predicted, and so
I reminded them of their own ground rules. We returned to our earlier list of the
negative effects of exclusion and discrimination. We agreed that we have to be
aware constantly of the personal and social impacts of disadvantage and
discrimination, which often militate against the development of group
cohesion, leadership, and the confidence to change things. As an activist, it can
feel perfectly reasonable to be frustrated with this, yet it can sound supremely
arrogant to the members of the disadvantaged group. We discussed black and
white race issues in relation to this issue in order to distance the debate from the
gender battle that was bubbling just below the surface, and people soon saw each
other as allies in a struggle again, rather than enemies.
Conclusion
I have attempted to reflect on why I think it is vital that aid and development
agencies should discuss and confront power issues in work to mainstream
gender especially with predominantly male groups, even though there may be
deep resistance to the idea. If we do not, we miss the opportunity to help people
to develop the crucial tools they need to discuss gender equality beyond the
workshop. Women in the group feel frustrated, and men believe it is unnecessary
or too difficult to be expected to change the status quo.
Allowing emotion to enter a workshop will not necessarily be seen by
participants as a bad thing. Men in the group are sometimes looking for ways to
61
argue in defence of non-traditional approaches to masculinity with friends and

family. They can learn from the debate with each other, if it is well facilitated and
respectful.
Making a link between power, race, colonisation, ethnicity, and oppression can
help to break down resistance to clear and critical gender analysis. Although
male groups can usually agree that gender discrimination leads to poverty and
suffering, the notion of equality is one that must be unpicked carefully to enable
them to view critically the cultural norms that put women below men in the
social hierarchy.
Predominantly male groups will probably respond differently to female and to
male facilitators. If the bargains and relationships we enter into as facilitators are
not identified openly at some point, the possibilities of the agenda being
hijacked and of showmanship without commitment to gender equality is
greater.
As facilitators in development agencies, we create spaces for much needed
debates with staff and partners. Talking about gender equality in predominantly
male groups requires an awareness of the pitfalls and the possible areas of
conflict. I believe that we owe it to participants of workshops to model techniques
and analyses that will provide them with greater confidence to interrogate male
power. It is not enough to argue that communities are better off when women
participate in development activities, or that household economics are better
sustained if women are given more freedom, although these are important
points. For agency staff and partners, the question so often is, how do we raise
these issues with others, and how do we avoid alienating communities with the
challenges inherent in questioning male authority? We need to suggest ways of
doing this in our workshops, not by avoiding the issues, but by respectfully
allowing views to be tabled and examined.
Notes
1 These were some of the fears expressed at workshops run in eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo and Afghanistan.
2 K. Bhasin (2001) Gender training with men: experiences and reflections from South Asia,
in C. Sweetman (ed.), Mens Involvement in Gender and Development Policy and Practice:
3 It is important to note that the majority of the views expressed here are those of security men,
and not programme staff.
4 Practical guidelines are readily available, such as UNHCRs Sexual and Gender-based Violence
Against Refugees, Returnees and Internally-displaced Persons: Guidelines for Prevention and
Response, available in pdf format at www.unhcr.ch/
62
5 UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
6 Bhasin (2001), op. cit.
7 There are many examples within Islamic teachings and many training devices which can help
groups to challenge inequality. Due to a generally low level of understanding of Islam, many
groups are often only familiar with the teachings that seem to consolidate womens subservient
position, in line with cultural norms.
8 Interestingly, in a subsequent workshop I ran, this man responded very favourably to notions
of gender mainstreaming, but agreed with me that the team needed specific coaching on
Islamic arguments against violations of girls and womens dignity and rights. His hostility had
vanished as his understanding of the challenge grew.
9 C. Roche (2001) Middle-aged man seeks gender team, in C. Sweetman (ed.), op. cit.
10 M.O. Joshua (2001) Gender training with men: experience and reflections from East Africa,
in C. Sweetman (ed.), op. cit.
11 C. Roche (2001), op. cit.
12 Not everyone agrees that men as a group can suffer from oppression. Rather, it can be said that
men may experience constraints on their lives, or suffer harm as men, or carry particular
burdens due to their roles as men. See K. Bhasin (2001), op. cit.
63
return
Gender to contents
Equality and Men
How do you eat between harvests?

and other stories: engaging men in gender and
livelihoods
Thalia Kidder
Introduction
Local economic development projects often fail to reach their potential because
promoters pay little attention to the gendered attitudes and behaviour that
underlie livelihoods strategies. When project managers analyse gender relations
in livelihoods activities, they are often limited by a narrow focus on womens
roles or on social factors, and leave aside both mens roles and economic factors.
This chapter identifies mens roles and beliefs while exploring gendered
economic issues in livelihoods work. Engaging men in discussions and action on
gender and livelihoods can facilitate work to overcome inequalities for women,
and can address ways in which gender stereotypes may disadvantage some men.
Examples are provided of approaches and questions to spark mens interest and
involve them, from the experience of Oxfam GBs livelihoods team. The
chapters conclusion highlights the limitations of focusing solely on women, and
provides pointers for developing this work in future.
Gendered livelihoods: more than women on the

committee
A livelihood refers to the capabilities, assets, and strategies that people use to
make a living; that is, to achieve food security and income security through a
variety of economic activities. For Oxfam,sustainable livelihoods are those that
allow people to cope with and recover from shocks, to maintain quality of life
over time, and to provide the same or better opportunities for all, now and in the
future.
When people believe that certain roles and activities are only appropriate for
men or women, it can have negative consequences for the success of livelihoods
initiatives. For example, project managers may rely on and entrench static
definitions of men as breadwinners and producers, and women as carers and
service providers, making it harder to improve the traditional livelihoods
activities in which families engage.1 Likewise, gendered beliefs and roles can
64
limit the efficiency and equity outcomes of local economic development

projects.
When project managers undertake a gender analysis,2 the easiest factors to
identify are often the social ones. A frequent starting place is to look at the
relative participation of men and women on the committee, in the design and
decision making of economic projects. Other factors such as gender inequalities
in literacy, numeracy, and training may affect production and marketing
activities. Projects may also address the inheritance laws and marriage traditions
that influence the ownership of assets. All of these non-economic issues are
critical obstacles to gender-equitable, successful livelihoods. Yet this social
analysis is insufficient initiatives also need a gender analysis of the economy,
whether the national economy or the household economy, and mens and
womens behaviour and roles in it.
The economy: whats missing in our picture?

The way people think about the economy is itself gendered. For example,
although they need to consider the production of all goods and services, they
usually include only those products that are sold in the cash market. They dont
think about backyard production for home consumption, nor food products
made for family meals. When these activities are left out of consideration in
economic development plans, these production activities may be excluded
from investments, training, or tools provision. It is a gender issue, since men and
women do different amounts of cash and non-cash production. In workshops,
the Oxfam livelihoods team has used both a conceptual approach and a practical
approach to interest men and women in these missing areas.
We have used visuals to add strength to a conceptual discussion. We draw a
picture of employment or production that the local economic project seeks to
improve and monitor, focusing on the usual (cash) markets (see figure 1). Then
we draw new circles that fill up blank areas of the page with unpaid work in
agriculture, business and natural resources, and subsistence production. The
complete picture is strikingly different (see figure 2). Our experience suggests,
however, that even if participants consider it interesting to see unpaid work and
non-market production, they still believe it is a minor part of the economy.
Exercises done by participants themselves are often more powerful, because
they surprise people with their own words. In Haiti and Malawi, working with
groups composed mainly of men, we introduced the session as household
economy no mention of gender (see figure 3). Facilitators asked participants
to list the things a local household needed to feel well-off. Their list started with
food, water, clothing, a good house, furniture, education, health, entertainment,
65
Figure 1: The local economy

Where do people work? What needs investment?
fishing agriculture and

livestock
education commerce
religious transportation
services
forest industry
housing management
repair
repair
services
community
management construction
Figure 2: The economy

Where do people work and what needs investment?
Unpaid non-monetised work

fishing agriculture and
livestock
mending education commerce
clothing
raising religious transportation
children services
washing forest
industry
cleaning and ironing management
housing
repair
caring for the sick, repair community
services
elderly, and disabled management
food preparation, midwives construction
processing, cooking
gardens sanitation
emotional support The cash economy and paid work
66
and so on. When facilitators asked further questions, participants expanded the
list, adding washed clothes, cooked food, a clean and repaired house, and
services for the elderly and ill, all as essential items. The discussion continued by
exploring which aspects of household maintenance, education, etc. were bought
with cash, and which were provided by the State, gathered from the
environment, bartered, or undertaken by family members. Finally, participants
used colours on the chart to identify activities by gender. Seeing the extent of the
red colour representing women, one Haitian co-operative manager joked
appreciatively, So thats why my daughter says she works so hard!. As partici-
pants affirmed the importance of these activities and constructed the visual
representation themselves, the significance of unpaid, domestic, and womens
work in the economy was undeniable.
Figure 3: The household economy
Who is responsible for providing these goods and services?
List bought natural State social/family household hire

resources networks work others
Housing
Food
production
Cleaning
Education
Health
Key
Women
Men
No gender division
In an impact evaluation exercise in Nicaragua, we asked male farmers to draw an

image of a calendar year with their household sources of income. Cash-crop
harvests and the sale of cattle were noted in certain months. The farmers easily
answered the question about the use of harvest income; it was spent on repairs,
debts, school fees, and production inputs. The question how do you eat between
harvests? produced a silence. Then slowly, the household-income calendars
filled with new sources of income from womens activities such as taking in
ironing, or selling eggs, tortillas, cakes, cheese, fruit, and sweets.
67
So what? The consequences of seeing gender in the

economy
If certain aspects of the economy remain relatively invisible due to gendered
ideas about what the economy is composed of, these activities may not receive
sufficient investment or time from families or from local economic development
programmes. Using the example above, fruit or cheese businesses might not be
prioritised because no one has examined their production, consumption, or
marketing. And a family might make more sensible choices about how to use
credit, buy tools, seek training, and use their time, if both men and women are
well-informed about all the family income sources fruit, cheese, and cakes, as
well as cattle and corn.
When men become more aware of the significance of womens participation and
value womens contribution to household and local economies, the dynamics of
decision making in families can be improved.3 If men and women are aware of
relatively equal (but different) contributions to the household economy, more
daily decisions might be made on relatively equal terms. Yet, if a husband and
wife believe that the husband is the provider and the wife produces little and
earns only pin money, decisions or veto-power on many issues may tend to stay
with the man, even if these beliefs do not reflect the reality.
Furthermore, when people identify and address economic gender roles, the
equity, efficiency, and effectiveness of a communitys livelihoods projects can
increase. Some men are motivated to overcome the barriers and discrimination
faced by women because its more equitable. Yet, when a group is struggling
hard to build a successful production or marketing operation, the viability of the
business comes first. Equity concerns may be sidelined or postponed. In the
experience of Oxfams livelihoods team, therefore, it is crucial to identify how
projects may be less effective if gender stereotypes are not challenged. When we
identify the economic efficiency of addressing gender inequality, some men may
find these arguments more acceptable, as well as motivating.
Both men and women work here whats the problem?

Gender-segregated jobs in production
Women and men might increasingly work in the same sector for instance, in
export manufacturing or financial services but researchers of global trends
have found that they work essentially in different occupations, although the
specific jobs [mens and womens] do vary both by region and over time. This
affects the status accorded to particular jobs. For example, working as a secretary
68
might be considered a male job in some countries, as it has been historically in

others; but in the places where it now tends to be defined as a female job, being
a secretary has arguably less status particularly for many men who feel that
their masculinity would be undermined by doing womens work. When jobs
and employment status are stereotyped by gender, there are often negative
consequences for the quality of womens jobs, pay, benefits, and security.4
Because of these problems, many livelihoods initiatives encourage women to
develop new skills and take on new occupations. What is the incentive for men
to support these efforts?
First, facilitators can point to equity issues as a reason to challenge gender-
stereotyped jobs. Project leaders can encourage awareness-raising by casually
referring to her when proposing new positions. You mean this technician has
to be a woman? questioned one Nicaraguan farmer. The response she could be,
couldnt she? led to a useful agreement that women should be encouraged to
apply. At the best, these discussions can identify gendered barriers to certain
jobs, debunking myths (for example, that women shouldnt drive tractors!), and
addressing real issues like working hours, safety considerations, transport
options, and childcare responsibilities.
Second, projects and organisations can be encouraged to consider economic
efficiency as a reason for not recruiting staff by gender. One can point out that,
in theory, gender-stereotyping means that a project may not get the best person
for the job. In practice, Oxfams livelihoods staff have found it necessary to use
context-specific and utilitarian arguments to convince directors and boards to
start a process of change around gendered jobs. With projects in El Salvador and
Albania, project managers discussed problems of sustainability if women
candidates were not recruited as accountants, trainers, or managers. In each
country at that time, young men were being lost to migration, and turnover in
these positions was an organisational risk. The directors agreed that it was more
practical to recruit some women for these jobs.
In a programme evaluation in Senegal, men interviewed affirmed self-interestedly
that when women were allowed into more viable or lucrative areas of production,
this reduced the burden of responsibility on men to support their families
during a difficult economic situation. Clearly, the intention is not to shift more
work on to women. The idea is to open up debate, to question traditionally
gendered roles or opportunities in order to generate income for the family.
The practical implication may be that if wider options are to be sought
by women, it is likely that men will be required to do some or more of the
domestic work.
Whereas some men have gained significantly in power and wealth from the
development of the global economy,5 others have been marginalised by societal
69
norms and by their own beliefs about the jobs appropriate for men. In
industrialised countries, when heavy industries have closed, male miners and
ship-builders have found themselves out of work and depressed, while their
wives have taken up female jobs in telemarketing and services. In developing
countries, studies carried out in towns near export processing zones have
documented the impact on unemployed men and families as women go into
predominantly female factory workforces. An Oxfam study of the situation in
the UK concluded that,Education and training programmes are no panacea for
the problems created by economic restructuring in recent years. Nevertheless,
they have a place in helping men to adjust to changing circumstances.6
Why dont women ever sell chickens? Beyond production,

to marketing
Changing gender-stereotyping in jobs and production roles is a long, difficult
process, but in the experience of the Oxfam livelihoods team, many projects are
addressing this issue. However, few livelihoods initiatives go beyond the
production sphere to identify and address gender segregation in marketing.
Although the products and services considered female differ by locality, the
divisions are often considered natural, rather than socially and culturally
defined. It is assumed in some contexts, for example, that only women sell fruit,
goats, and sewing services, and only men sell grain and cattle, or repair bicycles.
In other contexts, men sew, and women are responsible for cattle.
Markets are also gender-segregated by location, scale of operation, and time-
frame: women often trade in perishable food crops, in small amounts, locally.
Men take larger stocks and cash crops to regional or national markets. National
trade policies that prioritise cash crops over food crops may have a negative
gender-equality outcome for women, who tend to be concentrated in the latter
sector. The outcomes of this gender-segregation are usually neither efficient nor
equitable. In terms of economic efficiency, the whole community may face
problems if certain markets for food products are not functioning well. Through
the lens of equity, womens marketing activities tend to be risky, more
vulnerable, less diversified, and have lower profit margins than the market roles
assigned to men.7 Livelihoods staff have often found that loan funds struggle not
because of poor loan collection, but because of the limited business activities
women are allowed to engage in.
The Oxfam livelihoods team has opened debate about gendered marketing by
asking questions that lead participants to challenge the traditional, natural
divisions using their own words. On a visit to a microfinance partner in Bamako,
we asked,What are the most profitable trading activities? followed by listing the
70
common ones for men and for women. When we asked,Why dont women ever
sell chickens? (a profitable activity) the question was greeted with laughter.
A few men tentatively responded that it was because of womens lack of working
capital, need for a market stall, less technical knowledge, and then acknowledged
that some women traders did have these resources. Gently we probed,Could they
sell chickens has a woman ever tried? Apparently one had, but male chicken-
sellers had pressured their relatives not to patronise her business.
The support of a few influential men may be required to change these traditions.
In Nicaragua, a womens furniture store had to persuade the mayor and his
brothers to identify themselves publicly as customers in order to break a similar,
unofficial, boycott. Larger, regional market institutions have needed to reserve
stalls for women and to promote womens committees to overcome barriers put
up by the old-boy networks, which provide traders with crucial market
information, credit, transport, and other resources.
Are women better repayers? Mens gender issues in

finance
Microfinance initiatives around the world have raised awareness about womens
traditional exclusion from credit and their lack of collateral, thus such projects
target women with loans. Nevertheless, the livelihoods team has found that
many of the participants in microfinance training workshops maintained the
traditional wisdom, finance is money, and money is not gendered.
In microfinance and gender workshops, we were increasingly creative in
presenting gender frameworks but this made little difference to the
participants awareness of the relevance of gender issues. Finally, we stumbled on
a magic question in a workshop of male credit-fund managers in Santo
Domingo. After a debate about poor loan repayment, one facilitator asked,
Are women better repayers? and followed the resounding Yes! with Why so?
The men all spoke up,Women manage money more carefully, they think ahead;
men take too many risks, men spend on themselves too much, men dont save.
Women put it under the mattress, or buy jewellery or animals. The gender issue
had been entirely turned around. Often such discussions focus on womens
supposed deficits, such as poor numeracy, lack of ability to manage loans, and
lack of collateral. Instead, in this case participants had identified mens gendered
attitudes and roles in household finance, and changes for men (in terms of
patterns of savings and investment) as critical for successful microfinance
initiatives.
71
This question found similar responses and laughter in Senegal and Indonesia,
and was effective in engaging participants in a compelling gender analysis of
financial services. In an exercise similar to the one on the household economy
above, participants listed needs for lump-sums of money economic projects,
weddings, education, illness, furniture, travel and identified whether families
tended to borrow, save, or use remittances for these needs. They then discussed
multiple ways of borrowing and saving according to gender. In the end, the
groups had identified obstacles and difficulties for both men and women in
carrying out their gender-defined roles in household finance. From this, the
microfinance groups could devise targeted financial services and training to
address these issues; interventions that might not have been identified through a
discussion of generic financial needs.
It is important, however, not to generalise about men and women and savings
behaviour or risk analysis. Anecdotes may point to gendered differences in
financial behaviour, yet the cause is not simply gender socialisation. We can
promote discussion about attitudes to household finance and financial roles
linked to individuals experiences of reserving resources for hard times, his or
her time horizons for economic planning, the division of caring responsibilities,
or being assigned the role of social safety net and guaranteeing the family will
be fed. All of these may be gendered, but differ between contexts.
A more rigorous analysis of household finance and financial services requires
looking at the sources of income controlled by men and women, and the
responsibilities for expenditure which relate to these and are assigned to each.
A study in Kenya found that demand for different savings and loan products
varied according to gender. Men did save, but in larger, less frequent sums linked
to harvests and sales of large animals and destined for the purchase of assets.
Women made use of savings services that allowed frequent, small deposits linked
to daily or weekly trading income, which were destined for smaller purchases
such as household necessities, or small assets and personal expenditure (such as
clothes).8
This same study identified that some young men were disadvantaged and
excluded from financial services, in part because of gender stereotypes. The
research found that shame operated as a social sanction to deter female
borrowers from defaulting on payments, and thus enabled womens groups to be
effective. This social sanction didnt work as well for men, and their groups were
less likely to operate effectively. By comparison with older men, young men were
less likely to have collateral for loans or cash crops through which they could
gain access to formal financial systems. These young men therefore also lacked
access to informal financial systems, since mens groups were far less common
than those for women. One strategy a young man could employ if he had a
72
sufficiently good relationship with a woman who trusted him, was to join a
womens group as a ghost member, with the woman actually taking his
contribution. In the Oxfam livelihoods teams discussions with microfinance
organisations in Haiti and Indonesia, womens groups were not open to having
any male members, in part because of the perception that men were not as
responsible with loan payments.
Dolls and baseball teams: gendered models of efficient

economic organisation
Why do many livelihoods projects promote micro-enterprise especially for
women? Micro-enterprise does generate income, and may allow families to
move beyond subsistence, but tends to be risky, vulnerable, and less efficient.
Sustainable economic development requires going beyond micro-enterprise to
larger, more diversified and integrated economic organisations: businesses,
production co-operatives, and marketing associations.
Efficient economic organisations require leadership, specialisation and rotation
of tasks, co-ordination of work schedules, bargaining and negotiation skills, and
effective conflict resolution. While these skills may be transferable from boys
and girls experiences, there are skills gaps for both men and women, because
boys and girls socialisation is often very sex-segregated. In Nicaragua, a
Church-council training project for production co-operatives asked many
women why it was so difficult to maintain them. One woman responded,When
my brothers grew up, they played on baseball teams. They had to pick captains,
decide what positions theyd play, and resolve arguments about whether a player
was out or not. I grew up playing dolls with the neighbour girl. If we argued, each
went home and cried. Clearly, the skills of co-operation and negotiation are not
gender-specific. However, these Nicaraguan women had identified gaps in their
practice of role specialisation and conflict resolution that related to gendered
socialisation. This analysis confirmed one strategy of the training project, which
was to develop exercises to help women practice dividing up tasks, specialising in
roles, co-ordinating schedules, rotating leadership, and resolving conflict.
Boys do not necessarily learn the skills and aptitudes to run an efficient
economic organisation as they undergo the active negotiated process of gender
development, however. Their recreational activities may be competitive rather
than co-operative, often revolving around sports and physical aggression. Some
institutions, such as sports clubs and boys schools, may exhibit and exalt tough
manifestations of masculinity in their organisational culture. And it is sometimes
argued that the absence of men from childcare may create later pressures on boys
to suppress characteristics that could be considered feminine, including caring,
73
trust, and collaboration. Factors such as these may underlie the relative lack of
patterns of solidarity and interdependence among men compared with women,
which has often been a disadvantage in microfinance organisations. Engaging
men in discussions about behaviour in teams and clubs may be a useful
starting point for identifying the strengths, weaknesses, and changes required in
current patterns of leadership and collaboration in livelihoods projects.
Conclusion
Livelihoods programmes are more effective, efficient, and equitable when they
address gendered roles and behaviours. Yet gender analyses of livelihoods are
often limited the easiest factors to identify are social ones, and the focus is
usually on changing womens gender roles. This analysis is important but
inadequate, and misses the ways in which household, local, and national
economics are gendered as well. We need to clarify the nature and consequences
of the economic roles, attitudes, and behaviour assigned to (or assumed by) men
and women.
Why engage men?As argued by many chapters in this collection, involving men
in working for gender equality in livelihoods initiatives has the potential to
support efforts to overcome barriers and discrimination for women. Raising
mens awareness about gender roles in household economics may also change
the dynamics of household bargaining and decision making by improving mens
perception of womens economic contribution. There are potential advantages
for men, too, from gender equality: fuller, more balanced work and home lives; a
greater sense of co-operation; and a contribution to social justice. The whole
household or community may be better off economically, as well as socially,
from these changes in gendered economic roles.
Although mens economic attitudes and roles may benefit them as a group,
certain men may be disadvantaged by gender stereotypes and roles in
economics. As examples above have shown, when economic restructuring
eliminates industrial jobs, men may suffer unemployment rather than take up
womens jobs. Likewise, some young men can be excluded from solidarity-
group finance because of the gender stereotypes about irresponsible men; and
in some contexts, mens gendered attitudes about savings and risks can be
problematic for microfinance projects. Socialisation experiences may inhibit the
development of the skills of co-operation or trust that are crucial for running
effective economic organisations. These examples can be employed usefully in
discussions with men to broaden the understanding of the consequences of
gendered economic roles and behaviours, and to go beyond the myth that
gender work just helps women.
74
Men and mixed-sex organisations may be engaged more readily if the focus of
discussion is around the practical benefits of eliminating gender segregation in
jobs, or the efficiency reasons for challenging traditional, gendered roles in
production and marketing. Although the Oxfam livelihoods team has always
affirmed the equity arguments, economic efficiency reasons are useful and
compelling in promoting processes of change. Saying this business could be
more sustainable and profitable if these gender roles were changed is a powerful
argument indeed, and thus efficiency arguments are worth identifying. Once
men, as well as women, begin to be aware of the gendered economy, they may be
more likely to pursue a wider range of skills through retraining, to create forums
for continuing discussion of gender equality, to publicise successful programmes,
and to understand the incentives for men to play a stronger role in caring.
How can livelihoods programmes begin to engage men in working for gender
equality? The experience of Oxfams livelihoods team has offered some lessons.
Visual images, and new ways of looking at economies and livelihoods are
effective. The striking realisation of whats missing in the picture may stay with
workshop participants long after the concepts and words have been forgotten.
Men may engage more fully if a discussion is titled household (or local)
economy, and the gender analysis emerges later. It has been particularly effective
to create participatory exercises that surprise (men) with their own words and
conclusions, challenging their ideas about what is important in the economy or
livelihoods. Conceptual frameworks have not usually worked as a way to begin
change: in each theme and context, the livelihoods staff has searched for key
questions, even funny ones, that jolt men and women into thinking and
acting differently, based on their own experiences. From the experiences so far,
Oxfams team is confident and enthusiastic that it will find many more creative,
fun, and effective ways to engage men in working for gender equality in
livelihoods: we have just begun to explore how change happens.
Notes
1 For further information, see
www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/introduction.htm
2 Gender analysis explores inequalities in gender roles and responsibilities in society, and
identifies the practical needs and strategic interests of men and women. It asks key questions
such as who does what?, who has what?, who decides?, who gains?, and who loses?
It examines the impact not just on men and women in general, but on particular groups of
men and women, taking into account diversity according to, for example, age, race, class,
ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation.
3 See, for example, S. Bradshaw (2001) Dangerous Liaisons: Men, Women and Hurricane Mitch,
Managua: Puntos de Encuentro.
75
4 R. Mehra, S. Gammage (1999) Trends, Countertrends and Gaps in Womens Employment,

World Development, 27 (3): 53350.
5 R.W. Connell (1998) Masculinities and Globalisation, Men and Masculinities, 1 (1).
6 S. Ruxton (2002) Men, Masculinities, and Poverty in the UK, Oxford: Oxfam GB.
7 S. Baden (1998) Gender Issues in Agricultural Liberalisation, BRIDGE development and

gender, Institute of Development Studies Report No. 41.
8 S. Johnson (2003) Analyzing the Role of Gender Norms in Financial Markets: Evidence
from Kenya, seminar paper given at Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, 17th November
2003, mimeo.
76
return to contents
Mainstreaming a male perspective into UK

regeneration: the experience in South Yorkshire
Cinnamon Bennett
Introduction
Objective 1 is a European Union funding stream that helps Europes poorest
areas, those with fewer businesses and jobs, to regenerate their economies and to
create employment. Along with other European regions in receipt of this
funding, South Yorkshire is attempting to mainstream a gender perspective into
regeneration programmes as a condition of its project funding.1 The South
Yorkshire Objective 1 programme has defined a gender perspective in
regeneration work as one which pays attention to womens and mens
experiences and relative resources, while retaining a commitment to alleviate
gender inequality. Hence, there is a need to understand the complex issues facing
men who are living in poverty to include a male perspective.2
Analysis of the South Yorkshire labour force has shown that there is a significant
minority of men who require assistance: male unemployment is almost four per
cent higher than in the rest of England. Moreover, nine per cent of all men of
working age in South Yorkshire around 36,000 people are economically
inactive due to poor health and disability, compared with only six per cent of
men in England as a whole.3 This chapter describes how funding has been
allocated in the South Yorkshire programme to support projects that aim to
assist men back into education, training, and employment (alongside other
project activities mainly aimed at supporting women). It analyses how the
programme was designed, the kinds of projects that are being developed to fill
the gaps in provision, and highlights key issues relating to masculinity and to
mens role in a changed labour market, which have to be addressed if
interventions are to be successful.
South Yorkshires context and Objective 1 status

In the UK, the 1980s and 1990s were a period of economic restructuring from a
reliance on heavy industry to a service-based economy. South Yorkshires
experience typifies this change. The reduction of coal and steel production and
the closure of manufacturing plants meant significant downsizing of traditional
77
employment sectors: over the last decade around 203,500 women and 158,800
men lost full-time manufacturing jobs.4 Evidence of a widening pay gap
between women and men in South Yorkshire and their counterparts in the rest
of the UK meant that the sub-region qualified for Objective 1 Structural
Funding for economic regeneration from 2000 to 2006.5 South Yorkshires
programme has the dual aims of creating 35,000 sustainable, high quality jobs,
and of transforming the economic base to include high technology growth
areas. Programme activity is grouped into three areas: developing peoples skills,
developing businesses, and improving physical infrastructure.6 Central to all
activity is a commitment to social equity, to assist those at greatest disadvantage
to re-engage in the world of work, and to connect the most deprived
communities to the processes of economic renewal.
Gender mainstreaming in regeneration work

In 2000, new pan-European regulations came into force, requiring all regions in
receipt of such funding to mainstream a gender perspective throughout their
programmes. In South Yorkshire, the programme has contractual targets for
gender. For example, activities focusing on training and education have target
numbers of women and men to assist, and some activities have targets to
increase the number of companies in the sub-region with improved equal-
opportunities employment practices. In addition, the South Yorkshire
programme is unique among the four UK programmes7 in creating a positive-
action funding stream to tackle gender imbalance in the labour market. This
focus was inspired by the past failure of the public sector in the UK to deliver
equal-opportunities objectives; policy commitments often become tokenistic
when resources are not made available to effect action and change.8 The Gender
Measure, a discrete funding stream within the Objective 1 programme, accounts
for approximately 1.45 per cent of the entire programme funding, and can be
used for training and education projects in the context of economic regeneration.9
Of this amount, 0.35 per cent has been allocated to innovative projects which are
attempting to develop a male perspective in their work. The strategy of the
Gender Measure is to mainstream the lessons learned through the work of the
innovative projects into the design of other relevant programme activity.
Programme design: incorporating a focus on men

Following common practice across the programme, an advisory group has been
formed for the Gender Measure, with a remit to put together a detailed funding-
allocation strategy. The Gender Advisory Group has a further role to monitor
78
Mainstreaming a male perspective into UK regeneration
the progress of gender mainstreaming across the programme as a whole,

following the examples of activities funded by the Gender Measure. The group is
composed of experts in gender studies and the delivery of equal-opportunities
policies and gender sensitive training. Its members work in academia, womens
voluntary organisations, public-sector administration and employers
organisations. The group has met quarterly since 2000, successfully tackling its
remit by outlining the funding strategy, checking the profile of projects funded,
and holding management to account through its representation on programme-
management structures.
Factors underpinning the success of the group have been the choice of a
chairperson with a clear understanding of the theory of gender mainstreaming
and gendered labour-market segregation, supported by practitioners from a
range of employment sectors who are able to suggest ways in which the strategy
can be translated into achievable actions. Many members of the group are
motivated by a strong personal commitment to achieving greater gender
equality. This shared motivation produces consensus at meetings and a high
level of attendance and consistency of membership over time.
In devising the funding-allocation strategy, the group started with the
description of the Gender Measure outlined in the regions application for
Objective 1 status.10 This outline defines the purpose of the measure in feminist
terms: to tackle gendered labour-market segregation by addressing the
educational, aspirational, and domestic barriers facing women, as well as the
structural barriers presented by inflexible employment practices. Analysis of
employment trends in South Yorkshire during the 1990s revealed that, contrary
to popular perception, women rather than men had suffered the majority of full-
time job losses.11 Consequently, the Gender Measure identifies 85 per cent of its
potential beneficiaries as women. The group drew on its collective expertise and
knowledge of relevant UK policy initiatives to structure the strategy into four
strands of activities to be supported:12
initiatives to tackle womens and mens segregation in the labour market;
activities to assist employers to improve their employment opportunities
through the adoption of worklife balance practices;
intervention to re-engage men into training, education, and employment;
activities to assist womens progression into senior decision-making roles.
The approach is to build up a gender infrastructure in South Yorkshire through
the development of gender networks, databases, case-study organisations,
policies, and records of better practice, as well as increasing the gender expertise
of individuals and organisations.
79
The male re-engagement strand of the funding-allocation strategy reflects

national efforts to address the under performance of boys at school13 and the
crisis of male economic inactivity brought about by the demise of heavy
industry and the increase in female employment.14 There are indeed real
concerns regarding the position of some groups of men in the UK, especially
those who are unemployed or economically inactive. The statistics show, for
example, that men living in the most economically deprived areas of the UK
have far higher than average rates of mortality. Nevertheless, the overall trends
still show that women are the majority of those living in poverty.15
The impact of these trends on gender relations is also evident. Within
disadvantaged communities in South Yorkshire, for example, there is evidence
that women continue to provide the bulk of care within families, although they
are more often in paid work than formerly. Meanwhile, many men still cling to
the breadwinner ethic, even in circumstances where they are not able to
provide. This renders their position in the family problematic, putting pressure
on both women and children.16
A lack of gender-disaggregated statistics for South Yorkshire at the time when
the programme was applying for funding, meant that a broad definition of
beneficiary was adopted. The male re-engagement funding strand can assist
older men who have suffered dislocation from their traditional labour-market
sector due to economic restructuring or ill-health, and younger men with few
qualifications and poor employment records and prospects. Clarity will be
provided by an updated gender profile of the labour market to be published in
2004, based on the 2001 census of population data. Initial findings suggest that
educational under-achievement and economic inactivity are significant issues
for some men living in certain districts, and that economic and educational
disadvantage is compounded by ethnicity.
The inclusion of a funding strand focusing solely on men was influenced as
much by political concerns, as by the extent of the problems some men were
facing in the sub-regions labour market. Resistance to and resentment of
women-only programmes in the UK public sector has been documented.17
Given the male-dominated nature of South Yorkshires economic base,
historically rooted in steel and coal production, the Gender Advisory Group
were keen to avoid the Gender Measure being perceived only as a programme of
funding for women, for projects run by feminist and womens organisations.
They wanted to give a clear message that gender equality was relevant to men as
well as to women, that it would potentially benefit both groups, and that all
organisations could apply for funding.
80
Project development to fill gaps in provision

To facilitate the development of gender projects, the South Yorkshire
programme has established a gender manager post, currently held by the author
of this chapter. This post acts as a resource for the Gender Advisory Group to
implement the funding strategy and to support applicants for funding. A key
responsibility is to set up awareness-raising conferences and seminars in order to
build expertise and to attract applications. These activities were especially
important in attracting the first applications to the male re-engagement funding
strand. In particular, they helped to identify agencies and organisations with the
expertise and interest in working with a male perspective, and to seek their input
on the types of initiatives for men that were missing from existing support for
unemployed and economically inactive people.
A conference was held in November 2002 in which case-study projects were
presented, run by organisations which were not the usual regeneration funding
partners. They included a football club, a health-service organisation, a local
radio station, and the YMCA.18 Each project had developed successful methods
and structures for working with men. The objective of the conference was to
inspire similar organisations in South Yorkshire to consider developing
comparable activities. Feedback from the event suggests that this approach
worked. Attendance exceeded expectation (especially from health and social
services practitioners), and the majority of delegates were men. Nearly a third of
the attendees went on to participate in a follow-up seminar to prioritise areas for
funding, and most of them submitted project ideas once the funding-allocation
framework had been endorsed by the advisory group.
Discussion at both events raised some pertinent issues which are relevant to
other contexts. First, delegates asked for recognition from the funding bodies
that work to re-engage men in the labour market requires long-term
intervention, and cannot be achieved cheaply, rapidly, or with a guarantee of
high numbers of successful beneficiaries. Funding bodies therefore need better
sex-disaggregated data in order to set realisable objectives.
Second, participants suggested that projects working to re-engage men need to
develop a holistic approach that starts with each mans personal situation and
educational level, and provides an environment in which a range of support
agencies can provide assistance. The need to build mens self esteem and
confidence is critical. Implicit in requests for confidence-building activities is
the opportunity for men to re-evaluate traditional masculine roles in the
context of a changed labour market; this may involve rethinking what they can
achieve for themselves, and how they can contribute to their familys upkeep.
81
The importance of reassessing traditional concepts of masculinity was

reinforced by the delegates insistence that there are not enough male project
workers working in the regeneration field at grassroots level. It should be added
that it is not enough simply to have more men in these roles; it is also essential
they are aware of the gender issues in mens lives, and are prepared to model non-
traditional forms of masculinity. Many delegates used themselves as examples:
one described how he had lost his job in the steel industry and after using
support services as a beneficiary, had then considered a career in the health and
social care sector. He had brought with him an understanding that services were
insensitive to mens needs, and ideas about how they could be changed to attract
more men to use them.
Schools and parenting-support services were the third area that delegates
highlighted. They identified the need for activities to challenge conventional
images of fathers as breadwinners and non-carers. Such assumptions result in
teachers and associated professionals unintentionally excluding men from
involvement in their childrens development, as well as serving to perpetuate
traditional gender roles in relation to their children. A similar concern about
stereotyping was expressed in relation to employers: notions of the school
leaver as the ideal recruit mean that employers often overlook the advantages of
appointing older men. Recruitment strategies therefore need to take both
gender and age into account, and to be aware of what different groups of men
have to offer.
One of the central issues of the conference was how to attract men back into an
educational context when they had ceased to think of employment as an option
in their lives. Delegates were emphatic that the only way to re-engage these men
is to offer activities which interest them in other words, stereotypical male
activities, such as sport, technology, or construction and home improvement.
The marketing of new initiatives needs to be tailored to the traditional man in
order to be effective. As one delegate explained, men were failing to pick up his
organisations leaflets about services because they offered support, something
that a macho culture compelled men to shun. As soon as the wording was
changed to information the situation was reversed.
As a result of these contributions the following areas were included in the
funding-allocation framework: employer-led projects offering training to men,
linked to job vacancies; projects to engage men in innovative ways through their
interests or their circumstances; and projects to develop a male perspective in
service delivery. Five projects have been selected so far, from a strong field of
applicants; two projects are still being considered for funding. Examples of
projects proposed include:
82
a brokerage service to match men with employment vacancies in small and

medium-sized businesses in sectors which reflect mens hobbies and
pastimes, such as fishing, home improvement, sport, and mechanics;
fast-track training for employment opportunities in gas fitting and
plumbing for those men who fall below industry qualifying standards, due
to personal or educational difficulties;
a community-based environmental construction project to build local
playgrounds and decorative sculptures, focusing on increasing mens
confidence and interesting them in acquiring skills in construction;
a sports and leisure scheme offering a variety of activities and courses to
mixed groups of men, to encourage mentoring between men of different
ages;
short courses to build self-esteem, aimed at men who are economically
inactive due to poor health and who have been referred by their health
practitioners;
and activities with childcare providers to develop positive employment
opportunities for male carers through improved employment policies,
support networks, and information for parents.
An evaluation of the methods used by projects, as well as the experience and
achievements of their beneficiaries will be undertaken in September 2004, as the
projects end. Dissemination of better practice will then take place to an audience
of practitioners in South Yorkshire, and a judgement will be made on a further
funding allocation from the Gender Measure.
Implications for mainstreaming a male perspective

According to a European Commission definition, gender mainstreaming is a
process of ... mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the
purpose of achieving equality by actively and openly taking into account at the
planning stage their possible effects on the respective situations of men and
women.19 This is not as simple as it appears, as the Commission itself concedes.
In the process of mainstreaming gender, a number of concerns needs to be
addressed. First, there is a need to be clear about what is meant by a gendered
approach. Fundamentally, such an approach is intended to produce policies or
programmes based on accurate knowledge of the different circumstances,
resources, and responsibilities of womens and mens everyday lives. At a deeper
level, it also encompasses a commitment to change; an understanding that
greater gender equality can only be advanced by challenging gender stereotypes
and creating non-traditional opportunities.
83
All projects funded under the male re-engagement strand have adopted a male
perspective in the sense that project staff know which men are targeted, and
have experience of addressing their particular situations. What is less apparent is
whether projects are committed and able to challenge restrictive or oppressive
notions of masculinity in their work. An obvious difficulty, highlighted above, is
that to attract South Yorkshires poorest men to consider new opportunities,
projects must acknowledge the mens aspirations, which are usually based on
traditional stereotypes of mens work and their position in the family. This
suggests that marketing materials and project environments should be designed
accordingly. Only after men have been recruited can issues be broached relating
to male roles and the construction of masculinities. Practitioners have advised
that this is best done indirectly. Projects may be able to undermine stereotypes
through discussions of mens employment options, particularly in relation to
job prospects in a changed labour market, to self-esteem and confidence, and to
supporting the family through wages instead of through state benefits. The
outcomes are not guaranteed, however, as entrenched attitudes and behaviour
can prove hard to shift.
Second, one of the early criticisms of gender mainstreaming is that it can dilute
action to achieve gender equality by emphasising general rather than targeted
strategies. In response, the European Commission has stressed the need for a
dual approach:
On one side [is] the systematic application of gender impact analysis and its
continuous monitoring and evaluation of all community policies and
activities. On the other side, the continuation, and when feasible,
strengthening of the specific positive measures which are currently being
applied.20
Positive action is needed to build expertise and infrastructure (sometimes called
capacity) which then facilitates the process of mainstreaming a gender
approach.
In our work in South Yorkshire, we have attempted to adopt this dual approach
in the Objective 1 programme design and delivery. The Gender Measure, gender
manager, and Gender Advisory Group represent positive-action resources to
change the values and processes which underpin project development and
funding allocation. The projects are intended to act as flagships or good-
practice examples, demonstrating the difference that having a gender
perspective can make to the outcomes achieved by beneficiaries. The interaction
of the gender manager and members of the Gender Advisory Group with
programme staff and programme partners has the effect of spreading
information and increasing awareness about the gender approach. The events
and conferences are an opportunity to provide information and consolidate
84
knowledge, as well as to build networks of interested individuals and gender

specialists across the sub-region.
This attempt to implement a dual approach hinges on two extraneous factors,
which mean that it may not be replicable in every context. First, the gender
conditionality (the obligation to include gender within programme design and
delivery) demanded by the European Commission in relation to Objective 1
funding has prompted programme partners to consider gender outcomes from
the outset. It has also provided justification for ring-fencing resources to deliver
targeted actions. Conditionality helps to ensure that active resistance is removed
and reluctance can be challenged. The second factor is the presence in South
Yorkshire of individuals with expertise to implement the Gender Measure from
within the programme, and to monitor its impact on wider practice. Their
experience and vision has so far ensured that the gender perspective is being
pursued in its fullest sense.
While gender mainstreaming is safeguarded at the programme-management
level, advocates for a male perspective at project level may face greater resistance
as they attempt to influence service providers and employers. Contractual
obligations to the European Commission relating to gender are one step
removed. Moreover gender-mainstreaming methods suggested by the
Commission, such as gender-impact analysis, have been developed for policy
makers rather than for managers running businesses, or delivering services.
Oxfam GBs UK Poverty Programme is one of only a few UK initiatives which
has trialled these techniques with organisations, and included within them a
focus on men.21 This experience has shown the importance of having experts to
administer the tools, if they are to diagnose the gender issues correctly and to
suggest improvements. Rather than promoting the use of specialist gender tools,
practitioners at project level may have greater success using the stick of recent
UK equality legislation and the carrot of the business case for equal
opportunities. As unemployment in the UK continues to fall, and services and
employers find themselves recruiting from hard to reach groups, the arguments
for considering mens and womens diverse needs and abilities will become more
pertinent.
Conclusion
The European Commission has championed gender mainstreaming since 1995,
as an approach to equality which builds and extends past practice.22
Mainstreaming relies on legislation or conditionality to prompt action and to
overcome tokenism by holding programmes to account. If necessary, positive-
action measures can be used to increase expertise and infrastructure, which in
85
turn support individuals within organisations to plan confidently and routinely

for gender differences. The focus on gender equality rather than on womens
development is also significant. It can elicit support from feminist practitioners
as well as their non-feminist colleagues, who may feel less threatened by an
approach which appears more balanced, since mens concerns are also
addressed.
In the South Yorkshire Objective 1 programme, mainstreaming a male
perspective aims to further the achievement of gender equality in two ways:
firstly, providing training for disengaged men to move into paid employment
closes the gap between the economic positions of different groups of men in
South Yorkshire. Secondly, it may assist the women related to male beneficiaries
by improving their financial security and personal opportunities. Offering
training to men in non-traditional employment challenges gender stereotypes
of womens work and mens work, and may contribute in time to undermining
pay differentials and sectoral segregation.
Work to assist disadvantaged men in South Yorkshire back into employment,
and to develop a male perspective in service delivery is in its early stages.
As practitioners have stated, progress will be slow, and funding needs to be
sustained over a considerable period. The projects underway are already raising
a number of delivery issues. Projects need gender-aware male workers to assist
men to explore the new opportunities and identities available to them in a
changing labour market. But to attract men to participate, projects have to
appeal to their aspirations, which may be based on traditional notions of
masculinity and mens work. The South Yorkshire programme intends to
evaluate how successful project staff think they have been in resolving this
tension and in extending gender awareness among fellow practitioners. In 2004,
it is planned to facilitate discussions between these projects and a number of
positive-action projects working solely with women, to explore the similarities
and differences in their practice with the objective of identifying what good
economic regeneration based on gender analysis consists of at the project level.
Notes
1 South Yorkshire is a sub-region of Yorkshire and the Humber. It consists of four districts:
Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and Sheffield. The total population of the sub-region is
1.27 million, with a working-age population of 800,000 women and men.
2 Throughout this article we use the phrase a male perspective. We believe this phrase is
valuable, as it points to an approach that starts from the experience and understandings of
men themselves. However, we also acknowledge that it can be problematic to talk about a
homogenous and unified male perspective, and that mens experiences are divided by class,
age, religion, sexuality, and so on.
86
3 Source: Gender Profile of South Yorkshires Labour Market 2003, Objective 1 Directorate
(2004), forthcoming.
4 Ibid.
5 Additional funding from the UK government and private-sector finance means that the
Objective 1 programme in South Yorkshire amounts to 1.8bn overall.
6 The Objective 1 programme is divided into three areas of intervention: people, communities,
and skills, business and enterprise, and development and infrastructure. Each area consists of a
number of Measures. Each Measure represents a discrete funding stream, focusing on
achieving certain targets through a range of eligible actions.
7 The UK programmes of Objective 1 are in Cornwall and Scilly, Merseyside, South Yorkshire,
and parts of Wales.
8 C. Cockburn (1991) In the Way of Women: Mens Resistance to Sex Equality in Organizations,
Basingstoke: Macmillan.
9 The Gender Measure is European Social Funding. The Learning and Skills Council of South
Yorkshire has contributed a significant amount of public-match funding, and the remainder
will be provided by funding applicants from the voluntary and community and the private
sectors.
10 This Single Programming Document was put together by stakeholder organisations in South
Yorkshire, working together as the South Yorkshire Forum. It represents the sub-regions
submission to the European Commission for Objective 1 status for the period 20002006.
11 The proportion of both men and women in South Yorkshire working part-time hours has
increased during the 1990s, compared with England as a whole.
12 Since coming into office in 1997, the Labour government has introduced a number of
measures to tackle gender inequality. It set up the Womens and Equalities Unit (WEU), which
has issued guidelines to all government departments on how to mainstream equalities into all
policy making. The Unit has also led a campaign on equal pay for women, reinforced by the
Equal Opportunities Commission. Analysis of low pay for women shows that the main causes
are womens choice of low-paying employment sectors, and their segregation into lower-grade
positions. Responsibility for caring for dependents means that many women work part-time
hours, which compounds their relatively low position in employment hierarchies. In an
attempt to alleviate the impact on earnings of caring responsibilities, the government has
issued the National Childcare Strategy to increase the provision of affordable childcare, and
tax breaks have been introduced to assist working parents. The Department of Trade and
Industry is promoting worklife balance practices to employers to encourage them to offer
flexible working patterns, which benefit business and allow employees to better meet their
outside work commitments.
13 Some researchers question the notion of boysunderperformance, arguing that working-class

boys and boys from ethnic minority groups have always fared less well than those in other
social groups, and that the statistics upon which comparisons are made of the performance of
girls and boys are often highly selective. See for example, D. Epstein et al. (eds.) (1999) Failing
Boys, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
14 See R. Crompton (1997) Women and Work in Modern Britain, Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
87
15 See S. Ruxton (2002) Men, Masculinities, and Poverty in the UK, Oxford: Oxfam GB.
16 See B. Dicks, D. Waddington, and C. Critcher (1998) Redundant men and overburdened
women, in J. Popay, J. Hearn, and J. Edwards (eds.) Men, Gender Divisions and Welfare,
London: Routledge.
17 Historical analysis of the delivery of womens equality policies in UK local government in the
1980s reveals evidence that male-dominated hierarchies frequently attempted to sidestep or
undermine their implementation, due to a lack of understanding or to personal antagonism
For a full list of sources, see C. Bennett (2000) Mainstreaming in Organisations: Strategies for
Delivering Womens Equality in UK Local Government, Ph.D. thesis, Sheffield Hallam
University.
18 Young Mens Christian Association.
19 European Commission, COM (96) 67, final from 21/2/96.
20 European Commission, EQOP 02-97 rev DG V/D/5 Jan. 1997: Section 1.
21 See S. Ruxton (2002) op. cit.
22 C. Booth and C. Bennett (2002) Gender mainstreaming in the European Union: towards a new
conception and practice of equal opportunities?, European Journal of Womens Studies, 9 (4).
88
return to contents
Men As Partners: lessons learned from engaging

men in clinics and communities
Manisha Mehta, Dean Peacock, and Lissette Bernal
Introduction
In an urban community in South Africa, a victim of domestic violence,
afraid shell be beaten again, acquiesces to the drunken insistence of her
husband and endures intercourse.
In a peri-urban community in Bolivia, a mother of four secretly obtains
birth control despite her husbands objection, risking accusations of
infidelity, violence, and abandonment.
In a rural community in Nepal, a young married man accompanies his wife
to the local health post for antenatal care visits.
Walking home from work on the outskirts of Manila, a young man
discusses birth control options with his girlfriend.
In Guinea, a group of men trained as peer educators conduct home visits to
local families to explain different reproductive-health issues.
The settings and specifics may vary, but scenes like these take place every day in
communities across the world. In many countries, all too often men act in ways
that contribute to a variety of public-health problems, such as domestic and
sexual violence, sexually transmitted infections, spiralling rates of HIV/AIDS,
and high rates of maternal and infant mortality. However, as these vignettes also
make clear, men can, and often do, play a critical role in promoting gender
equity, preventing violence, and fostering positive sexual and reproductive-
health outcomes for themselves, their partners, and their families.
Spurred by the recognition that mens attitudes and behaviour can either under-
mine or promote sexual and reproductive health, many sexual and reproductive
health organisations around the world have launched initiatives to encourage
positive male involvement. This chapter describes the lessons learned by one
such initiative: the Men As Partners (MAP) programme at EngenderHealth.1 In
this chapter, we present the framework for the MAP programme, and explore
how it is applied to engage men in service-delivery settings and communities.
We also share lessons that we have learned as a result of implementing the MAP
programme in a variety of contexts and countries to address a diversity of
reproductive-health issues.
89
The purpose of the MAP programme

EngenderHealth is a New York-based organisation working internationally on
reproductive health. Developed in 1996, the original goal of the MAP programme
in collaboration with local partners was to increase access to information and
services that could contribute to men sharing the burden of disease and
pregnancy prevention with women, who have shouldered this responsibility for
too long. The programme currently focuses on promoting the constructive role
that men can play in reproductive health, including the prevention of HIV, STIs,
and gender-based violence, and in maternal care and family planning. Most
importantly, the MAP programme is working actively to promote gender equity
by engaging with men to challenge the attitudes and behaviour that compromise
their own health and safety and that of women and children.
The MAP framework

Since 1996, the MAP programme has evolved to ensure that a critical part of its
approach is an understanding of gender dynamics and the negative ways in
which the unequal balance of power between men and women can play out. As
a result of lessons learned from its programming, EngenderHealth realised that
health-service providers and community members needed to make the link
explicit between gender issues and reproductive and sexual-health behaviour, so
that information and knowledge were translated into practice effectively. In
addition, we found that we had to work with men to examine current gender
roles, in order to increase awareness that these roles pushed them into unsafe
sexual behaviour and prevented them from seeking services that could help
them. In so doing, we encouraged men to develop alternative and more healthy
ways of defining their own masculinity.
The MAP programme is therefore based on the following three related elements
of constructive male involvement: first, that current gender roles often give men
the ability to influence or determine the reproductive-health choices made by
women; second, that current gender roles also compromise mens health by
encouraging them to equate a range of risky behaviours with being manly, while
encouraging them to view health-seeking behaviour as a sign of weakness; and
third, that men have a personal investment in challenging the current gender
order, and can be allies in the improvement of their own health, and the health
of the women and children who are often placed at risk by these gender roles.
These three fundamental principles of constructive male involvement are
applied by MAP in both service delivery and community settings. In the former,
trainers work with service providers to ensure an understanding of gender issues
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Men As Partners
and how they can affect mens and womens reproductive-health decision
making, including the use of and access to health services. In work with
communities, facilitators ask men to reflect on their own values about gender, to
understand the power relationships that exist based on gender, to assess gender
stereotypes, and to examine and challenge the traditional gender roles that can
compromise an individuals health and safety.
We have found that the MAP framework can be applied in a variety of cultural
settings and with different groups of men, such as men in prisons, men in the
armed forces, and men in HIV-positive support groups. Based on the identities
and needs of the men we work with, we adapt the framework by emphasising
different cultural and gender issues, depending on the overall goal of the MAP
programme in any given setting.
Before initiating a programme, MAP assesses the needs of the men with whom
it is intending to work. This information is then incorporated in any subsequent
programme that is implemented. In an urban setting in Nepal, for example, men
may be putting themselves at risk by not going to seek health services, because
they equate the use of formal reproductive-health services with being less
manly. As a result, many may be seeking out traditional providers if they have
health concerns. In a MAP programme in such an environment, we would work
with both traditional and formal-sector providers to help them understand
mens needs, and we would also implement outreach work in order to help men
feel more comfortable about seeking healthcare from formal-sector providers.
In South Africa, when working with men in HIV-positive support groups, we
might adapt the framework to emphasize gender issues related to the household
and to caring responsibilities, since women bear the burden of taking care of
family members who are sick, and men may see household responsibilities as
being less masculine.
Working with men in service-delivery settings

Most reproductive-health services offered around the world in service delivery
settings such as clinics or health posts are geared almost exclusively to women.
Men are generally the forgotten reproductive-healthcare clients, and their
involvement often stops at the clinic door. When they accompany their partner
to a facility, men may find no programmes encouraging or allowing them to
participate in reproductive-health decision making with their partner, or to
address their own reproductive and sexual healthcare needs.
Over the last few years, often at the behest of female clients, health institutions
have realised that the constructive involvement of men in reproductive health is
essential in order to reduce negative outcomes significantly, especially with
91
respect to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Health-service providers are now making

concerted efforts to reach men both in communities and in clinics, and to offer
services that address both mens and womens healthcare needs, either alone or
as partners.
Facilities have faced several challenges as they try to reach more men, however:
men have only brief contact with reproductive-healthcare systems; providers
may not know how to interact and work with male clients; and services need to
be provided for men without compromising womens autonomy or their
independent access to similar services.
To address these challenges, EngenderHealth offers technical assistance to
facilities and providers to help them advance the delivery of reproductive-health
services to men. The MAP programme has been implemented in several
countries, including Pakistan, Nepal, and Bolivia. The programme involves
training using a three-part curriculum on mens sexual and reproductive health.
The first part focuses on working with providers and sites to address
organisational and attitudinal issues that may inhibit men from using services.
The second addresses communication and counselling issues that health
workers may face when interacting with men or couples. The third offers
training to providers in the clinical management of mens sexual and
reproductive-health concerns. At the end of the training, facilities develop an
action plan that they can implement to increase mens access and use of the
services. This can include the implementation of new services at the site, a
change in clinic hours so that more men can attend, a separate entrance for men
to come into the clinic, outreach in the community, and so on.
Service delivery and community links

Since an improvement in the type of services offered is not normally sufficient to
increase their use, EngenderHealth also works with facilities and providers to
stimulate demand for mens reproductive-health services within the community.
In Guinea, for example, EngenderHealth brought together information,
education, and communication specialists from the Ministry of Health,
representatives from non-government organisations, representatives of the
national media, and community members to develop messages about male
involvement and maternal and child mortality. These were then shared with the
community through a series of interrelated activities, including home visits by
trained peer educators, mosque lectures by trained imams (Muslim religious
leaders), roundtable discussions on radio and television, and community-wide
fairs. In Nepal, EngenderHealth has trained men of all ages in the community to
serve as reproductive-health peer educators to provide basic counselling to men
and couples in the community. In Pakistan, barbers were trained to provide
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Men As Partners
messages to male clients on family planning and other reproductive-health

issues. The trainings include an exploration of gender issues to help participants
understand the impact that traditional gender roles can have on the lives of both
men and women.
The impact of working with men in service-delivery settings

Evaluation of MAPs work at the service-delivery level has focused on assessing
whether its training efforts have led to changes in practices among service
providers and community members and to a greater use of services by men, with
or without their partners. Such evaluation is important in order to understand
whether increasing the quality of, and access to, services for men can lead to a
change in the level of demand and use of these services. Evaluations have
highlighted three primary changes.
Increased knowledge, and positive attitudes among service providers and
community members towards mens involvement in reproductive health
An analysis of the knowledge, attitude, and practice surveys carried out before
and after the workshops conducted by EngenderHealth in various countries
suggests that participants are becoming more positive in their attitudes
about men and reproductive health after receiving the training. As one
trained doctor commented, Through the training, we were able to identify
specific problems for men in the centre. This helped a lot and increased the
influx of patients, because awareness is greater about coming to the centre.
A nurse at another clinic observed that the training has been very practical.
Before, I only worked with women ... [Now] I am more knowledgeable
about mens illnesses and how to deal with men. It is also very surprising
I did not think it would be easy for them to talk to me or for me to talk to
them. Finally, as a doctor at one clinic explained, Within my community
and mosque, people ask me for advice. The training has opened my
relationship with my clients. I used to be very nervous now I put myself
in the place of my clients and listen to find a solution. It has changed my
relationship with my children as well I am more open with them.
Increased access by men and their partners to reproductive-health and
family-planning services
In Pakistan, after the MAP project was implemented, the MAP sites
provided over four times as many vasectomy procedures in 2000 as in 1996.
In Guinea, several of the providers interviewed during our evaluation in
October 2002 stated that the numbers of repeat infections in female clients
had been decreasing since they had started to bring their partners in for
treatment. In Nepal, providers indicated that many more couples were
coming for antenatal care as a result of the MAP project.
93
Increased range of services offered at facilities

In Bolivia, after the MAP project was initiated, the pilot sites started
offering comprehensive assessments of sexual and reproductive-health
history, cancer screening, and substance-abuse and mental-health counselling.
In Guinea, service sites participating in the MAP programme identified
infertility as a leading concern among clients. Since then, they have
expanded their diagnostic laboratory services and developed referral
linkages to address this client concern.
Working with men in communities

EngenderHealth has also been working with men to respond to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic and to violence against women. In South Africa, recognising the
urgent need for a response to these two critical issues and the centrality of
working with men to achieve this goal, EngenderHealth and the Planned
Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA) initiated a Men As Partners
programme in 1998. The MAP programme was launched in eight of South
Africas nine provinces, establishing a presence in communities across the
country, including urban, peri-urban, and rural communities.
The programme addresses attitudinal and behavioural issues that negatively
affect the health of both men and women. It also seeks to encourage men to
become actively involved in preventing gender-based violence, and in
HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support activities. The strategy applied here
builds on the long history of anti-apartheid activism, which lends itself well to
an approach aimed at mobilising men, and in the process, galvanising a
groundswell of men willing to take a stand to promote gender equity.
Educational workshops have been implemented with groups of men and mixed-
sex audiences. Since its inception, the workshops have been conducted with
groups of men in a wide variety of settings such as workplaces, trade unions,
prisons, faith-based organisations, community halls, and sporting arenas. In
their design, the workshops reflect a commitment to deal with the complexities
of gender roles and the challenges associated with shifting long-held attitudes,
values, and practices. Most workshops are a week long, and often residential.
Unlike many other approaches that tend to have a single-issue focus, the MAP
workshops address the complexities of how gender roles affect mens lives. They
therefore simultaneously address violence, sexual and reproductive health,
parenting, support and care for people living with AIDS, and, always, mens roles
and responsibilities to end violence and create healthy, thriving communities.
They are also beginning to include a focus on activism and social justice.
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Men As Partners
Almost all MAP activities use and emphasise participatory group approaches
which have much in common with the methodology and rationale articulated
by Paulo Freire in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed1. These interactive educational
activities are used by the MAP trainer to train workshop facilitators and in
community group work. Workshop activities constantly refer back to the subject
of gender. For example, an activity about HIV will explore the ways in which
gender roles can increase the likelihood that men will engage in unsafe sex, or
deter men from playing an active role in caring for and supporting those left
chronically ill by AIDS. Similarly, facilitators might use role-plays to examine
mens attitudes towards health-seeking behaviour, and challenge the notion that
a real man only uses health services when hes already seriously ill. Using
interactive activities that explore gender norms, participants share and discuss
their attitudes towards family planning, antenatal care, and parenting, and
examine the ways in which traditional gender roles restrict the choices available
to both men and women. A common question that facilitators ask during the
discussion of any activity is, how does this issue affect men and women
differently?
The rationale is relatively straightforward for conducting the work of changing
mens gender-based attitudes, values, and behaviour in groups rather than
relying exclusively on more traditional media-based social advocacy work.
Given that men are socialised in groups (in the schoolyard, at home, in religious
institutions, on the playing field, in their workplace) it makes sense to provide
alternative experiences of group socialisation which challenge them. Such an
experience allows men an opportunity to build connections with other men and
to experience themselves differently as men. It also permits them to express their
dissatisfaction with, and concern about, their habitual roles, in the company of
other men.
In some of the workshops, many participants are unemployed or are employed
for only short periods of time. As a result, EngenderHealth has started to tackle
broader societal issues such as poverty and unemployment, since these can
significantly affect men by undermining traditional male identities, leading to
increased chances of risky behaviour. These issues are important to acknowledge
and address, since they can reinforce traditional gender roles. The relationships
between social problems and male identities are discussed in the workshops,
helping men to examine how poverty and unemployment have affected their
own perceptions of being men, and how these may lead to practices that can put
both them and their partners at risk. The MAP programme is also building links
with organisations that have more experience in areas such as poverty and
unemployment, in order to share successful approaches and to build expertise in
tackling other non-reproductive health needs that men may have.
95
Building a big tent to reach larger numbers of men

Faced with the growing devastation caused by HIV/AIDS and by violence
against women, EngenderHealth and PPASA have worked hard to expand the
impact of the MAP programme. To achieve this they have pursued two
strategies: building capacity within the NGO sector to reach greater numbers of
men, and promoting community-based efforts to mobilise men in support of
gender equality and social justice. In order to involve greater numbers of men,
EngenderHealth and PPASA have recently succeeded in establishing close
working relationships with organisations capable of reaching millions of South
African men. These include the Solidarity Centre (an umbrella organisation that
works with the three major labour federations representing over three million
union members), the AIDS Consortium (representing 800 community-based
HIV/AIDS-focused organisations), and the South African National Defence
Force (with a membership of about 65,000). Together EngenderHealth and
PPASA will provide ongoing training and technical assistance to a core group of
staff in each of these organisations, who will in turn run workshops in their
union, community-based organisation, or the military. In addition, to make sure
that the MAP approach is integrated into more clinical settings, EngenderHealth
works with Hope Worldwide, a national NGO specialising in HIV/AIDS
prevention, care, and support, and with the Peri-natal HIV Research Unit at
Africas largest hospital, the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
In developing these partnerships, MAP workshops have undergone a number of
changes and have become more focused on providing participants with the skills
and motivation needed to promote and sustain change in their personal lives, in
their organisations, and in their communities. As a result, workshops are
sequenced to ensure that each subsequent workshop strengthens and enhances
the skills of each participant. As such, the workshops focus on the day-to-day
strategies men can use to promote gender equity and positive male involvement,
examining community-based efforts underway elsewhere in the world to assist
in the planning of local strategies. Workshops will soon offer training in
advocacy and research skills, and will include opportunities for participants to
practice organising and mobilising skills in order to link their personal changes
to greater community change.
The impact of working in communities

At the community level, EngenderHealths evaluation work has focused on
understanding whether the programme has resulted in a change in attitudes and
practice relating to gender equity, including issues around sexual violence. The
results show that the MAP approach has had significant success in shifting
mens attitudes. Post-training assessment of attitudes among MAP workshop
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Men As Partners
participants, interviewed before the training and again four to six months
afterwards, has revealed the following.
Before the workshop, 54 per cent of the participants disagreed or strongly
disagreed that men must make the decisions in a relationship; after the
workshop, 75 per cent of the men felt this way.
Before the workshop, 61 per cent of the participants disagreed or strongly
disagreed with the statement that women who dress in a sexy manner want
to be raped; after the workshop, 82 per cent of the men felt this way.
Pre-training, 43 per cent of the participants disagreed or strongly disagreed
with the statement that sometimes when a woman says no to sex, she
doesnt really mean it; after the workshop, 59 per cent of the men felt this
way.
Pre-training, 43 per cent of the participants disagreed or strongly disagreed
with the statement that a man only really becomes a man when he has
fathered a child; after the workshop, 72 per cent of the men felt this way.
The process of change evident in the research findings is also captured in the
words of MAP educators and activists. As Boitshepo Lesetedi, MAP co-ordinator
at PPASA, puts it, I realised it was impossible to work around issues of gender
when you havent started with yourself, because I was carrying my own baggage,
my own myths and stereotypes. So it became more of my own life than work,
realising how much freer I could be when I dont have to be doing what has
supposedly been mens role. MAP educator Patrick Godana describes his
involvement in the following way: Being involved in MAP work has helped me
to see the beauty of life.
Lessons learned
We have found that the MAP framework can be applied in a variety of settings.
Based on the work of EngenderHealth to date on constructive male involve-
ment, we highlight the following lessons:
1 Present men as potential partners capable of playing a positive role in the
health and well-being of their partners, families, and communities
Despite gender norms that often lead to mens control of different aspects
of their partners lives, it is important to recognise that many men care
deeply about the women in their lives, including their partners, family
members, co-workers, neighbours, and community members. Given the
opportunity and the know-how, many men are eager to challenge customs
and practices that endanger womens health and are willing to participate in
reproductive-health decision making that supports the well-being of
97
women. Approaches that view men in a positive way as partners or allies

are especially useful in redefining mens involvement in the promotion of
gender equity.
2 Societal crisis can create opportunities for dialogue or for shifts in
gender relations
Several crisis-related situations have led to important shifts in how
programmers, researchers, and individuals view gender relationships.
The HIV epidemic has led to an increased dialogue and to substantial
efforts to reach men and involve them in helping to stem the epidemic in
their communities, and encouraging them to participate in equal decision
making on reproductive-health issues. Large-scale unemployment and
poverty have fostered changes in how women participate in decision
making in the household and family, as more women enter the workforce.
Such factors have also helped to shape different masculinities, with some
men starting to participate in traditionally women-centered domains.
High levels of violence in society have prompted an increased emphasis on
creating positive role models for young men, and on implementing
programmes that reach young boys at an early age in order to help them
develop more positive and equitable masculinities.
3 Reach men where they are
Instead of seeking or creating new arenas in which to engage men, programmes
should utilise the existing key venues where men congregate or can be
reached. These include sports and religious events, workplaces, and social
locations such as bars or cafs. All of these are important places where
information and discussion on a variety of issues can be shared with men.
Scaling-up a programme is also easier when working through existing
institutions that can reach large numbers of men, such as unions, the military,
and industries such as mining or transportation, where men predominate.
4 Provide private spaces for men to obtain services
Most reproductive-health services offered around the world in service-
delivery settings are geared almost exclusively to women. Having realised
the importance of constructive male involvement in reproductive health,
these settings have started providing facilities for men only. On many sites,
these are provided within the same clinic as the services for women, but
special areas within the site are designated for men, or clinic times are
established only for men. This has helped to make men feel more
comfortable and has encouraged them to seek help.
5 Provide opportunities for men to share experiences with each other
Given that men are socialised in groups in the schoolyard, in religious
institutions, on the playing field it is important and valuable to offer men
alternative experiences of group socialisation that challenge their
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Men As Partners
traditional notions of manhood. Experiences such as these allow men an

opportunity to build connections with other men and to explore different
aspects of their own identities. In a safe and comfortable environment,
they also allow men to express their dissatisfaction with, and concern
about, these changing roles in the company of other men.
6 Build organisational cultures that are committed to working with men
No amount of training and capacity building is likely to be effective
without the buy-in of the senior leadership within partner organisations
regardless of whether these organisations are service providers, large trade
unions, or corporations. To ensure that key decision makers and managers
support the MAP approach, the MAP methodology includes where possible
workshops and training with senior management and key staff in each
institution on the relationship between gender equity and reproductive
health. In the longer-term, MAP hopes to address other aspects of
organisational culture, such as recruiting appropriate staff, and more
systematic training of staff at all levels.
7 Involve stakeholders from the beginning
In any MAP project, EngenderHealth tries to involve key stakeholders from
the start to ensure participation and ownership. In Guinea, for example, the
Ministry of Health, service providers, community leaders, local reproductive-
health organisations, and clients were included in the process from the
beginning. This not only helps to gain their support, but also encourages
personal reflection and a commitment to adopting a new set of norms.
8 Build strategic alliances with communities
To create effective community support for activities that might affect the
status quo, it is critical to obtain the support of key local community
members. In Nepal, the MAP project ensured that the peer educators who
were trained included key political representatives. In Guinea, the project
would not have been successful without the active participation of the local
imams, who played a valuable role as sources of information. Without their
involvement and public endorsement, the project probably would not have
been so successful in reaching out to men.
9 Respond to staff needs
Understanding the needs and roles of clinical staff is an integral part of
ensuring successful provision of reproductive-health services for men.
A providers own attitude to sexuality, his or her own feelings about gender,
and previous training all play a role in how he or she may interact with a
male client (either as an individual or as part of a couple).
10 Conduct research to identify how men can serve as allies
A substantial amount of work has been done to date to identify mens
reproductive-health needs in different settings and to understand how they
99
might put themselves at risk. However, there is still a need to understand

how to encourage and support men to become allies in improving their
own health, as well as the health of the women and children who are often
placed at risk by traditional gender roles.
11 Integrate a strong social-justice emphasis into work with men, and build
coalitions with progressive social movements where feasible
Many movements to involve men, including the growing movement to end
mens violence against women, share several goals with civil rights and
other social-justice movements. Working together offers many advantages.
Social movements gain strength and credibility when they pay attention to
issues related to gender equity, and gender-justice activists gain important
understanding about activist strategies and the communities in which they
work. Given their commitment to principles of equity and liberation, men
involved in these movements are, in theory, likely to be natural supporters
of constructive male involvement, and are more likely than most to do so
actively in their personal and public lives.
12 Promote activities that go beyond education and individual change
Many of the organisations collaborating on the implementation of the
MAP programme have been historically focused primarily on community
education and individual change. Few have prior experience in advocacy,
policy change, or community mobilisation. To ensure that partner
organisations can take this work on, MAP workshops in some locations
now include a focus on advocacy, community mobilisation, social norms
campaigns, and policy change.
As the evaluations and learning indicate, significant progress has been made in
terms of mens involvement, and changes in attitudes and practices are visible.
Perhaps the hope for change is best expressed by one church leader and past
MAP participant who said,I used to use the Bible to defend patriarchy. I now use
it to challenge gender stereotypes. Such comments remind us that men can play
a vital role in helping to achieve more equitable gender relations, something
from which both men and women will benefit greatly.
Notes
1 The name Men As Partners has been registered by EngenderHealth.
2 Paulo Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York, NY: Continuum.
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return to contents
Taking the bull by the horns: working with

young men on HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Gaetane le Grange
Introduction
South Africa is one of the countries worst hit by the HIV epidemic. This chapter
describes the experiences of a non-profit organisation, Targeted AIDS
Interventions (TAI), in their efforts to educate young South African men about
the threat posed by HIV/AIDS and encourage their involvement in the fight
against the disease. First, it sets out the hugely damaging impact of HIV/AIDS in
South Africa and discusses the wide-ranging economic and social factors that
have fuelled the increase in risk-taking behaviour that lies behind the crisis.
Then the inadequacies of the initial responses to HIV are highlighted, which
focused exclusively on educating women. This experience informed TAIs
subsequent initiatives to engage young men in discussion and counselling
through soccer clubs and schools. Some of these exciting projects are outlined
here. The chapter concludes with the lessons learned by TAI in working with
young men, underlining the importance of including men comprehensively in
HIV/AIDS strategies.
HIV in South Africa: the tears of a nation

South Africa, the rainbow nation, is a country of contradictions. It is a nation
filled with hope, endeavour, freedom, and equality, and yet a large part of the
population is faced with grinding poverty, unemployment, the fear of violence,
and deeply entrenched cultural structures that support the oppression of
millions of women. And then there is HIV a disease that has severely damaged
this country. It is estimated that, although South Africa holds less than one per
cent of the worlds population, it has 10 per cent of the worlds HIV-positive
population, and 600 South Africans die every day from AIDS-related illnesses.
The majority of these people are between the ages of 15 and 35 parents and
workers, our future. Countless children have been orphaned, older siblings
having to leave school to try and provide for younger family members and care
for their dying parents, and pensioners have to care for their grandchildren on
very meagre earnings. An entire generation is slowly disappearing.
101
The province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where the organisation TAI is based, is

struggling under the burden of a disease which flourishes where poverty is rife,
where violence is an everyday occurrence, and where low levels of education are
the norm. In KwaZulu-Natal, the overall prevalence of HIV is around 19 per
cent. Based on a sample of women between the ages of 14 and 40 years attending
antenatal clinics in a rural district in KZN, research by Makhaye in 2002 has
shown that HIV prevalence among these women is as high as 35 per cent.1
Morrell (2001) indicates that levels of infection in the adult population of some
districts of KwaZulu-Natal are as high as 50 per cent.2
Although there is much still to learn about this epidemic, there are some well-
established facts. HIV/AIDS is not simply a medical problem; it is also a societal
problem exacerbated by a range of factors. For example, poverty has an impact
through malnutrition, the pressure to engage in sex work for income, and
limited access to education, treatment, or resources. Stigma and ignorance
prevent people from disclosing their HIV-positive status or seeking treatment.
Increasing social and economic marginalisation, family instability (often as a
result of migration), and a volatile (and often violent) political environment,
have also significantly altered and in some cases, undermined traditional
male and female identities.3 For instance, some unemployed men have taken to
beating their wives or having sex with multiple partners to show that they are
still real men. Meanwhile, many women in poverty-stricken areas resort to sex
work in order to provide for their children.
These, and many other factors, have contributed to the growing levels of gender-
based violence, high-risk sexual encounters, and family abandonment that are
so prevalent in South African society. This is manifested in the widespread abuse
of womens rights and the extraordinarily high levels of rape in South Africa. As
a woman, I wake up every day with the knowledge that one in two South African
women will be raped in her lifetime, that 75 per cent of these rapes are gang
rapes, and that I am more likely to be raped by between three and 30 perpetrators
than by a single person, but that the rapist who acts alone is more likely to kill
me.4
Undoubtedly, this desperate state of affairs is contributed to by distorted cultural
attitudes, socially endorsed violence,5 and discriminatory beliefs surrounding
women. It may also in part reflect the hopelessness and fear that so many men
feel as a result of poverty and the loss of guidance and support due to the erosion
of family and traditional structures, among other factors. Although there is no
justification for destructive, risk-taking behaviour, it is possible that many men
increasingly feel that they lack any positive options that they have no future.
102
Taking the bull by the horns
A womens disease?
Gender inequality greatly increases the vulnerability of women to HIV
infection, and is one of the main factors contributing to the spread of the disease
in South Africa. This, combined with the impact HIV is having on women (there
is a prevalence rate for women of approximately 30 per cent in the province of
KwaZulu-Natal), informed much of the initial response to the HIV epidemic.
Many HIV-prevention and care efforts were aimed at women: building capacity,
supporting and empowering women, based on the philosophy that empowering
women would empower the nation. An unforeseen consequence of that strategy
has been that a tremendous amount of pressure was placed on women to rise to
challenges that are not theirs to face alone. By failing to focus on men, the very
projects that sought to free women have, unwittingly, led to their further
victimisation.
That was the reality faced by TAI in 1995 when implementing its Rural Womens
Project in KwaZulu-Natal. The project included aspects of small-scale income
generation, HIV prevention, and home-based care. It was very successful in
terms of income generation and care, but as many as 90 per cent of the women
who participated were unable to implement their personal decisions about HIV
prevention. Many of the women were beaten and suspected of being unfaithful
when they suggested using condoms to their male partners. Some were even
chased away from their homes. It became apparent that, due to the norms of the
prevalent patriarchal society in KZN, women were not allowed to discuss or
make decisions about sexual (and many other) issues with their male partners.
As one woman said,
I know he has an affair with the woman who has three children from different
partners. When I suggested that we should use condoms, he told me he has two
other partners at the place of work. He threatened to leave me if I ever nag him
again. I have since stopped worrying him.
The outcome of the womens project, combined with the growing recognition of
mens role in the spread of HIV/AIDS, led to TAI deciding to work with men
and thus the Shosholoza AIDS Project was created in 1998 (the name is based on
a popular Zulu song). The project was sponsored by the Joint Oxfam HIV/AIDS
Programme in South Africa (JOHAP), in which Oxfam CAA, Oxfam Hong
Kong, Oxfam Ireland, Oxfam Novib, and Oxfam Germany participate.
Culture and tradition

Before the project started, TAI critically examined the factors that increase
young mens vulnerability to HIV in KwaZulu-Natal through the use of surveys
and focus-group discussions. The first causal factor identified was culture and
103
tradition. Many traditional beliefs remain influential, such as the prestige

attached to men having multiple partners, women not being allowed to stipulate
the terms of a sexual relationship (not even being able to decline sex or ask to use
a condom), and an aversion to using condoms (especially in marital
relationships, even when the husband maintained multiple extra-marital
relationships). Perhaps the most alarming discovery was the pervasiveness of the
myths surrounding sex, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS. These include the belief that
HIV is deliberately put on condoms to spread the disease; that eating ice-cubes
before engaging in sex acts as a contraceptive; that when boys have their first wet
dream they must begin sexual activity or face going mad from a build-up of
sperm (pimples in adolescent boys are seen as a result of sperm accumulation);
that having sex with a virgin or young child can cure AIDS; and that HIV is Gods
way of punishing evil-doers.
Poverty
A second causal factor was the levels of poverty in the rural areas where the
project was to be implemented. Poverty influences the spread of the HIV
epidemic in several ways, such as limiting access to condoms and to treatment
for sexually transmitted infections. Poverty has also caused the erosion of family
structures, especially in situations where many men have migrated to urban
centres in search of work. Once there, men often establish new sexual
relationships and only return occasionally to their rural wives and families, or
abandon them completely, a situation which has significantly influenced the
spread of the virus between urban and rural areas. This process mirrors that
described by Moodie and Ndatshe in their long-term study of labour migration
to the Transvaal gold mines.6 They describe how masculine identities were
shaped by migration, apartheid, forced resettlements, and industrial change.
Mens early ideals that focused on creating and providing for a self-sufficient
homestead in partnership with women were gradually transformed, and the
men came to value toughness, physical dominance, and aggressiveness.
Another aspect of the influence of poverty on HIV in South Africa is the ever-
increasing number of children who are being forced into sex work by adults.7
This phenomenon is predominant among young girls, but is also growing
among young boys; many of the young men with whom TAI works can quote
examples:
One peer educator talked of a man who was a shoemaker. He used to repair
shoes for 10 rand [US$1.45], but if you didnt have the money you had sex
[sodomy] with him and he gave you 10 rand afterwards. When young boys
wanted money they used to go to that shoemaker and have sex with him for
10 rand.
104
From one group, eight boys knew girls who had fallen in love with older men
for the sake of getting money, jewellery, and food. The older men promise these
young girls marriage. One boy quoted a 12-year-old girl in his school, who was
in love with an older man. She said that she was proud of him, as he buys her
everything she wants. He used to give her money and fetch her after school.
When the boy talked to this girl she did not take him seriously. She said her
family was poor and this sugar daddy provided her with money to buy food
for the family. The boys also reported seeing a 10-year-old girl arrive at her
home in the morning after she had spent the night at an older mans house.
The fact that young children are having sex with older men (and women) for
financial support is extremely disturbing, especially in light of the fact that HIV
is highly prevalent in the adult age group.
Absence of fathers
A third causal factor is the large number of boys who have been left without a
father in a culture that is strongly patriarchal. Women-headed households are
often looked down upon by the community, and this has serious implications
for a childs socialisation, how acceptable the child is within his or her
community, and for the development of their self-esteem. When TAI asked
young men about what it meant to lose their father, they said,
The mother may not be able to discipline a boy without the father. Some
mothers fail to tell their children if they are wrong. The child grows up not
knowing between right and wrong. The children can be unruly and dont
respect men because there is no man at home.
My father is working and living a five-star life in Pretoria [a major city in
South Africa] but he is not supporting us. I feel bad about him. I have
developed a negative attitude towards him. Im also thinking of paying revenge
by killing him.
This skewed socialisation and lack of self-esteem contribute to increased high-
risk sexual encounters. If you are worth nothing in your own eyes, why should
you care about your future or that of others? In this context, risking HIV
infection and death is a gamble that is easily explicable.
Tradition and culture, poverty, inappropriate socialisation, and a multitude of
other intricately interwoven issues (such as power transactions within
relationships, religious beliefs, economic control, and societal norms) all
contribute to a level of violence against women in South Africa that is deeply
rooted and socially acceptable. This is further supported by a baseline survey of
102 young men (12 to 25 years old) that was conducted by TAI in 2003.
105
Seventeen of the respondents had either threatened or beaten their partner, and
out of the 35 sexually active respondents, three admitted to forcing a girl to have
sex against her will.8
Based on the dynamics described above, and with the frustrating knowledge that
we could not tackle all the issues, TAI decided to focus on several key areas in its
work with men:
providing accurate information about puberty, sex, and HIV/AIDS;
discussing gender-orientated issues relating to culture, beliefs, and
perceptions of masculinity (with the aim of promoting gender awareness);
and personalising the risk of HIV infection.
Shosholoza: keeping hope, moving forwards

The Shosholoza AIDS Project (as initiated by TAI in 1998) is a project based on
peer educators, targeting young men between the ages of 15 and 18. A baseline
survey of 100 young men was done to ascertain the values, beliefs, and possible
risk-taking behaviours of this group. The results showed that 95 per cent of the
boys had never used condoms; all those who were sexually active had more than
one current sexual partner; and only three per cent said that a woman has a right
to say no to sex. None of them believed that either they or their partners could
be infected with HIV.
After much consideration, it was decided to use soccer (South Africas most
popular sport) as a means of mobilising and motivating the participants. Due to
the high public attendance at soccer matches, it was felt that stadiums were
perfect venues for participating peer-educator teams to promote HIV
awareness. In addition, soccer players are often seen as role models in
communities, making them both at high risk of HIV infection due to their
popularity, and highly influential in terms of HIV prevention due to their
prominence. TAI realised that soccer competitions could be used to encourage
participation because, for many young men in KZN, soccer is as much a
passionate way of life as it is a sport!
The South African Football Association (SAFA) was approached and asked to
identify eight of their affiliated teams for training. After a process of
consultation, teams were selected and underwent a three-day training
workshop, which concentrated on issues such as sexuality, puberty, sexually
transmitted infections (STIs), HIV/AIDS, communication skills (including
decision making and negotiation skills) and project planning. Time was given
for the peer educators to first come to terms with HIV in their own lives, during
which group discussions of prevention strategies and sexuality were held.
106
When the groups felt prepared, they began to implement small projects within
their communities: holding training workshops for neighbouring soccer teams;
organising HIV-oriented soccer events; engaging spectators at matches;
distributing condoms; and holding personal sessions with friends.
The Shosholoza AIDS Project was very enthusiastically received, and the trained
groups outreach programme for other soccer clubs saw an estimated 2000 men
trained in basic HIV information and prevention (the result of the efforts of 80
very determined peer educators). In addition, the peer educators were
encouraged to involve their partners and to discuss HIV and prevention. As a
means of verifying that this had taken place, TAI conducted a survey of 44 female
partners. In this study, 93 per cent reported that their partner had spoken to
them about HIV/AIDS. One hundred per cent of the female partners could cite
three reasons for using condoms (prevention of HIV/AIDS and STIs, and
pregnancy). TAI felt that the evidence produced by this study indicated that
these young men had taken the HIV message to heart, and were trying to protect
themselves and their loved ones.
Despite the committed efforts of the peer educator groups, TAI realised that, as
a result of their early sexual debut9 (between 14 and 16 years), many of the boys
could already be HIV-positive. In fact, according to a study by the Planned
Parenthood Association of South Africa, more than 70 per cent of South African
teenagers are sexually active by the age of 14.10 A strategy had to be developed to
encourage a delay in the onset of sexual activity, to promote abstinence, and to
provide accurate information about prevention methods to those who decided
to become sexually active. Thus TAI resolved to work with an even younger
group of boys (11 to 15 years), and the Inkunzi Isematholeni Project was
initiated in 2001.
Inkunzi Isematholeni: taking the bull by the horns

Inkunzi isematholeni is a Zulu idiom, which when literally translated means how
the calf is raised will determine the quality of the bull. This summarised the
spirit of the project, which was to help guide boys and young men away from
the violent and destructive behaviour that had become predominant in
KwaZulu-Natal, and to support their development into good fathers and
sexually responsible partners.
TAI approached 20 predominantly rural schools in the province to take part in
the project. It was felt that schools provided an ideal environment for projects
involving very young people, as there are many support structures available to
them, including teachers, principals, school governing bodies and the schools
facilities. School principals were contacted, the project was introduced to them,
107
and their potential involvement outlined. Their permission to implement the

project was obtained, and one committed teacher from each school was selected
to guide the process. These teachers were tasked with selecting 10 participants
from their school. For each schools peer-educator group, a mixture of
extroverted students (for public speaking) and introverted students (for
personal discussions) was encouraged.
The Absa Group (South Africa) sponsored the Inkunzi Project, and a staff
complement of six involved 200 boys and young men in three main sets of
activities. First, three-day training workshops were conducted, which focused on
providing correct and relevant information on puberty, sexually transmitted
infections, HIV/AIDS, and condom use. The workshops encouraged reflection
on issues such as culture, masculinity and femininity, personal HIV
vulnerability, and prevention strategies. Firm emphasis was placed on
encouraging participants to think for themselves, asking questions like Where
do you want to be in fifteen years?, What will your house look like?, and How
many children would you like to have?, and then asking How do you think
becoming HIV-positive will influence your dreams?. Creativity was encouraged,
and many issues were explored through the use of role-plays, case studies, and
other thought-provoking exercises. It was felt that it was important to develop
certain skills in the participants, such as
communication skills to enable them to talk about these very sensitive and
difficult issues;
project-management skills, which would enable the groups to implement
and manage their own initiatives when they began reaching out to their
fellow students and community members;
negotiation skills, as there seemed to be some resistance to using condoms
or abstaining from sex on the part of female partners who had low levels of
knowledge concerning HIV and its transmission.
Second, TAI co-ordinators regularly visited the groups to reinforce the training.
These visits served the purpose of allowing the participants to discuss issues
facing them, their personal decisions, and questions they had been asked and
were unable to answer. Further relevant information was also provided during
these sessions.
The third activity focused on promoting caring behaviour, and involved the
establishment of vegetable gardens in all 20 schools to provide food for children
in need (identified by the peer educators and the principal). A programme to
plant indigenous trees was also initiated, and peer educators were entrusted with
caring for young trees.11 These activities introduced the participants to aspects
of caring for and supporting others, something which is not culturally
108
encouraged among men in KZN. The aim of these activities was to encourage
greater involvement of boys and men in caring for those infected and affected by
HIV.
TAI conducted targeted training workshops for the groups guiding teachers and
several selected school governing bodies (SGBs). This training aimed to help the
teachers and SGB members understand the scale of the HIV epidemic, its impact
on the education system, and their own role in curbing the spread of the disease.
As a control, some SGBs were not trained, in order to assess the impact of the
training of SGBs on the peer-educator project. This aspect of the project is still
under evaluation.
TAI also engaged the Inkunzi peer educators in a variety of exercises aimed at
further strengthening the project and maintaining interest, including
exchange programmes between participating schools;
a weekly discussion of themes such as rape and child abuse;
making posters;
producing HIV-related drama, poetry, and scathamiya (Zulu dance).
Schools were encouraged to host debates on subjects such as Women are to be
blamed for the spread of HIV. The debate at one school had many strong-
minded contributions, not only from the female audience, but also from the
male peer educators who were arguing against the statement, with the eventual
conclusion that both men and women are responsible for the spread of the
disease.
Effective, or just a load of bull?

Various research activities were conducted to assess the impact of the project.
These included preventative counselling, focus-group discussions, and message
development. These exercises provided a real insight into the thoughts and
feelings of the young men.
The preventative counselling took the form of one-on-one sessions, in which a
trained facilitator distributed a questionnaire. Peer educators from five regions
of KwaZulu-Natal took part in this study, the majority of the 173 participants
having joined the project two years earlier. At the time of the study, 37 per cent of
the participants were sexually active, and it was found that most of these boys
had had their sexual debut between the ages of 14 and 15 years, before they had
joined the project. Of the remainder who were not yet sexually active, 45 per cent
were between the ages of 14 and 15. In the age group in which most boys become
sexually active, the majority of our participants were remaining inactive. We feel
that this indicates that our project has had a positive impact in delaying the
109
sexual debut of the participants, with many of our peer educators sticking to
their guns, despite being teased about their choice to abstain, and some even
having their masculinity questioned.
The focus-group discussions concentrated on several broad issues such as
gender, violence in our communities, parental influence, caring, and social or
environmental factors. The discussions gave the peer educators a chance to share
and reflect on their personal beliefs, as well as allowing us to evaluate our project.
On issues of gender, peer educators showed a growing awareness of womens
rights, as indicated by the response of the peer educators to the question what is
women-abuse?
The common abuse in our areas is women-abuse. This form happens more
regularly when men are not aware that they are abusing. Men will stress that
certain chores are womens work, not considering that women are being
overworked. If you are in love you divide work.
Some boys reported knowing of incidents in which girls were dragged into the
bushes when they refused sex to boys (in the community) who propositioned
them. The majority of peer educators felt that, even if the girl was their
girlfriend, they had no right to force her to have sex.
The research on message development also provided inspiring results. The peer
educators were given materials to make banners displaying various themed
slogans. When asked what the benefits of using condoms are, one group wrote,
Listen if I tell you to use a condom, because we are trying to reduce the increase
of orphans. The advantages of delaying sexual debut included, Let us wait, so
that we shall rejoice tomorrow and acquire knowledge from the elders and If
you have a partner, you should know her better, not sexually. Understanding one
another makes a good relationship. Some sad notes were written to a father who
had died of AIDS, such as, Daddy, you left us when we were enjoying your
company the most. Your death has opened our eyes. We will educate others and
also care for the sick.
Working with these boys and young men is a very rewarding experience. The
project has become self-sustaining after the initial training sessions. Many co-
ordinators arrived for their follow-up visit to find that, as in one example, the
initial group of 10 had now swelled to 16 very eager members. We were also
surprised to learn that Inkunzi Isematholeni has recently acquired a group of
female peer educators in one of the schools. Due to the pressure the girls were
exerting, the boys felt it would be prudent to include them. In retrospect, the
main problem encountered during our work with young men has not been
trying to get them involved, but rather trying to find the resources and energy to
keep up with them!
110
Conclusion
Although the task of responding to the challenge posed by HIV/AIDS is long
term and requires action on several fronts, we believe the project work of TAI is
making a significant contribution to combating HIV/AIDS and addressing
gender inequality. We ascribe our practical success in engaging these young men
to several factors.
1 We have tried to be empowering and not dictatorial in our approach.
TAI tries to encourage peer educators to develop and implement their own
strategies to prevent the spread of HIV in their schools and communities,
with only minimal guidance from TAI. This creates a participatory environment,
which makes peer educators feel that they are in control of their project.
2 The project is seen to have a certain coolness factor, and it is almost
prestigious to belong to the group. This is probably due to the use of soccer
to interest the boys, inter-group competitions that are held with prizes
donated to the group or school (trophies are much coveted), and the
distribution of incentives (including t-shirts, small financial contributions,
catering at meetings, etc).
3 TAI structures its activities so as to provide a platform for young men to
express themselves and talk about topics that are sometimes very painful
and rarely discussed within their families and culture. Conducive and
comfortable environments are created where trust is imperative. The group
establishes a code of conduct, which includes rules stipulating the
confidentiality of what is discussed in the group. The times for discussion
are greatly valued by the peer educators, with many of them remarking on
how relieved they feel to be able to talk freely about sex, sexuality, and the
traumatic experiences they have had.
4 Last, but by no means least, the element of fun is vitally important when
working with young men. Although HIV is a serious topic, there should be
plenty of opportunity to laugh, joke, and just generally horse around.
Activities should be culturally specific (in the case of the Zulu culture, these
include singing, dancing, acting, and handcrafts) and encourage creativity.
These factors, combined with innovative project ideas and dedicated staff, have
resulted in our peer educators realising that there are options for them. They
have the abilities and knowledge needed to protect themselves and the ones they
love. They can make a difference within their communities by informing others
and by caring for those in need. They have a future worth fighting for. By being a
part of this project, we hope that these remarkable boys will not only become
worthy men, but human beings who value and respect the rights of others
(especially women) and who contribute positively to this rainbow nation.
111
Notes
1 G.C. Makhaye (2002) HIV Infection and Factors Influencing Risk in Antenatal Clinic
Attendees in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, Masters thesis, not yet published.
2 R. Morrell (ed.) (2001) Changing Men in Southern Africa, London and Durban:
Zed Books/University of Natal Press.
3 Unemployment was estimated at 37 per cent in 2001. See CIA The World Fact Book,
www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/sf.html (accessed in February 2004).
4 www.speakout.org.za (accessed in February 2004).
5 Many men feel that it is part of their traditional role to discipline their wives. In fact, many
South African women consider being beaten as part of normal life.
6 T. Moodie and V. Ndatshe (1994) Going for Gold: Men, Mines and Migration, Johannesburg:
Witwatersrand University Press.
7 The participants in these activities (both the children and adults) do not believe that they are
involved in prostitution. Often the adult is well known to the child, and takes on the role of
benefactor to the child and his/her family in exchange for sex. Often these relationships have
the consent of the childs parents.
8 As previously noted, it is widely believed in certain South African cultures that men are obliged
to discipline their partners and that female partners do not have the right to refuse sex.
As such, it is likely that this is an underestimate of the actual levels of this abuse, as many
young men would not have considered their actions as abuse or rape.
9 All references to sex and sexual debut relate to penetrative sex.
10 Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (2003) Teen Parent Programme: A Baseline
Survey and Needs Assessment for Adolescents and Teen Parents in South Africa, final report,
November 2003.
11 Vegetable gardens sponsored by McDonalds Seeds (South Africa), and indigenous tress
donated by Sappi (South Africa).
12 The age-group breakdown was as follows: 27 per cent younger than 13 years; 29 per cent
between the ages of 14 and 15; 21 per cent between the ages of 16 and 17; and 23 per cent older
than 18 years. Twenty-seven per cent of the participants lived with both parents; 39 per cent
lived with their mothers; 19 per cent lived with grandparents; five per cent lived with their
fathers; and 11 per cent lived with others, such as uncles and aunts.
112
return to contents
Fatherwork in the Caribbean: examples of

support for mens work in relation to family life
Janet Brown
This paper is a review of fatherhood initiatives reported within the Caribbean

region that support mens positive participation in the lives of their children and
within their families. It gives a brief description of the gradual move away from
role-deficit approaches which have tended to measure mens family partici-
pation against ideal images of fatherhood and then set out to fix men. These
approaches have usually reflected womens needs in relation to the family, or
political or institutional agendas seeking to involve men in specific ways. The
more recently acknowledged need for men to reflect and debate on approaches
to family life that derive from their own experiences and perceptions as well as
the needs of their partners, has encouraged the development of initiatives which
more directly address mens own issues and their roles as fathers.
Fatherworkin the title of this paper was coined by Dollahite, Hawkins, and
Brotherson1 as a more user-friendly term for generative fathering, itself an
application of Erik Eriksons concept of generativity caring for and
contributing to the life of the next generation. Snareys foreword to the Dollahite
and Hawkins edited collection Generative Fathering suggests that generative
adults create, care for, and promote the development of others, from nurturing
the growth of another person to shepherding the development of a broader
community. Translated as fatherwork, the term also implies that becoming a
positive influence in a childs life is developmental, not only for the child, but for
the father. Rather than holding up ideal images of fatherhood against which
men are measured (as almost inevitably inadequate), fatherwork suggests that
men can and do work at transforming their desire to be a good or better father
into reality over their lifetime; that fathering is a set of skills and behaviours that
can be learned, improved, and changed as demands or circumstances change,
and that temporary failures are not the whole of the realities of fathers relations
to their children and partners.
This perspective is a more helpful one in analysing work with fathers generally,
and specifically in the Caribbean, where role-deficit perspectives of men as
fathers are deeply embedded. In the developing economies of the region, the
primary expectation of men as fathers has been in the role of financial provider,
and the related role of protector. With large segments of the regions populations
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unemployed or under-employed, this narrow role definition relegates many

men to a marginal existence within and outside their families. Add high rates of
conjugal instability and strong cultural expectations that a son should support
his mother and siblings financially, and the cultural support for this deficit
framework becomes glaringly apparent. In Jamaican parlance, men are given
basket to carry water.
This paper will briefly describe some initiatives that aim to support mens
fathering in a more developmental way in the Caribbean. The shadows of deficit
thinking about Caribbean fathers are not absent from these approaches, but the
projects are selected because they seem to signal a movement by programme
interventions and by men themselves in the direction of fatherwork as a
conscious developmental task, rather than as a defensive response to portrayed
inadequacies. The programme examples illustrate some of the central issues
which are being addressed:
how to ensure mens participation in the development of programme
approaches which articulate and support their needs as fathers and
partners;2
how to address and reduce the tensions which often exist between mothers
and fathers perceptions of their respective roles in relation to their children;
how best to take the needs and perspective of the child into account in
addressing these issues; and
how to build bridges that bring men and women together to find mutually
acceptable solutions to long-standing issues of gender inequity, and which
serve the need of children for healthy models for future roles and
relationships.
It is hoped that highlighting the Caribbean experience will provide ideas for
those in other regions who are struggling with similar fatherhood and family
issues.
The first section of this chapter will briefly review Caribbean fatherhood in the
research literature. The second section will list a few regional, national, and
community-level activities, introducing the main players in fatherhood projects
and initiatives. Finally, some of the major lessons learned will be outlined, with
related recommendations for future Caribbean fatherwork.
Fatherwork in the literature

In the Caribbean, the earliest research noting mens roles in the family is found
in literature examining the roles of women. These studies take into account the
historical and cultural factors which influence Caribbean families and which
differentiate them from the large body of research on North American families.
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Fatherwork in the Caribbean
Caribbean family studies describe the common life-cycle changes in union

status of the majority of the population. Only 16 per cent of Jamaican women in
their childbearing years are married; this is a common pattern throughout the
African-Caribbean populations. The vast majority of first-born children are
born into visiting unions of young, unmarried partners. Later in life, many of
these parents move into common-law unions, and may eventually marry their
partners, sometimes after their children have grown. Children are not
infrequently sent to live with other relatives for parts of their lives. Therefore,
women and men may have children from one or more unions who may or may
not live with them.
The family units both in and outside conventional marriages were the starting
point for identifying the positions and roles that Caribbean men assume over
their lifetimes in relation to their partners and children. Early studies, using
perspectives influenced by North American literature, described Caribbean
family forms as largely dysfunctional, because they are not nuclear within the
context of marriage. More recently, researchers have begun describing the
functional aspects of these long-standing patterns that in fact aid survival, child
protection, and family advancement in the context of poverty, sacrifice, and high
levels of in- and out-migration. This research provides strong impetus to the
need to better understand the role of men in Caribbean families.
Research on identifying and promoting healthy child-rearing practices gave
subsequent impetus for examining Caribbean fatherhood. Early Caribbean
family research focused mainly on the matrifocal nature of the family and the
strong motherchild bonds, often within female-headed households. In the late
1980s, a survey of education, health, and social services and programmes for
young children by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Caribbean recorded
a strong call from practitioners for help with parenting-education supports.3 Of
particular concern was the non-involvement of fathers in their childrens lives.
This call, and the tenor of public discourse on the irresponsible, absent
Caribbean father kick-started ten years of research and related programme
interventions by UWIs Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC),
examining fatherhood and the gender socialisation of children. Close
collaboration in this research was maintained with UWIs Department of
Sociology and Social Work.4 This department has undertaken complimentary
work on male identity formation,5 as well as on perceptions of family roles by
children.6 Thus UWIs work on Caribbean manhood and fatherhood has been
much more about discerning the cultural and social meanings underlying the
behaviours manifested in mens fathering roles, and how these roles inter-relate
with women as mothers and as partners.
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The early 1992 UWI research ascertained that men generally display more
positive child-directed and family-directed behaviour and attitudes than
popular stereotypes would suggest. Men were also able to state clearly the
personal, cultural, and social obstacles which they perceive hinder their ability to
be better fathers. The research pointed to the need for a mens agenda in relation
to children and family life. It is evident, more than ten years later, that men
themselves are increasingly expressing the need for such an agenda. In the
recently published compilation of papers on Childrens Rights: Caribbean
Realities, Barrow provides the context for this urgency: manhood is increasingly
being redefined, particularly among younger Caribbean men, through the
exercising of fatherhood roles. As fathers, men are recognising the vulnerability
of their fatherchild relationships, which are almost totally dependent on
negotiation through mothers:
In this cultural environment of female autonomy, female household headship
and extensive female-centred families and kinship networks, motherhood is
the privileged half of the parenting duo and women have the power, for
whatever reason, to undermine fatherchild bonds. In a word, it is difficult to
be a father without a positive relationship with the mother, and fragile,
unstable conjugality frequently disrupts fatherhood.7
In another chapter of Childrens Rights, Chevannes adds to this picture the
jacket, in which a childs paternity is attributed to an unsuspecting partner who
is not the biological father.8 Many men who discover they have been given a
jacket accept these children as their own, particularly if others dont suspect
the truth.
This phenomenon underlines the womans power to name the father of her
child, and thus establish the childs bloodline. A man may accept a jacket
because it enhances his image in relation to others, or because a bond with the
mother and child has formed which is of value to him. As long as the relationship
with the childs mother remains firm, biological paternity is likely to remain
relatively immaterial. But if the parents relationship deteriorates or is severed,
contested paternity can become a weapon for either parent, and the fatherchild
bond is usually the victim.
This power of women in relation to their partners is not unlimited. It can be said
to be a womans defence against the power men exercise in a patriarchal society,
including physical power, as evidenced by high levels of domestic violence.
Branche places the image of the Caribbean matrifocal family (mother-
dominated, posited on male absence or marginality) within the wider social
context of male privileging, which is socially reproduced within the family first,
and then reinforced by many institutions thereafter. Branche states:
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The study of the matrifocal family was always also a study of marginal men,
but marginal men whose marginality could only fully be understood in
relation to their privilege, in relation to patriarchal dominance. Matrifocality,
therefore, is a myth if it is taken to mean that this emphasis in Caribbean
family studies could be the basis for launching a feminist agenda.9
The privileging of boys begins with differential child-rearing strategies and
parental expectations.10 Boys are freer of chores and home responsibilities, and
are expected to learn many of lifes lessons from older boys and men on the
street. Girls, on the other hand, learn structured responsibility within the more
closely supervised home yard.11 The concept of male privilege has added
relevance to discussions of gender equity; in the analysis12 and subsequent
discourse it has become clear that privilege can in fact lead to some
disadvantages for men. It has aided our understanding of male under-
performance at school and high male drop-out rates, and has added a dimension
to the dynamics of the manwoman domestic relationship. When men start
examining the negative as well as positive effects of structured male privilege
within their own lives, and the resultant vulnerabilities in their relationships
with their children and partner(s), they advance their own fatherwork.
Reflective men are recognising the constraints on their own development that
narrow social definitions of manhood and fatherhood provide; but there are as
yet few social forces that support this reflection or include broader nurturing
and caretaking tasks within concepts of manly fatherhood, particularly if
financial provision is absent or limited.
Two UWI symposia in the late 1990s, one on constructing Caribbean
masculinity, and the other on the family and the quality of gender relations,
enlivened the already rich debates and research on gender issues generated by
the earlier research, particularly the work of the Gender and Development Units
of the three main UWI campuses. There is therefore a solid academic foundation
for improving the historical and cultural understanding of mens positions
within the common patterns of gender relations and family life in the
Caribbean. But greater understanding does not necessarily lead to prescriptive
clarity for mens and womens daily lives. The research activities to date have
pointed to the need for men to address their needs and challenges as fathers in
contexts of economic hardship, non-residential unions, having children with
more than one partner, and vexed relationships with women. Most fatherhood
programme approaches, including many cited below, begin from womens
perspectives and assumptions about what men should be doing, rather than
from mens own initiatives to define themselves as fathers, to establish how they
want to interact with their children, and to tackle challenging issues of gender
inequity and new role paradigms.
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Some of the perspectives emerging from mens opportunities to talk about their
own needs naturally create tensions with those who have urged gender-equity
perspectives when for instance the message from a church-based group is that
men must reclaim their role as heads of their families, or when men decide to
organise to fight the maternal bias of the legal system in custody battles for their
children, after marriage or conjugal relationships break down. This should not
be surprising, particularly in the Caribbean, where inter-gender distrust is
deeply socially embedded, and womens achievements in challenging gender
bias in most sectors have been extensive.
There is therefore a need for mens agendas in relation to children and family to
be encouraged and developed as a foundation for respectful debates and
negotiations that can reduce tensions, foster deeper understanding and healthier
relationships, and which take childrens needs seriously into account. Despite
the fact that parenting groups and fatherhood programmes for men are
relatively recent in this region, there is tentative evidence that such an approach
can in fact help to advance gender-equity concerns:
Many men who have begun to seriously examine social roles and issues of
gender have broadened their own understanding of womens positions,
and of their own participation (whether deliberately or unconsciously)
in systems of inequity within the society. This has sometimes led to mens
greater domestic role sharing within the family, and a more open
recognition of their domestic contributions as not just womens work.
Many women have had opportunities to listen to mens perspectives,
including mens pain on issues of family, and to re-examine the broad-
brush stereotypes of Caribbean men as uncaring and irresponsible in
relation to their children. Women have also been challenged to look at their
own socialisation, and the ways in which they may be perpetuating patterns
of behaviour that keep men marginalised from full participation with their
children.
Men themselves often express the wish to share new perspectives gained
from a men-only discussion or workshop with their female partners. The
comfort women generally take for granted in discussions of child-rearing
and relationships does not automatically pass to men included in these
discussions; mens own socialisation has not prepared them for this. But
when encouraged, in settings in which they feel safe from the negativism
they have come to expect, many men are welcoming the opportunity to talk
about their questions, issues, pain, and pleasures in relation to their
families.
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Intervention experience in the Caribbean

While Caribbean research has been helping to focus debates on some of the
dilemmas facing fathers and their families, practitioners at the community level
have proceeded to respond to calls for fatherhood initiatives, often unaware of
the research, or impatient to move forward despite the lack of tested effective
models. Social workers and educators both in and outside of government, media
professionals, church groups, and other community-based workers and
volunteers have been fuelled by an urgency to do something to increase the
positive and significant participation of fathers in the lives of their children.
Whether motivated by a deficit perspective, religious injunctions, economic,
socio-cultural, or personal development considerations, or by role-model
assumptions, there is general consensus that:
Fathers need greater attention and support; this is demanded by both men
and women. Childrens needs in relation to their fathers are being increasingly
recognised; research is assisting our understanding of these needs.
Global trends affect the Caribbean no less than elsewhere: more women are
working outside the home, and men are under more pressure to help with
childcare and domestic responsibilities. For unemployed or under-
employed men, this often conflicts with the cultural assertion that
manhood is defined by financial provision for the family, not by doing
womans work. Many women concur, and do not encourage men to take
on childcaring roles.
Backlash positions from men who feel threatened by womens growing
financial and psychological independence, particularly if men feel socially
or economically vulnerable themselves, move us further from achieving
gender equity, feed levels of domestic violence, and negatively influence
childrens lives. These positions need to be challenged openly.
Traditional ideas of mens roles and behaviours are beginning to be
challenged by a growing awareness of the needs and aspirations of men in
relation to their wives and children (as womens needs and aspirations
beyond the home brought similar challenges), and the growing
dysfunctional nature of these narrow roles for men and for women in
todays world.
A limited review of Caribbean interventions undertaken by the author for the
Bernard van Leer Foundation in 2002 follows; a few have been subsequently
added which have come to attention more recently. This introduces the range of
players that has become involved in fatherhood initiatives, and the range of
programme initiatives. The outline is not exhaustive, but seeks to represent the
known front line examples of such interventions to date in the region.
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Programme initiatives for and by fathers

Work with vulnerable, at risk men
Belize and Dominica have organised parenting courses for men who are in
prison. Belizes National Organisation for the Prevention of Child Abuse and
Neglect (NOPCAN) selected men with short prison sentences, due to be
released within two years of the programme. The men were offered a series of
workshops on parenting issues to examine aspects of their relationships with
their children, and to work to improve and strengthen those relationships
during their incarceration and in preparation for their release. Dominicas Social
Centre, with the National Council on Parenting, also provided men with a short
course on parenting, and in addition visited the spouses and mothers of these
men to ascertain their willingness to work with the men on family issues on
release. Both programmes found the men responsive to the sessions and more
positive about their relationships with their children; both programmes are
seeking funds to follow up and assess the impact on the men and their families
since release. An interesting spin-off in Dominica was the request of the warders
for a similar course for themselves.
Jamaicas Family Planning Association provides workshops for probationers,
pre- and post-prison, who have been found guilty of domestic or sexual abuse;
the victims of the sexual abuse are often the mens young daughters. The courts
assign men to this programme as a condition of their probation or parole, thus
making this one of the few programmes that works with offenders as clients,
rather than just as perpetrators of family-based crimes.
Trinidad and Tobago is the home of the only known organisation of men in the
Caribbean who, like the White Ribbon Campaign in other countries, stand up
collectively against domestic violence. Men Against Violence Against Women
(MAVAW) is an organisation primarily for men who are trying to change their
history of abuse against their girlfriends or spouses, and they work closely with
the Gender and Development Unit of the Trinidad campus of UWI in providing
workshops and public forums on domestic violence and gender equity.
Men-only public forums on issues of fatherhood and manhood

Churches and umbrella church organisations in several countries have mounted
conferences and workshops that call on men to shoulder their God-given roles
and responsibilities. Few, however, have developed on-going programmes to
help fathers accomplish this. One exception is a group of church-based young
men in Jamaica (the Gappists13), founded by university students, who initiated a
summer camp and leadership training for boys. They also worked to articulate a
theoretical framework for understanding the roles of Christian men within the
family and society. This framework acknowledges the importance of the UWI
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research in describing the changing context for men, and it attempts to reconcile
social demands for changing roles with the need to challenge or re-interpret
some of the traditional cultural and religious assumptions that confine
manhood and fatherhood to narrowly prescribed roles within and outside the
family.
Barbados is home to MESA, the Mens Educational Support Association, which
hosts monthly public seminars for men only. Its subcommittees deal with issues
of law, health, counselling, education, and fundraising. The chairman produces
a weekly Mens Forum in a local newspaper.
Conferences and workshops on fatherhood issues

Several regional conferences have been devoted exclusively to issues of men in
their family roles, or have provided sessions within a larger agenda to deal
specifically with fatherhood issues. A 2003 UNESCO and UWI regional
conference on mainstreaming gender equity in the Caribbean included three
presentations on issues affecting men in their family roles. Two regional Early
Childhood Development conferences have held workshops on fatherhood
issues for delegates (in Jamaica in 2000, and Guyana in 2002), and a 2001
regional parenting and public-education workshop placed fatherhood as one of
the central issues.
In 2001, Belize held a National Conference for men only, focusing on mens own
parenting and on their childrens development. The men also explored the
cultural meanings of masculinity, fatherhood, and gender roles within the
diverse ethnic groups of Belize, as well as issues in their relationships with their
wives and partners such as trust, sexuality, and financial support. One outcome
of this conference was a series of sub-regional focus groups with young and
older men on cultural issues of gender socialisation within different ethnic-
group populations, and plans for school-based discussions with children on
gender issues, using the conference participants as facilitators.
In Jamaica, an annual Model Father essay contest run by Fathers Incorporated,
a twelve-year-old support group for fathers, added an all-day retreat for some of
the nominated model fathers in 2003. The group discussed their fathering
experience in depth, including whether their children were planned or not, how
pregnancy and children affected their relationships with their partners, what
they valued most in their relationships with their children, and what factors
within society encouraged and discouraged them in being positive fathers. The
outputs of this workshop will be organised by the group into a booklet for new
fathers, for publication in 2004.
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Parenting-education activities which target fathers

The government of St. Kitts-Nevis has organised thirteen-week courses for men
in seven different communities on issues of parenting; the men help select the
topics of greatest interest to them. Response has been positive, attendance high,
and the media have helped with recruitment publicity as well as covering
graduations. Women are now beginning to say, What about us? We need to be
included. The men have now requested a fourteenth session to include their
partners, in order to share the results of the sessions and to try to improve
communication. The importance of this initiative, as well as its difficulties, were
experienced in the first attempt at a session for partners. The participants found
sharing their feelings with their partners difficult, the session was at times
confrontational, and the outcome disappointing. The programme has recently
recognised the need for a thorough evaluation of the training at this point, to
better understand how to use this opportunity to work more effectively towards
improved partner relationships and parentchild interactions.
Trinidad and Tobago has reported PTA meetings for men only, within a
government outreach programme on gender relations. Response to this
initiative was very positive; one school reported that 129 men attended one
session; another that they had more men in attendance for one session than the
total attendance of men and women at any previous PTA meeting. Barbados
PAREDOS, a parenting-education NGO, gives increasing attention to seminars
and workshops on a range of parenting and gender-socialisation topics for men,
and finds them very responsive.
There are few known sustained attempts to build father-support groups. Fathers
Incorporated in Jamaica is the oldest known such group. Fathers Inc. has
remained small but dynamic, and undertakes a range of public service and
public-education tasks to bring positive fathering models to wider attention.
In late 2003, the group launched a pilot project to assist communities to start and
sustain father-support groups over a period of a year, linked to the resources and
leadership of the parent group.
Fatherchild programmes
Few programmes are known that are specifically aimed at strengthening the
fatherchild relationship. Primary schools have held special Dads and Sons
days in several countries (St. Lucia and Jamaica are examples), responding to the
widespread desire to bring fathers more actively into their childrens school life.
There was also concern about the high drop-out rates for boys and their
increasing under-performance relative to girls in key school exams. Dads and
Sons days consist of education and recreational programmes during the school
day, and girls do not attend that day. In the Bahamas, at least one pre-school
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annually turns the school over to the boys and their fathers (or male surrogates)
with careful guidelines, and activities include baking in competitive groups,
playing pre-school games, and arts and crafts. The fathers have been very
enthusiastic about this approach to introducing them to the rigours of pre-
school life (for teachers and children) as well as to a rewarding day with their
sons.
In Jamaica, Youth.now (a project which focuses primarily on the needs of
adolescents and young men) has recently launched a pilot programme of
community-based activities for fathers and their sons in an inner-city community.
The programme aims to bring fathers, many of them non-residential, into
more satisfying relationships with their sons.
Pre-parenting interventions with children and adolescents

Several countries have developmental performing-arts programmes for young
people. Ashe (Jamaica) has taken its music and drama performances onto the
streets, into schools, and around the Caribbean, with themes dealing with
responsible sexuality, child abuse and incest, and most recently positive
parenting, engaging young audiences in discussion afterwards on the issues
raised in the performance. Gender equity is a consistent theme of this group.
A long-standing Adolescent Development Programme of SERVOL in Trinidad
and Tobago ensures that all the students who have dropped out of school and
attend their trades-training programme also take life-skills courses, which
include pre-parenting topics and hours of practical experience in on-site day-
care programmes. Evaluations over several years suggest that direct results of
these aspects of the programme include delayed pregnancy and a greater
appreciation of the demands of child-rearing.
Reproductive health programmes

Reproductive health has been a common entry point for efforts to engage men
more effectively in family planning and protection from sexually transmitted
diseases. Rising rates of HIV/AIDS transmission have multiplied the numbers of
programmes which are trying to address the pandemics impact. Trinidad and
Tobago and Jamaica report some success in establishing separate clinics (or
clinic days) for men and for adolescents. Reproductive health information and
treatment are the primary areas of interest, but this approach has also
encouraged men to seek information about other male health issues and risk-
taking behaviour. Some hospitals in the region are becoming more father-friendly,
particularly in pre-natal care and birth procedures, but in general, family-health
services are reported as giving little thought to access and participation of
fathers as equal partners in child-rearing and child health.
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Gender-equity approaches
Every country in the region has a Womens Bureau, or Gender Affairs desk.
Few, however, serve both genders as actively as the Ministry of Community
Development and Gender Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago, which has a male
support co-ordinator. This post and budget were created to address three issues:
the under-performance of boys and young men at all levels of schooling; issues
of increasing general and domestic violence; and the need to advance
community-level discourse on gender equity within the wider society. The Unit
works closely with the Gender and Development Unit at the St. Augustine
campus of the UWI to plan workshops and interventions around the country on
these issues.
A CIDA fund for gender equity based in Jamaica has encouraged proposals for
programmes that include approaches to reduce violence against women, and
address more directly the root causes of these behaviours. It is too early to know
if any of these programmes are effective in engaging men, or men and women
together, on these issues.
Public-education approaches
The media, while often reflecting stereotyped images of men and women
throughout the Caribbean, have also been purveyors of new images of
fatherhood, and have reflected and fostered public debates on issues of positive
fathering. A long-running weekly television programme in Jamaica called
Man Talk debated cultural definitions of manhood and fatherhood in an
informal bar-type setting. In Tobago, a radio talk-show host regularly devotes
his Mike at Nite programmes to phone-in debates on male issues, sometimes
requesting only men callers. He has found that men have welcomed this
anonymous space for opening up personal issues from their own perspectives,
and they sometimes using it to vent perceived injustices by the courts
(in maintenance and custody issues) and by their partners (when denied access
to their children). The question of how such a radio programme can link people
to other, more structured, outlets for problem-solving remains open. The level
of distrust and anger between men and women in family matters, which is
reflected throughout the Caribbean in public debates on sensitive family and
relationship issues, indicates that such a linkage is necessary.
Fathers Incorporated (Jamaica) has public education as one of its major
activities, through, for example, peer-counsellor training for its members,
Fathers Day concerts and celebrations, radio and face-to-face debates, and
sponsorship of two African anthropologists who spoke around the country on
patterns of African fatherhood. For seven years, Fathers Inc. has mounted a
Model Father essay contest, with the winning candidate receiving several prizes
124
at a public ceremony honouring responsible fatherhood. The contest and

winner always have considerable media coverage during the Fathers Day period.
The essays themselves have been a rich source of reflections on what children
value in their fathers. It was revealing that in one years analysis of 53 of the
essays, no one spoke specifically of financial provision by fathers as being
important; the writers were more expressive of psychological and emotional
support provided by their fathers.
Summary comments on programme interventions

What is clear from reviewing these varied examples is that there is as yet no
overall regional strategy for advancing a mens agenda in the area of fatherwork,
much less in the area of gender equity. There is little communication among
programmes; most dont know about each other. There is as yet no sense of a
Caribbean movement or even recognition of common interests and efforts,
except at regional meetings and conferences in which fatherhood issues are
central, or between elements of programmes. Fatherwork remains primarily a
concept tool for analysis and reflection about existing programmes, rather than a
consciously adopted approach in practical work.
What is also seriously lacking to date is evidence of any systematic effort to
evaluate the impact of any of these approaches. St. Kitts-Nevis has recently
expressed the desire to thoroughly evaluate their three years of fathers-only
courses, for impact on the men and their families; it is hoped they will soon do
that. But beyond post-session evaluations by participants, which are usually
positive about participation and content, and the anecdotal evidence of benefits
from a given intervention claimed by programme organisers or by fathers and
their families, the author could discover little in the way of evaluative material
that could confidently guide others planning interventions with scarce resources
and little time to waste on unproductive efforts. Better-informed interventions
are needed, and a broader regional approach to fatherhood issues could be more
effectively built on such research.
Lessons from the interventions

Having said this, however, there are some preliminary lessons to benefit planners
from these programme initiatives.
Approaches from a deficit perspective can be effective only when men
themselves identify the deficits as their own, and want to do something
about them. Men in prison, men on probation, or other such captive
audiences may respond positively if they acknowledge the ways in which
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their behaviours have negatively affected their children or partner

relationships. Otherwise, both captive and voluntary audiences of men will
resist approaches which they perceive begin with negative judgements and
aim to fix them, usually for the benefit of others.
Developmental approaches, in which desired outcomes are stated in terms
of mens own expressed desires for improved relationships with children
and partners, greater personal satisfaction, and increased investment in
their family, are psychologically and emotionally, as well as financially,
more likely to be attractive to men as fathers or potential fathers. This is
particularly likely when the programme is consultative in terms of choice
of topic, venue, and timing, is participatory in nature, and is facilitated in a
non-judgmental way.
There is a clear need to create spaces with men alone, for them to become
comfortable and non-defensive in talking about subjects that would place
them under fire in many mixed groups. Men have not generally been
socialised to talk about their family relationships in the ways that women
have. However, in many of the cases cited above, men have welcomed
opportunities to learn more about child development, about the
importance of fathers to children, and about their own behaviours and
feelings in relation to their children, without having to defend themselves.
Inherent in the lesson above, however, is the danger of polarising mens
positions versus womens on family issues, increasing rather than
decreasing levels of tension and misunderstanding. Women have often felt
excluded from these approaches, perhaps forgetting that the womens
movement itself progressed out of many such separate and strengthening
debates that were also often about anger, the need for redress, tensions
about power relationships, as well as about self-examination, personal
change, and challenges to grow in different directions. It is significant that
the UNESCO conference on gender mainstreaming recognised that after
considerable progress for womens equality throughout the Caribbean,
true gender equity will not ultimately be achieved without the engagement
of men at all levels of the debate and the search for solutions, taking mens
and womens agendas into account.14 Perhaps this stage of men-only
engagement needs to be continually interpreted not as an end in itself,
but on a continuum towards a healthier dialogue with women on all the
issues that constrain malefemale relationships and family health.
The needs of children, and for a fathers contribution in their lives, seems
to be a positive entry point for engaging men in broader issues of gender
equity. The welfare of mens children cannot be discussed realistically
without engaging in a discussion of the relationship(s) they have or had
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with the childrens mother(s). Aspirations for sons and daughters cannot be
discussed without engaging in debates about how boys and girls should be
socialised. The UWI research outlined the many ways in which children
hold meanings for men that can be explored in developmental ways,
because most fathers (like most mothers) do aspire to be better parents.
A childrens rights perspective can help to promote gender equity.
Children are entitled to a relationship with both parents, except when the
relationship has proven harmful. Both parents are entitled to a relationship
with their children, even when not living with them. However, mothers have
been the traditional gatekeepers of mens relationships with their children,
as the bitter testimony of many men seeking custody or visiting rights to
their children shows. Even without legal contest, many Caribbean women
discourage or sever the relationship between their childrens father(s) and
the children when the partner relationship breaks down, and particularly
when the mans financial contribution is seen as insufficient. Fatherwork,
by keeping central the developmental needs and feelings of children, can
help to avoid polarising gender positions, and can aid gender relations in
the process.
Recommendations for future Caribbean fatherwork

This brief review of research and programme experience in the Caribbean
suggests that the greatest responsiveness from men is elicited through
approaches that are not heavily prescriptive; are sequenced sessions, not one-
shot encounters; are highly participatory; and that take the specific needs and
interests of men into account. Men-only sessions can provide an environment
more conducive to self-examination. These approaches need to be shared and
replicated with guidance and support from those with confident experience.
Ways need to be tested for the more effective transfer of the benefits men
derive from men-only discussions to discussions with their spouses and
partners about their relationships with them and with their children.
The levels of distrust, hurt, and anger between men and women over family
matters is one of the most common threads throughout the work reported,
and calls for carefully implemented programmes that assist in the
acquisition of communication and negotiation skills that can build
mutual respect.
The materials and modes of delivery used in interventions have not been
rigorously evaluated for effectiveness or impact on either the fathers or
their families. Carefully designed impact studies for the Caribbean are
needed, and should be selected for their potential to inform the regions
planning and implementation efforts. Impact studies require considerable
127
time and money, and need to be planned long before programmes are
underway. These conditions have been hard to meet within the resource
constraints of the Caribbean. However, practitioners deserve to know if
their well-meaning efforts are having the desired results, and how they can
alter programmes to make better use of limited financial and human
resources.
There has been insufficient Caribbean research on the significance of
fathers from a childs perspective. Branche and Ramkissoon have both
called for the addition of more psychological studies to our sociological and
historical research.15 Ramkissoons recent work confirmed that physically
absent fathers were not necessarily psychologically or emotionally absent
from their childrens lives, but in fact often played strong roles. Barrow also
reminds us that we have not begun to examine the value of stepfathers and
social fathers within our Caribbean context; these men often play very
significant roles, especially when biological fathers are not present.16
Research in this area would spark more programme attention to
fatherchild relationships.
There is a great need for more regional networking on fatherhood issues,
to share approaches, materials that work, and lessons learned. Most
organisations are developing programmes for fathers in virtual isolation,
with extremely limited resources, few materials, and without the support
of a guiding framework from collective regional experience.
Finally, a developmental, rather than a deficit approach, offers a more
auspicious framework for programme efforts examining fatherhood
roles with men from many diverse backgrounds and in diverse family
arrangements. A fatherwork agenda, developed with and by men, should
be the point of departure for developing support for the expressed desire
of Caribbean men to learn and grow as men, as partners, as fathers, and as
contributors to their communities.
Acknowledgement
This paper summarises a longer case study undertaken for the Bernard van Leer
Foundation, The Hague, and is submitted with their permission. Fathers
participation with children was the focus of this review of programmes within
the Caribbean region, and not the promotion of gender equity per se. While the
author draws attention to some actual and potential outcomes which address
more equitable relationships and load-share between men and women, there
was no deliberate examination of the extent to which issues of gender equity
have been successfully addressed by the focus on fatherhood. Further work is
128
required to uncover initiatives that have focussed more directly on the ways in
which men and women, as well as children, have benefited from these programmes,
and from others with gender equity as a clear objective.
Notes
1 D. Dollahite, A. Hawkins, and S. Brotherson (1997) A conceptual ethic of fathering as
generative work in A. Hawkins and D. Dollahite (eds.), Generative Fathering: Beyond Deficit
Perspectives, Newbury Park, C.A.: Sage.
2 Partner is the common Caribbean term used to denote wife, common-law spouse, or the
steady girlfriend who may also be a baby-mother(the mother of a mans children). Marriage
rates in the region remain nearly 20 per cent, so the majority of children are born and remain
in non-legal unions.
3 J. Brown (1989) Survey of Services to Young Children: a 12 Country Report, report to

UNICEF, CCDC, and UWI, Mona, Jamaica.
4 J. Brown and B. Chevannes (1998) Why Man Stay So?, Kingston, Jamaica: UWI and UNICEF.
5 C. Branche (1998) Boys in Conflict: Community, Gender, Identity and Sex, paper presented at
a workshop on Family and the Quality of Gender Relations, UWI, March 1997, Mona, Jamaica;
B. Chevannes (1999) What You Sow is What You Reap: Problems in the Construction of
Male Misidentity in Jamaica, Grace Kennedy Foundation Lecture, Kingston, Jamaica; and
B. Chevannes (1996) Surviving Against the Current: the Real Position of Caribbean Men, paper
presented at a conference on Caribbean Males: an Endangered Species, UWI, Mona, Jamaica.
6 W. Bailey, C. Branche, McGarrity, and S. Stuart (1998) Family and the Quality of Gender
Relations in the Caribbean, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Mona, Jamaica: UWI;
and M. Ramkissoon (2001) The Psychology of Fathering in the Caribbean: An Investigation
of the Physical and Psychological Presence of the Jamaican Father, M.A. thesis, UWI, Mona,
Jamaica.
7 C. Barrow (2002) Child rights and Caribbean family life: contesting the rhetoric of male
marginality, female-headed households and extended family breakdown in C. Barrow (ed.)
(2002) Childrens Rights: Caribbean Realities, Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers,
pp. 2089.
8 B. Chevannes (2002) Fatherhood in the African-Caribbean landscape: an exploration in

meaning and context in C. Barrow (2002) op. cit.
9 C. Branche (2002) Ambivalence, sexuality and violence in the construction of Caribbean

masculinity: dangers for boys in Jamaica, in C. Barrow op. cit., p. 89.
10 J. Brown and B. Chevannes (1998) op. cit.
11 B. Chevannes (2001) Learning to be a Man, Kingston, Jamaica: UWI Press.
12 See M. Figueroa (1996) Male Privileging and Male Academic Underperformance in Jamaica,
paper presented at a workshop on Construction of Caribbean Masculinity: Towards a
Research Agenda, Centre for Gender and Development Studies, St. Augustine, UWI.
13 From The Bible, Ezekiel 22: 30.
129
14 Mainstreaming Gender for Development regional consultation sponsored by UNESCO,

University of the West Indies ( Mona Campus), 3031 January 2003.
15 C. Branche (1998) op. cit., and M. Ramkissoon (2001) op. cit.
16 A social father is a man who performs fathering functions for a child or children as a member
of the extended family or neighbourhood, but is not the biological father. See C. Barrow
(2002) op. cit.
130
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Addressing mens role in family violence:

the experience of the Sakhli Womens Advice Centre,
Georgia
Rusudan Pkhakadze and Nana Khoshtaria
Introduction
The Sakhli Womens Advice Centre has been working since 1997 on the problem
of family violence in Georgia, supported by Oxfam GB. The centre provides
psychological and social counselling and legal advice to victims, works to inform
public opinion and raise public awareness, and lobbies for the development of
an appropriate legal framework.
As one of the post-Soviet states, Georgia is in the process of transition from a
totalitarian regime to a democracy. The country is therefore undergoing
significant economic, political, and social changes, which are having an impact
on all aspects of public life. This chapter describes this shifting context, and in
particular highlights the links between economic hardship, unemployment, and
mens violence within families. It then outlines Sakhlis growing experience in
tackling these issues, and concludes by setting out some ideas for the develop-
ment of this work in future.
Changing gender relations in Georgia

In Georgia, transition has been accompanied by economic and political crisis.
Former Soviet industries have collapsed; unemployment and inflation have
soared; civil wars and ethnic conflicts have erupted across the region; and
corruption has flourished. Even basic services such as energy and gas supplies
have seriously deteriorated, damaging housing conditions and peoples health.
As a result, poverty and insecurity have become serious problems for the
majority of Georgias population. According to the Economic Development and
Poverty Reduction Programme of Georgia, from 2001, 52 per cent of the
population has been living below the official subsistence minimum.1
Gender-disaggregated data are not available with respect to poverty. However,
the evidence suggests that certain population groups in which women are the
majority (such as older people, internally displaced people, people with
disabilities), as well as single mothers, have been increasingly marginalised.
131
Gender and poverty among internally displaced people
The problems facing internally displaced people are especially acute. In 2002, 55 per cent
of Georgias 264,217 internally displaced people were women.2 They live in so-called
organised settlement centres in abysmal conditions, which affect their health and
well-being and that of their families. Women suffer most from this situation, as they
undertake most domestic labour and have to cope with the problems caused by
inadequate housing (in caring for their children, for example). Many women also find
paid work outside the formal labour market, and often become the main family
breadwinners. In such circumstances, shifts in gender relations may occur, resulting
either in a gradual renegotiation of family roles, an increase in womens authority, or
in cases of domestic violence. Such changes may take place even if the women try to
avoid challenging mens traditional control over family decision making.
Although in theory men and women have equal rights before the law under the
Georgian Constitution (Article 14), in reality women remain subjugated to men
in many spheres of life. For instance, in the legislative and executive branches of
government, the rates of womens representation are very low. Only six per cent
of MPs are women, and between only two and three per cent of those holding
decision-making posts in the civil service. There are also few women active in
political parties.
Longstanding patriarchal attitudes and behaviour patterns are firmly entrenched in
Georgia, and the society remains a male-dominated one. The traditional image
of a womans role and responsibilities is that she should keep the family together,
look after the children, and maintain the home. A man, meanwhile, is considered
to be the head of the family, and he does not view a woman as an equal partner
in family decision making.
As in other former Soviet states that gained independence following the official
fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, a nationalist political discourse in Georgia has
identified reproduction and housekeeping to be womens primary responsibility,
and has sought to remove women from the public domain. In Georgia, as
elsewhere, women have always been subject to traditional gender roles and
expectations: the experience of the majority of women that of carrying the
double burden of working and caring pre-dates the demise of the USSR,
discrediting the myth that gender equality existed in Soviet times.
Shifts in gender roles are now increasingly evident. In the process of transition
to a market-based economy, women appear to be not only responsible for
housekeeping and childcare, but are also breadwinners. The traditional family
model of male provider and female homemaker, which was standard during the
Soviet era, is changing. In the middle and lower classes of society (the majority
132
Addressing mens role in family violence
of the population), women find employment more easily than men (although
such work is largely unregulated and often exploitative), whereas men are
increasingly confronted with the problems of unemployment, poverty, and lack
of opportunity.
In the last decade, the government and the wider public have become more
aware that gender-related issues such as inequality, discrimination, and domestic
abuse are causing serious concern and require urgent action in response.
Through the activism of the womens movement and the influence of the
international community, problems that were previously considered less
important or non-existent have been put on the States agenda. Womens NGOs,
in particular, have been very active in running seminars, conferences, and
training events, in undertaking research, and in producing publications on a
wide variety of topics.
The main thrust of this growing recognition of the importance of focusing on
gender has been on improving the circumstances and status of women. Raising
mens awareness of (and involvement in) achieving gender equality has not been
given any consideration. There is currently no understanding in Georgia of the
importance of studying masculinities, or of the need to generate public debate on
this issue. Major obstacles persist, including stereotypical views of gender roles
and widespread indifference not only among men, but also among women.
The nature of family violence

In 2002, Sakhli conducted a survey in Tbilisi to study public attitudes towards
domestic violence. Half of the 400 participants were men and half were women.3
The results obtained from respondents were very revealing. They showed that:
The majority did not consider violence to be a broad social problem, but a
private issue that occurs in the domestic domain and should be settled
within the family (62 per cent of men, 52 per cent of women).
Domestic violence, protection against violence, and the development
of relevant legislation are more important for women then for men
(50 per cent of men, 79 per cent of women).
Economic hardship and unemployment were named as the major cause
of family problems, of conflicts and domestic violence, of undermining
family functioning, and of the creation tension between family members
(48 per cent of men, 46 per cent of women).
The majority of respondents, male (46 per cent) as well as female
(63 per cent), consider men to be the main perpetrators of family violence.
133
Unfortunately, it is difficult to define precisely the extent of family violence and

to identify whether it has worsened in recent years, as official statistics do not
exist. But the findings of our research, together with our practical project
experience, suggest that the increasingly difficult economic and political climate
in Georgia is having an impact on gender relations and that family violence
may be increasing as a result.
Comparative analysis of the views of male and female respondents in the 2002
Sakhli survey showed that their attitudes to the opposite sex are mutually
critical. Overall, the research revealed a tendency among men and women to
interpret the behaviour of the other sex as being aggressive, and to shift
responsibility for conflict onto other members of the family. Such antagonism
makes attempts at conflict resolution and the prevention of domestic violence
extremely hard to achieve.
An especially important finding from the research is that the majority of both
women and men believe that men are the main perpetrators of family violence.
This recognition leads us to argue that violent behaviour is generally perceived
as an integral part of male behaviour, and as a normal feature of being a man.
Violence within the family is increasingly common, and is often socially
condoned, or accepted as a sign of normal masculinity. It is not therefore a
bearer of a negative meaning for men.
Paradoxically, however, the dominant view within Georgian society is that in
theory physical violence towards woman is unacceptable indeed the results of
our survey show that 84 per cent of respondents, both men and women, consider
it to be inadmissible. Yet what is being referred to here is, in fact, violence outside
the family.Unfortunately,there is a disparity between the widespread condemnation
of violence against women in public, and an acceptance of gender-based
violence in private. To combat domestic violence, it is therefore crucial to
challenge such contradictory attitudes within society and to break down the
boundaries of public and private that maintain discriminatory practices
towards women.
Developing Sakhlis response

In order to increase the impact of Sakhlis work on the problems women face, we
concluded that it is necessary to work with men, and to increase their awareness
of, and sensitivity to, gender issues. This recognition was strongly supported by
evidence from our advice and rehabilitation work that engaging with both
partners of a couple was more effective in resolving family problems than
working with just one (usually the woman).
134
Engaging men through such work helps to make them aware of the issues their
spouses face, and to look at their own behaviour from the viewpoint of their
wives. Once this shift in perspective happens, and men are willing to co-operate,
positive changes occur. If rehabilitation is undertaken only with female victims
of domestic violence, the position of the women usually improves to some
extent. But family problems will not be resolved completely if male partners
continue to behave in the same way.
We believe that involving men in the settlement of family conflicts and the
prevention and elimination of family violence is an important aspect of work to
reduce domestic violence. But in practice this is not always possible. It is often
only women who are prepared to seek psychological help to address their
problems. In contrast, men are usually reticent to seek expert assistance from
outside in what they regard as internal family matters.
Although Sakhli has not as yet established programmes specifically targeted at
men, men are nevertheless increasingly involved with the organisations work.
In addition to participating in the research outlined above, men form eight to
ten per cent of those obtaining advice at the centre. Men have also taken part in
a range of activities to raise public awareness, including round-table debates,
TV programmes, and training events. Below, we set out some examples of the
activities Sakhli undertakes with men, including individual counselling and
wider social action.
Counselling
In Sakhlis practice, we are mainly approached by women who suffer from
domestic violence and who are materially dependent on their husbands. So far,
it has been very difficult to reach out to the husbands of these women, as they are
resistant, and do not acknowledge the role that counselling can play in family
disputes. As indicated above, we think that at the root of their resistance is the
traditional perception that whatever happens in the family is nobody elses
business. However, we firmly believe that the problem of domestic violence will
not be eliminated unless men are involved in initiatives to tackle domestic
violence, and unless the public acknowledges domestic violence as being socially
unacceptable and criminal behaviour.
Although men are only a small proportion around one in ten of the centres
beneficiaries, this can still be considered a relatively high figure, taking into
consideration existing stereotypes and traditions. Men who come to Sakhli
for support are mainly seeking help with psychological problems, depression,
alcoholism, difficulties in personal relationships, unemployment, and legal
issues. Several case studies are presented below, illustrating domestic violence
and the results of mens involvement in rehabilitation and advice work.
135
Case study 1
A 46-year-old man visited the centre. He faced problems in his relationship with
his wife. After ten years living together, their marriage was about to collapse.
The major cause of the problems was infidelity and psychological abuse by the
man. The counsellor talked to the couple separately and together in an attempt
to clarify the issues and to explore the couples common interests and problems.
As a result, the couple came to understand each others position, and expressed
their willingness to make efforts to overcome the family crisis. The problem was
settled, and the couple was able to maintain the marriage.
In this case, the mans initiative to ask for psychological help to resolve the family
problem, and his readiness to make significant changes to maintain the family,
were particularly interesting. By talking to a psychologist, he was able to identify
solutions to his problems. This is not a typical case, however, and the man
concerned only took the initiative in a crisis situation.
Case study 2
A 28-year-old young man visited the centre. He had been involved in an informal
relationship with a woman for five years. He claimed to love her very much, and
did not want to end the relationship with her, but he could not accept the fact that
she had had a relationship with another man. The man seeking help felt very
aggressive towards his girlfriend but, at the same time, he felt great affection for
her. Being torn in two directions was undermining his emotional and psycho-
logical health. After several visits to the centre, his aggression diminished, and
he came to look at his situation from a different perspective. Eventually, he
managed to make a decision and, crucially, acted upon it by ending the
relationship. The couple separated peacefully, and the man was able to rebuild
his life.
In this case, the man considered himself to be a victim. In reality, his problem
was that he wanted his partner to conform to his stereotypes and to service his
needs, and he wanted the relationship to conform to his own standards. The
relationship was terminated, as the young man could not accept his girlfriends
viewpoint and position. He realised that his own attitude was not wholly
justified.
Case study 3
A 32-year-old woman visited the centre. She had been married for nine years
and had two children (eight and six years old). If she disagreed with her husband,
she was subjected to psychological, physical, and sexual violence. As a result of
getting psychological assistance, significant improvements occurred in particular
her self-confidence and her trust in the psychologist increased. These improve-
ments in the womans self-esteem were evident within the family. Her husband
noticed the change, and decided to come to the centre to try to re-establish
control over the disobedient wife. He attempted to get the counsellor to help him
136
strengthen his authority over his wife, but as he was not ready to analyse his own
motivations and make changes, he remained hostile to his wife and to the
counsellor. Consequently, settlement of the family problem was only temporary.
As in the previous case, this case illustrates that even when improvements in the
wifes situation occur, it is still difficult to settle a family problem if the husband
does not see the need to change his attitudes and behaviour.
Psychological intervention gives clients the opportunity to learn more about
themselves and their partners, and to see the potential for improvements in
awareness and personal growth. They can get information on domestic violence
and help to identify their problems; they can learn to control their own behaviour
and to overcome loneliness and marginalisation. However, the problem in
Georgian society remains that men do not usually seek such assistance, and their
female partners cannot make them agree to receive counselling.
Wider action to prevent domestic violence
The extent and nature of domestic violence in Georgian society suggest that, in
addition to individual counselling, wider preventive measures are necessary to
break down mens denial and resistance. Sakhli has therefore initiated a number
of activities towards this end, which are briefly described below.
Public-awareness campaign
Domestic violence was the topic for discussion at a series of four round-table
debates that were held in Tbilisi in 2002, within the framework of a public-
awareness raising campaign. The participants of these debates, about 80 in total,
were representatives of the social services, law enforcement bodies, educators,
and the mass media. The organisers paid special attention to involving men in
these discussions. A TV debate was also broadcast, during which women and
men discussed the causes and consequences of domestic violence.
During these events, men and women talked about the social and economic
roots of violence. The participants tended to believe that rapid shifts in the
division of gender roles were one of the major reasons for the violence. If men
can no longer play the role of the major breadwinner in the family, they fear that
they may cede control of family issues to their wives, a belief which in turn
aggravates family conflict. (Alongside this perspective, it is also important to
note that traditional male dominance in the family can be a cause of family
violence too, and that domestic violence is not a recent problem).
The main conclusions from the discussions were that:
men who are highly aware of gender and related issues represent a huge
resource for initiating and developing work with men, and can strongly
influence other men;
137
activities on domestic violence and on gender issues initiated and arranged

by men are more acceptable to other men;
such work needs to be sustained if it is to reach the target audience and
trigger their interest.
Sensitising the police

In Tbilisi in 2002, Sakhli piloted a project within the police service to raise staff s
awareness of domestic violence. In addition to providing information about the
problem, we encouraged participants (95 per cent of whom were men) to
express their opinions and attitudes freely during discussions, rather than give
lectures. In this way, the project succeeded in developing an atmosphere of
collaboration and trust among the participants.
The police training was interesting, because it was the first ever initiative in
Tbilisi with representatives of law enforcement agencies on the issue of domestic
violence; in other words, with individuals widely viewed by the public as
perpetrators of violence within a structure where corruption is rife. But through
dialogue with the participants, it emerged that they also considered themselves
to be victims of institutional violence. Of particular importance to them were
the problems they face in their work in general, and in relation to domestic
violence. They highlighted, for example, that they experience negative attitudes
from society, which act as an obstacle in their work. They also feel unsupported
by the State and the law. They feel their powers and rights are limited, they are
inadequately remunerated for their work (very often they receive no
remuneration at all), and their working hours are long and anti-social.
As with the general public, male police officers regard domestic violence as a
private, family matter, though a number of participants recognised its wider,
social aspects. But the absence of appropriate legislation on domestic violence,
and of adequate methods and resources make it difficult for law-enforcement
agencies to respond.
As a result of the project, it became clear that, on one hand, police-service
thinking about domestic abuse and strategies to combat this problem need to be
developed. On the other, intensive work needs to be undertaken to increase the
publics trust in law enforcement.
Recommendations
In addition to continuing intervention at the individual level both with the
victims and perpetrators of violence, there is a need to develop sensitive strategies
for increasing mens gender-awareness and support for gender equality, and for
138
challenging the widespread acceptance of domestic violence as a normal aspect

of life. Beyond the specific activities promoted by Sakhli, further action is
required by government and other key stakeholders to explore the links between
economic hardship and domestic violence, and to respond to the dominance of
aggressive forms of masculinity within Georgian society.
Taking into consideration the traditions and cultural norms present in Georgian
society today, a comprehensive approach might involve:
a commitment to non-violence by individuals, communities, and
government at all levels;
a government-sponsored media campaign to increase public awareness
through TV programmes and debates;
focus-group discussions involving men and women to explore problems
faced by men in Georgian society;
legal reforms to remove the acceptance of violence;
the development of services for the rehabilitation of victims of domestic
violence and perpetrators; and
improved information and research into the nature of masculinity, and into
mens attitudes towards gender equality and gender-based violence.
Our main conclusion from working on the problem of domestic violence is that
the involvement of both women and men is of prime importance if effective
anti-domestic violence strategies are to be developed.
Notes
1 Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Program of Georgia, Tbilisi, June 2003, p. 11.
2 Source: IDPs Reference Book, Migrant Association, Georgia Ministry of Refugees and
Accommodation (2002) Tbilisi: Pirveli Stamba, p. 395.
3 The full distribution of respondents was as follows:

by age group: 2335 (49.8 per cent); 3550 (39 per cent); older than 50 (21.3 per cent);
by the amount of individual income per month: about $20 (17.3 per cent); $2050 (19.3 per cent);
$50100 (16 per cent); $200 (32.8 per cent); without individual income (14.8 per cent).
The great majority (90 per cent) of respondents were Georgian. The share of other nationalities
(Russians and Armenians) constituted 10 per cent of respondents.
139
return to contents
Liberation for everyone, not just men

A case study of the Mens Association Against Violence
(AMKV) in Timor Leste1
Mario De Araujo
Two days after Asosiaun Mane Kontra Violensia (Mens Association Against
Violence AMKV) was established, we held a press conference. TV reporters
covered the event, and news of the press conference was broadcast on
Timor Leste TV. The next day, we received congratulations from womens
organisations but from men we received insults. One said, You in the AMKV
are all a bunch of queers, another said, What a strange world this is where
instead of supporting each other, men are defending womens rights.
This, unfortunately, is the mindset of many men in Timor Leste. In our new era
of independence, which follows 24 years of violent struggle against Indonesia
accompanied by unrelenting human-rights violations, the rights of East Timorese
women remain largely neglected. The continuing severity of gender inequality
raises the fundamental question: has independence in Timor Leste resulted in
liberation for men only?
Gender inequality issues in Timor Leste may have their solution in the future,
but their roots are embedded in the past. Timor Leste is a strongly patriarchal
society. Men have complete control and dominate all aspects of social, economic,
and political life. Men are the unchallenged decision makers in affairs relating to
tradition, law, and custom. This unchecked power results in men having the
freedom to do whatever they want. At its most extreme, this power extends to
having control over the life and death of a woman.
Domestic violence in Timor Leste is very common. A study conducted in 2003
reported that 43 per cent of women had experienced at least one incident of
violence by their partner in the last year.2 Police figures suggest that between
40 and 50 per cent of all incidents reported involve domestic violence.3 As in
many other countries around the world, this type of behaviour by men towards
women is tolerated, as there is a widespread view that culture or tradition allows
a husband to educate his wife and children by whatever means necessary.4
This chapter begins by describing how violence became rooted so strongly in
Timor Leste, and how the Mens Association Against Violence was established to
counter it. It then describes the aims of the organisation, its links with womens
groups, and its activities, both in the field and nationally. Although AMKVs
140
work is still developing, the chapter concludes with some reflections on what has
been learned from the work so far.
Establishing the Mens Association Against Violence

The Indonesian occupation created a culture of violence in Timor Leste. The use
of violence and force was promoted as an acceptable way of resolving individual
or group problems and disputes. Violence against women, including the rape
and torture of women and girls, was used as a deliberate tactic by the Indonesian
military and police to achieve political and psychological advantage over the
population. While cases have been recorded of violence against women
perpetrated by the East Timor Resistance fighters and the Japanese army in
World War II, the number of cases was small, and the tactic was used less
systematically than during the Indonesian occupation.
This history of disrespect for the rights of women in periods of conflict, and also
in their homes in times of peace, has resigned women to believe that they have
no rights and no control over their own lives. If this situation is allowed to
continue, the gender inequality facing Timorese women and girls will continue
to grow, and our new nation will never achieve true independence.
The legacy of violence against the Timorese people, including the unacceptably
high level of gender-based discrimination and violence (mainly perpetrated by
men against women and children) provided the motivation for the establish-
ment of the Mens Association Against Violence in June 2002.
AMKV was founded by 20 concerned men from various parts of the country,
the majority of whom had participated in an international exchange on gender-
based violence held in March and April 2002. The exchange, organised by a
national NGO (Lao Hamutuk) and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, brought
Timorese men into contact with Puntos dos Encuentros, a mens group from
Nicaragua that is working against violence in a post-conflict, machismo culture.
During the exchange, Puntos dos Encuentos conducted training with 38 male
participants on gender, violence, and masculinity. This workshop encouraged
the participants to confront and reflect on their behaviour towards the women
in their families and as a society.
The workshop had two main outcomes. First, it provided an opportunity for
men to discuss violence and discrimination against women, a subject that many
of the participants had reflected on but never discussed openly with other men.
As one said,I have seen the suffering of my mother and I have seen that womens
life is harder, but I have never talked to other men about it. Second, a proportion
of the participants were sufficiently inspired by the work of Puntos dos Encuentros
141
to want to work together to address the problem in Timor Leste. I suppose I

wanted to tell and show other men that you could change, said another
participant. I also wanted to change. I dont want to hurt the women in my life
or see them hurt by others now in Timor we have the space, peace, and
opportunity do this.
The vision of AMKV is to build a democratic, independent, and just society, free
from violence and discrimination. It aims to raise the awareness of men and
women about gender-based violence, and to eradicate such violence from all
levels of society. AMKV seeks to achieve this by running community-based
education and discussion forums, undertaking advocacy, and building an
effective network bringing together community groups, national non-govern-
ment organisations, and the government.
From the outset, AMKV was committed to supporting the substantial work
already being done on gender and gender-based violence by womens groups
in Timor Leste. The response of women activists to our organisation and
programme has been very positive, and we recognise that the very existence of
AMKV is an endorsement of the work of womens organisations in the past to
raise awareness of gender inequality. Having men involved in gender is a relief,
one women activist remarked,If in all our districts men did what you are doing,
then East Timor would be a peaceful society. We wholeheartedly support this
initiative and you must go into the remote areas to share your experiences with
the men there.
AMKV works in close co-operation with womens groups and government
departments that are promoting gender equality. We share funding and resources,
enter into collaborative programming, and belong to the National Movement
Against Violence. As AMKV is still a small volunteer group, the extent of our
activities and amount of funding we have required until now is relatively small
compared with the larger womens groups. The close working relationship we
have with other groups working on domestic violence (including womens
groups) has created opportunities for collaboration on awareness campaigns,
and has also prevented competition over resources.
AMKVs activities
Initially, AMKV set up a national volunteer structure involving men from all
over the country. The volunteers would facilitate communication and co-
ordinate activities in their districts. In addition to formally establishing the
Association, we planned the first stages of a five-year campaign against gender-
based violence, to be carried out in collaboration with womens groups across
the country.
142
Internally, we recognised that key to our success would be the capacity of AMKV
members to make positive changes in their own lives. We established a monthly
reflection meeting for our members. In this meeting we discuss cases of
discrimination and violence against women, but we also analyse our own
behaviour towards women. We encourage our members to get feedback from
their wives and families, and in general our families are very supportive of our
work with AMKV. Not all members have found this process easy, and if it
becomes clear that a particular man has no commitment to controlling his own
violence, then we would ask him to leave. However, in most cases the other
members are able to provide the positive reinforcement needed to sustain the
changes.
AMKVs main activity is to conduct weekend discussion forums in communities
and high schools, always involving participants of both sexes. Before the forums
started, we were apprehensive as to how people would receive us and whether we
would be able to influence their beliefs or behaviour especially for male
participants. We were acutely aware that men are usually the perpetrators of
violence, so would they feel threatened? Would they be willing to change?
We reflected on our own behaviour: we used to be like that and then slowly, with
guidance from other mens groups and each other, we changed. The answer was
simple: if we can change, then so can others.
Using a popular education approach, we focus on domestic violence and
problems related to the tradition and customs that influence our perceptions of
gender. We use common situations that would be familiar to the participants,
and we talk about our own personal experiences of change. We always promote
examples of practical and realistic behaviour-change, so that on leaving the
forums participants have the knowledge to make immediate change in their own
lives. There are often heated debates during the discussions, but there is also a lot
of humour and goodwill as participants reflect on the origins of their traditions,
beliefs, and behaviour around gender differences.
In a discussion in a village on the topic of housework, one man remarked,
Some of the things youve talked about, I have done ever since I got married.
For instance, when my wife gave birth, I washed and cooked and even bathed her.
Thats nothing out of the ordinary for me because we have to understand the
circumstances our wives are in. When a man like this comes forward and
inevitably they do in each discussion we use his story to disprove the theory
that tradition dictates our actions, and encourage participants to see that they
have the power to control their own behaviour. We take the analysis further by
asking the man who has stood up whether he would be willing to support his girl
children to be educated and his wife to have a voice in village decision making.
Most importantly we ask him,Are you willing to eliminate the use of violence in
143
your household and your village?. Our experiences with these activities are
varied, but generally communities are enthusiastic, even though participants are
asked to reflect critically upon and to challenge themselves and their society.
AMKV is also involved in gender advocacy. We have lobbied the Gender Advisory
Unit within the Department of Education to remove gender bias from school
materials from primary to tertiary levels. We have also been involved in drafting
the legislation on domestic violence, and we monitor gender-based violence in
the criminal courts.
These activities have generated some criticism and ridicule from men in
different sectors. Ridicule is directed at our sexuality and it is common for
people to think that we are gay. Criticism comes from colleagues and friends who
believe that we should be using our energy and influence to tackle other more
pressing developmental issues such as poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods,
and economic empowerment. On the other hand, we increasingly receive
positive feedback from key national figures such as the President, members of
parliament, the police, and departmental ministers. At the community level,
there are men who are responsive and willing to be involved. However, at all
levels of Timorese society, there is still a high level of disinterest and apathy
around issues of gender and gender-based violence.
Lessons from our experience

From the activities undertaken by AMKV, we have learned that it is important to
explore everyday issues in discussion, and at the same time, to give examples of
positive experiences and change from other regions of the country. We realised
early on that talking about textbook analysis or gender theory did not interest
participants, and often resulted in conflict between the men and women present.
High levels of illiteracy also impact on our approach to the discussions.
Feedback from participants reveals that they prefer to learn and explore issues
through drama, and by analysing everyday situations that occur in their village
or lives. We attempt to engage their emotions during the session, for example we
ask them, If your daughter was rejected for a job because she was female how
would you feel? Is it fair? If it is not fair, why does it happen? Who makes the
rules?Men.
AMKV uses a strong human-rights approach in talking about gender-based
violence. AMKV has been established at a time when people in Timor Leste,
exhausted by years of constant violence and conflict, have a strong commitment
to protecting human rights. The Constitution, of which East Timorese are very
proud, enshrines the rights of all people, and of women in particular. We use this
passion and commitment to human rights to promote good citizenship.
144
We point out that domestic violence is a violation of human rights, and that
under the Constitution of Timor Leste it is considered a crime, and can result in
imprisonment.
We use this process to talk about all forms of violence in communities. We explore
with participants the reasons that people solve their problems with violence.
We explain that violence is a learned response that has been passed from
generation to generation. In role-plays, we ask people to act out a violent
argument. Invariably, participants comment that, to an outsider observer,
the aggressor humiliates himself when he allows himself to get out of control.
Most people dont realise that they are humiliating themselves when they are
violent. Even more surprising is that many participants dont know what
alternatives there are to using violence. By exploring their options with them,
we hope that in a small way we have given people some confidence and tools
to make changes.
A central component of our programme is the ongoing commitment of the
volunteer network. It is important that the volunteers have made positive
changes to achieve gender equity in their own lives, and that their personal
behaviour reflects this before they go out to discuss gender in the communities.
We use peer-monitoring and we mentor each other on this issue, recognising
that hypocrisy would destroy our programme and the credibility of AMKV with
communities and with other organisations.
In reflecting on our programme, we have come to the conclusion that sharing
experiences with groups through discussions is not sufficient to bring about
sustainable change, and that this programme alone will not necessarily engage
people living in severe poverty.5 There is a need to combine action on gender
with other entry points in communities, such as income-generation pro-
grammes and other economic and social support initiatives that address mens
and womens real needs in practical ways. Our next challenge is to explore how
we can do this, while retaining an informal volunteer structure. It is also our
hope that in the coming year we can convince our wives to be part of the
network, in so doing strengthening peoples confidence that change is really
possible.
AMKV recognises that we have a long way to go both as an organisation and as
men working in the field of gender. We too are susceptible to the cultural norms
of the society we live in, and it is a constant battle to be questioning long-held
beliefs and customs against strong opposition. Even with the guidance and
support of a Timor Leste womens movement, it will be a long and difficult
journey to be accepted by both men and women alike. However the history of
resistance in Timor is strong, and in a new era of nationhood we are optimistic,
and determined that liberation will be for everyone, not just for men!
145
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank colleagues in Oxfam CAA, Australia: Keryn Clark,
Inga Mepham, Antonius Maria Indrianto, Sebastiana da Costa Pereira, and
Zubaedah. He would also like to thank his wife Teresa Costa and his family, who
always support his attempts for greater gender equality in his home and country.
AMKV is grateful for funding received from Oxfam CAA, Australia and
UNIFEM.
Notes
1 Timor Leste, officially named the Repblica Democrtica de Timor-Leste, is also known as
East Timor.
2 International Rescue Committee (IRC) (2003) Prevalence of Gender Based Violence in

Timor Leste, author: Vijaya Joshi. The research sample size was 365 women.
3 Timor Leste Domestic Violence Legislation Policy Paper, December 2002.
4 In a study by Oxfam in Covalima district of Timor Leste, it was found that it was common for
men and women to see violence as a legitimate form of education: Underlying Causes of
Gender Inequality in Cocalima District, 2003.
5 Timor Leste has the lowest HDI ranking in East Asia, and is one of the poorest nations
in the world.
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return to contents
How do we know if men have changed?

Promoting and measuring attitude change
with young men: lessons from Program H
in Latin America
Gary Barker with Marcos Nascimento, Mrcio Segundo,
and Julie Pulerwitz
Introduction
Program H is an initiative developed in Latin America to promote more
gender-equitable attitudes among young men. It works in both group educational
settings and at the community level to change community norms about what it
means to be a man. The initiative is called Program H because of the Spanish
word for man hombres, and the Portuguese homens. In addition to educational
sessions and community campaigns, the initiative also includes an innovative
evaluation model for identifying and attempting to assess changes in attitude
resulting from project activities.
Program H tries first and foremost to tap into the alternative voices that exist in
low-income communities, that is, young and adult men who have been
questioning traditional views of what it means to be a man. These voices of
resistance to the dominant versions of masculinity helped us to develop a set of
objectives (what we expect or hope from young men after their participation in
the initiative) and to develop an evaluation methodology. The entire process has
been developed with young men from several low-income communities in
Brazil and in Mexico, who helped us to define project objectives, test and develop
the materials, and offer ongoing advice on how to reach other young men with
messages about gender equality.
Learning to be men
It is useful to present some of the assumptions and background research that led
to the Program H initiative. Although there are tremendous variations across
cultures, we know that views about what it means to be a man and a woman are
rooted in childrens earliest experiences. In nearly all societies, a key aspect of
gender socialisation and a source of gender inequality is that mothers and other
women or girls are mainly responsible for caring for babies and children. This
means that boys and girls generally come to see caring as a female task.
147
By the age of two or three, children imitate the behaviour of same-sex family
members. Mothers, fathers, and other family members usually encourage boys
to imitate other boys and men, while discouraging them from imitating girls and
women. Boys who observe their fathers and other men being violent towards
women or treating women as inferior may believe that this is normal male
behaviour. Similarly, in observing their families, boys may believe that doing
domestic work and taking care of others is womens work.
Studies from around the world confirm that from an early age, girls are generally
kept closer to their mothers and to home, while boys are encouraged to spend
most of their time outside the home. In their adolescent years, boys in many
cultural settings spend more time outside the home in male or mostly-male peer
groups.
These early childhood and adolescent experiences may have a lifelong impact in
terms of how men treat women. This means that promoting change among
young men has a potentially powerful impact on their lives, in the present and in
the future, and on the lives of their partners.
But socialisation is a complex process. Cultural norms about what it means to be
a man or a woman are filtered through the family, the peer group, the community,
and the individual. Boys and girls are not passive learners, or sponges of cultural
norms. Instead, they filter experiences and construct their own meaning from
them. Indeed, boys and men and women and girls have the ability to question
traditional gender norms, and many do.
Even in settings where traditional notions of gender may be predominant, we see
alternative views. In a survey carried out with 749 men in low-income areas of
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, up to two-thirds of young men believed that violence
against women was acceptable when a woman was unfaithful, and a quarter of
all men aged 1560 had used physical violence at least once against an intimate
female partner.1 However, while many men in this study had used physical
violence against a partner, and many men supported such violence, a large
number did not. In focus-group discussions and individual interviews, we heard
many justifications for mens use of violence against women or for men not
participating in the care of their children. But we also heard other voices
of young and adult men who question the traditional views around them.
For example, we met Joo, a young father aged 19, whose words and actions
displayed a dedication to his daughter, and who said this:
... theres this guy whos a friend of mine, and he had a girlfriend, and she got
pregnant, and he abandoned her when she was pregnant, and he never liked to
work, he doesnt do anything, just takes from his mother. So, his girlfriend had
the baby and he doesnt work at all. He doesnt give anything to the baby,
148
nothing for the girl, doesnt want to work. My point of view is different.
I think about working because I want to have a family, a really good family.
I want to be there when they need me, accepting my responsibilities. Even if
I were to separate from the mother of my daughter and have another wife,
Im not gonna forget about my daughter. Shell always be first ... But lots of
young guys, they dont think about working, just think about stealing, using
drugs, smoking. Here thats normal. But ... not me I stay away from that,
drugs and smoking and stuff. They can think Im square, so Ill be square then.
(Barker 2000a)
Indeed, in many settings, boys and men are able to question traditional views
about manhood and show different attitudes, including treating women as
equals in the home and in the workplace. It is these voices of resistance, or more
gender-equitable men, as we have called them, who have offered us tremendous
insights on how to promote change and who have inspired Program H.
What, then, do we know about promoting change in terms of gender norms
among men? As a starting point, we know that new social ideals of manhood
have emerged in various parts of the world, spurred in large part by womens
increasing participation in the labour force and by the womens rights move-
ment, and also by some men questioning their relatively limited roles in the lives
of their families. We also know that changes in gender norms and individual
attitudes are often gradual, with old and new paradigms existing simul-
taneously. In addition, several studies from Latin America confirm a continuing
gap between mens discourse about gender roles and their actual behaviour.2
In other words, men sometimes pretend to change in terms of gender equality,
but their actions suggest otherwise.
In reviewing the literature, there seem to be various common factors contri-
buting to changes in mens attitudes and behaviour related to gender and gender
roles. One study in Chile found that men who showed more gender-equitable
patterns of behaviour reported having fathers or mothers who carried out non-
traditional gender roles or tasks. For some men, knowledge mattered; having
experience of seeing men caring for children or carrying out other domestic
tasks was a useful step towards carrying out these tasks themselves.3 Another
study from Chile found that men sometimes changed in terms of gender roles
and norms when they started new relationships, or in other special circum-
stances, such as the birth of a first child.4
Life histories researched by Program H with young men in a low-income setting
in Brazil found that there were similar factors associated with young men who
showed more support for gender equality:
being part of an alternative male peer group that supported more gender-
equitable attitudes;
149
having personally reflected on or experienced pain or negative

consequences as a result of traditional aspects of manhood (for example,
having a father who used violence against the mother, or a father who
abandoned the family); and
having a family member or meaningful male role model (or female role
model) who showed alternative gender roles.
The following quote from Gustavo, aged 18, from a low-income neighbourhood
in Rio de Janeiro, hints at the personal reflection that we saw in many of the
young men who showed alternative views of masculinity:
... a lot of guys will have a have a girlfriend, then theyll go and cheat on her.
So then later when they want to find a girlfriend, itll be difficult. Because then
the girls will think, Does this guy want to be with me, and then hell go with
someone else? So then girls dont want to go out with him. So then the guy
will start to think, and hell go slowly. Hell start going out with just one girl.
(Barker 2000a)
The Program H intervention

About Program H
These examples of resistance and reflection, combined with our research and
direct experience of working with men in various parts of the Americas region,
led to the formation of Program H Engaging Young Men in the Promotion of
Health and Gender Equity. Program H is theoretically based, and has been
empirically shown to positively influence attitudes related to gender equality,
including greater sensitivity to issues of gender-based violence, increased
intention to use condoms, improved partner-negotiation skills, increased
attention to health needs, and a greater desire to be more involved as fathers
(for those young men who are already fathers). The initiative was developed in
1999, by four Latin American NGOs with significant experience of working with
young men: Instituto Promundo (co-ordinator of the initiative, based in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil), ECOS (in So Paulo, Brazil), Instituto PAPAI (Recife, Brazil),
and Salud y Gnero (Mexico).
Program H focuses on helping young men question traditional norms related to
masculinity. It consists of four components:
a field-tested curriculum that includes a series of manuals and an educational
video for promoting attitude and behaviour change among men;
a lifestyle social-marketing campaign for promoting changes in community
or social norms related to what it means to be a man;
150
an action-research methodology for reducing barriers to young mens use

of health services; and
a culturally relevant, validated evaluation model (the GEM Scale: Gender-
equitable Men Scale) for measuring changes in attitudes and social norms
around masculinity.
These components were developed using our baseline research, mentioned
above, which identified important implications for the programme: firstly, the
need to offer young men opportunities to interact with gender-equitable role
models in their own community setting; and secondly, the need to promote
more gender-equitable attitudes in small-group contexts and in the wider
community. Our research also confirmed the need to intervene at the level of
individual attitude and behaviour change, and at the level of social or community
norms, including among parents, service providers, and others who influence
individual attitudes and behaviours. In sum, given that gender norms are
promoted at the community level, we work with community leaders and through
youth culture to promote positive change. And we work with individual young
men to enhance their ability to question some of the negative views about what
it means to be a man.
The Program H manual series

The activities in the manual series are designed to be carried out in a same-sex
group setting, and generally with men as facilitators, who also serve as gender-
equitable role models for the young men. First and foremost, the activities in the
manuals and the group educational process focus on creating a safe space to
allow young men to question traditional views about masculinity.
The activities described in the manuals reinforce each other, and make appro-
priate links between the specific activities and themes. The activities consist of
role-plays, brainstorming exercises, discussion sessions, and individual reflections
about how boys and men are socialised, positive and negative aspects of this
socialisation, and the benefits of changing certain behaviours. The themes used
in the manuals were selected based on a review of the literature on the health and
development of boys and an international survey of programmes working with
young men, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.5
The themes of the manuals are
1 sexual and reproductive health;
2 violence and violence prevention (including prevention of gender-based
violence);
151
3 reasons and emotions, which focuses on mental-health issues and young

men, particularly communication skills, dialogue, emotional intelligence,
and substance abuse;
4 fatherhood and caring, which encourages young men to reconsider their
roles in care-giving in the family, including caring for children;
5 HIV/AIDS, including both prevention and caring.
The manuals are printed in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, and are currently
widely used in Latin America by NGOs and by government ministries of health.
Educational video
The manuals are accompanied by a no-words cartoon video, called Once Upon
a Boy, which presents the story of a young man from early childhood, through
adolescence, to early adulthood. Scenes include the young man witnessing
violence in his home; interactions with his male peer group; social pressures to
behave in certain ways in order to be seen as a real man; the young mans first
unprotected sexual experience; having a sexually transmitted infection (STI);
and facing an unplanned pregnancy. The video was developed in workshops
with young men in diverse settings in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Being a cartoon, the video quickly engages young men, and easily transfers
across cultures. And because it has no words, facilitators work with young men
to create dialogue and to project their personal stories into the video. The video
uses a pencil as a metaphor for gender socialisation, erasing certain kinds of
behaviour or thoughts. After viewing the video, young men discuss how they
were socialised or raised to act as men, and ways in which they can question
some negative aspects of that socialisation. The video has been nominated for
numerous awards in Brazil, and is currently used as part of the Brazilian
National AIDS Program.
The manuals and the video were field-tested with 271 young men aged between
15 and 24, in six countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil, Peru,
Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, and Jamaica). Qualitative results of field-testing
found that participation in the activities led to increased empathy, reduced
conflict among participants, and positive reflection among them about how
they treated their female partners. One young man who participated in the
field-test process in Peru said, After the activities, we came to see the ways we
are machista you know, treat women unfairly. Another young man said,
I realised how I sometimes became violent, because thats the way I was treated.
I saw the connection.
152
In addition to Latin America, where more than 20 countries use the materials,
training in the use of the Program H manuals has been carried out in Asia and
the USA. In Brazil and Mexico, Program H materials are being used in collabor-
ation with the public-health sector to make the approach part of national
adolescent health-promotion activities. With support from a number of inter-
national organisations, including Oxfam GB and the Ford Foundation, the
Program H Brazilian partners Promundo, Instituto PAPAI, and ECOS have
recently formed a network of NGOs in the north and northeast of Brazil to
implement Program H activities with diverse populations, including men of
African descent, men in the Amazon region, and men in low-income areas in
shantytowns around Brasilia.
Lifestyle social-marketing campaign component

In addition to the Program H curriculum, Promundo, JohnSnowBrazil
(an international consulting firm), and SSL International (makers of Durex
condoms) have developed a lifestyle social marketing process for promoting
a more gender-equitable lifestyle among men in a given cultural setting. This
involves working with men themselves to identify their preferred sources of
information, identifying young mens cultural outlets in the community, and
developing media messages in the form of radio spots, billboards, posters,
postcards, and dances to make it cool to be a more gender-equitable man.
JohnSnowBrasil and Promundo have worked with SSL International to incor-
porate these ideas into campaigns which are currently ongoing in Rio de Janeiro
and Brasilia, with expansion planned for other major cities in Brazil, Mexico,
and in parts of Asia. The campaign encourages young men to reflect on how they
act as men, and enjoins them to respect their partners, not to use violence against
women, and to practice safer sex. We have engaged several major rap artists in
Brazil to endorse the campaign which they have called a campaign against
machismo and have presented it during various concerts in Brasilia and Rio de
Janeiro. In 2003, the project was nominated for an award for innovations in
HIV/AIDS prevention by the Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS.
The campaign taps into youth culture music, theatre, and a knowledge of
where young people hang out to promote more gender-equitable versions of
manhood. Just as many private-sector advertising campaigns seek to promote a
lifestyle associated with their product, the lifestyle social-marketing campaign
uses mass media and youth culture to promote a gender-equitable lifestyle
among young men. In Brazil, the campaign has been called Hora H, or In the
Heat of the Moment. The phrase was developed by young men themselves, who
frequently heard their peers say, Everybody knows you shouldnt hit your
girlfriend, but in the heat of the moment you lose control, or,Everybody knows
153
that you should use a condom, but in the heat of the moment ... . Campaign
slogans use language from the community, and images are of young men from
the same communities, acting in ways that support gender equality.
Developing the GEM scale: measuring change

Program H believes it is important to evaluate the work from the start. In part,
this is to measure impact do these programme components actually lead to
change? But it is also important to have a greater understanding of how change
takes place, and to bear in mind clear objectives for the change we want to
produce. Too often, we start our work with men and women with unclear or
unrealistic objectives.
Identifying outcomes
The first step in the development of Program H and its evaluation component,
was to define the kind of attitudes and behaviours we wanted to promote.
We asked ourselves, what did we really want to accomplish? What kind of change
was possible and desirable in the settings in which we work? From our baseline
research, we identified four characteristics of more gender-equitable young
men attitudes that we observed among some young men in the communities
in which we work. We concluded that if some young men in these settings had
achieved these alternative and positive views, their attitudes could serve as our
benchmark.
Specifically, the Program H activities seek to encourage young men to act in the
following ways:
1 to seek relationships with women based on equality and intimacy, rather
than sexual conquest. This includes believing that men and women have
equal rights, and that women have as much sexual desire and right to
sexual agency as do men;
2 to seek to be involved fathers, for those who are fathers, or to support
substantial involvement; meaning that they believe that they should take
both financial and at least some caring responsibility for their children;
3 to assume some responsibility for reproductive health and disease-
prevention issues. This includes taking the initiative to discuss
reproductive-health concerns with their partner, using condoms, or
assisting their partner in acquiring or using a contraceptive method;
4 to oppose violence against women. This may include young men who were
physically violent toward a female partner in the past, but who currently
believe that violence against women is not acceptable behaviour.6
154
These objectives are based on interviews with and observation of young men
who acted in these ways. As such, our evaluation model is grounded in the real-
life behaviour and attitudes of young men, and not in an idealised or theoretical
idea of what more gender-equitable behaviour and attitudes should be. To be
sure, we have prioritised certain outcomes over others, but these benchmarks are
based on young mens actual gender-equitable attitudes and behaviours, and not
on a list of desired behaviours which may have little to do with young mens lives.
The desired outcomes are also based on our ongoing discussion and interaction
with a group of young men who serve as peer promoters and advisers to us. They
have also emerged from listening to adult and young women in the com-
munities, who affirmed that these were the attitudes they wanted from men.
And they are based in part on international human rights and womens rights
declarations and conventions, including, for example, the Programme of Action
of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo
in 1994.
The GEM scale

We used these four desired outcomes to develop indicators in the form of a scale
of questions about attitude. It is important to emphasise that the scale, or group
of attitude questions, is only one part of our evaluation. We also carry out
interviews and discussions with group facilitators, with young men who partici-
pate in the groups, with young women who are the girlfriends of the young men,
and with public-health staff and other professionals working with young people.
The scale of questions is particularly useful, however, because it can be used with
a large number of young men in a relatively short amount of time. It is not
perfect, of course, and it fails to capture much of the rich detail that focus groups
and in-depth individual interviews can. However, when time and resources are
scarce, the attitude questions can be a relatively fast way to get a general sense of
whether the young men who participate in these activities are changing in
positive ways. And, by being able to apply the questions to a large number of
young men, the data is useful for influencing policy makers, who are often
interested in achieving large-scale impact.
Briefly, the GEM Scale or Gender-equitable Men Scale consists of about
35 attitude questions related to gender roles in the home, including childcare;
gender roles in sexual relationships; shared responsibility for reproductive
health and disease-prevention; intimate-partner violence; and homosexuality
and close relationships with other men. Attitude questions or statements
included affirmations of traditional gender norms, such as: Men are always
ready to have sex, A womans most important role is to take care of her home
155
and cook for her family, and There are times when a woman deserves to be
beaten. They also included affirmations of more gender-equitable views, such
as, A man and a woman should decide together what type of contraceptive to
use, and It is important that a father is present in the lives of his children, even if
he is no longer with the mother. These attitude questions were based on the four
objectives, as well as a review of the literature on gender norms and socialisation
among young men.
The attitude questions were tested in a community-based survey, and data from
this sample were used to test the usefulness of the items and to create the final
scale. For each item, three answer choices were provided: I agree; I partially agree;
and I do not agree. The baseline study was carried out in three communities in
Rio de Janeiro, two of which were low-income areas and one of which was a
middle-income neighbourhood.
The research team, consisting entirely of male interviewers, used a questionnaire
with a total of 749 men aged between 15 and 60, with young men aged between
15 and 24 being over-sampled to allow for greater analysis. The questionnaire
was administered via a household survey to a random sample of men in each of
the three neighbourhoods. The survey also included questions relating to a
number of variables that were theoretically linked to gender-equitable norms,
including socio-demographic status, relationship history, history of physical
violence, and current safer-sex behaviours. These questions are not part of the
GEM Scale, but are used to analyse statistical associations, and in some cases as
outcome indicators themselves (such as self-reported condom use, self-reported
use of violence against partners, and self-reported use of health services in the
last three months). Some of these questions (for example, on self-reported use of
violence against a partner) were adapted from several existing international
questionnaires (from the WHO, among others), which allows us to compare our
data to studies on young men in other settings. Focus groups also allowed us to
test the concepts and to identify new questions. The refusal rate was less than two
percent.
This baseline research confirmed the coherence of the attitude questions, that is,
that young men answered in fairly internally consistent ways. For example,
a young man who said he tolerated or even supported violence against women
was also likely to show traditional or male-dominant views on other questions,
such as believing that taking care of children is exclusively a womans
responsibility. In addition, the ways in which young men answered the questions
were correlated to the ways in which they said they acted: a young man who
showed machista attitudes about gender was likely to say he acted that way in his
daily life.7
156
In summary, our baseline research confirmed that the GEM Scale is a useful tool
for assessing where men are on these issues, and to assess their current attitudes
about gender roles, and it is also useful for measuring whether men have
changed their attitudes over time, or after a given project. We found that young
mens attitudes were highly correlated with one of our key outcomes: self-
reported use of violence against women.
The significant associations found between the GEM Scale and important
health outcomes such as partner violence and contraceptive use supports the
contention that the scale is valid. Other implications of these analyses are also of
note: the research confirms that young mens attitudes about relationships with
women and about gender norms matter. They are not merely parroting the
values they perceive around them, but in many cases internalise or adhere to
these norms and act on them, often with negative consequences for their
partners and for themselves. These associations indicate that support for
gender-equitable norms and behaviour is an important aspect of reproductive
and sexual-health decision making, and that gender-related norms should be
explicitly addressed when designing and implementing effective prevention
programmes for HIV and STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and violence.
Impact evaluation
In 2002, with the GEM Scale validated or tested, PROMUNDO and the Horizons
Program started a two-year impact-evaluation study to measure the impact of
the manuals and video in a population of 750 young men aged between 15 and
24 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study included three groups of young men in
different (but fairly homogeneous) low-income communities. With each group
of young men, the activities were carried out with various levels of intensity
(14 hours of activities in one group, 28 hours in another, and group activities
combined with an intensive lifestyle social-marketing campaign in a third).
In one of the communities, the intervention was delayed, with the evaluation
questionnaire being used twice before any intervention was carried out. This
allowed us to increase the possibility that any attitude or behaviour change
measured was the result of the intervention, rather than due to other factors.
Analysis of the results from one of the communities, from about 160 question-
naires, found positive change on a majority of GEM Scale questions, and increased
condom use. While final results from the study will not be available until 2004,
these initial results already confirm that Program H interventions have a positive
impact on attitudes related to gender, and that the GEM Scale is a relevant and
valid model for measuring this change. Qualitative methods, including
interviews with young men, with those who know them, and with their female
partners, are being used to triangulate or compare to the quantitative results.
157
Some young men, in in-depth interviews after their participation in the

activities, told us that the workshops had helped them question their views
about masculinity. One young man said:
... I learned to talk more with my girlfriend. Now I worry more about her
(worry about what she likes sexually). Our sex life is better ... its important to
know what the other persons wants, listen to them. Before [the workshops],
I just worried about myself.
This same young mans girlfriend, in a separate interview, confirmed that he had
in fact started to talk to her more, to listen to when and how she wanted to have
sexual relations, and to see that having sex was not the only important part of
their relationship. Another young man also said that he began to respect his
girlfriend more, saying:
Used to be when I went out with a girl, if we didnt have sex within two weeks
of going out, I would leave her. But now [after the workshops], I think
differently. I want to construct something [a relationship with her].
In addition to evaluating the impact on attitude and behaviour change, we are
carrying out an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of Program H. A very
preliminary analysis of the costs associated with the intervention suggests that a
typical Program H project in an urban area with a population between 500,000
and one million inhabitants indirectly reaches approximately 20,000 young men
(target population ages 1524) with messages related to sexual and repro-
ductive-health promotion, HIV/AIDS-prevention, and gender equity; directly
reaches 2000 young men involved in project activities; and reaches 15,000 men
with condoms (with more than 100,000 condoms sold). The project also indirectly
benefits approximately 10,000 young women who are the partners of the young
men. Total annual, unduplicated, project beneficiaries are approximately 30,000
young people. Annual operational costs (excluding start-up costs) to implement
project activities and achieve attitude and behaviour change in an urban setting
of between 500,000 and one million inhabitants range from US$150,000 to
US$200,000.8 More precise cost-effectiveness figures will be available in 2004,
but these numbers offer a rough idea of the scope and cost of the interventions.
We believe it is important to have these costs and benefits analysed, to
demonstrate that changes in young mens attitudes and behaviour are
achievable, and positive for both men and women.
Conclusions and recommendations

Given the short timescale of many interventions with young men, it is often
unrealistic to expect changes in behaviour, and difficult to measure such change.
The GEM Scale thus provides a potentially more sensitive evaluation instrument
158
for measuring the attitude changes that suggest a movement or change in the
direction of gender equality on the part of young men. The work of Program H
suggests that attitude and behaviour change are possible to achieve, but require
work at the individual, community, and policy levels.
While the examples reported here are from Latin America, initial testing of the
GEM Scale and the use of the Program H components is starting in other parts
of the world. Testing of the GEM Scale items and the development of culturally
appropriate tools is starting in Mumbai, India, with the Horizons Program,
working in collaboration with a network of youth-serving organisations. Local
researchers report that the areas of gender norms and masculinity that are
currently being addressed in the Brazil study appear relevant for the Indian
context. Other issues which were not addressed in Brazil such as concerns
about sexual performance were raised as being particularly relevant in India,
and will be added to the intervention topics and included in the evaluation of the
intervention. Initial project development in India found that youth groups in
low-income settings in Mumbai often galvanise around a leader, and their
behaviours are to a great extent determined by shared norms and beliefs. The
study group plans to recruit young men from a selection of these groups.9
Clearly, no scale or intervention can include all the variables related to promoting
gender equality among young men. Nonetheless, the steps and components of
Program H and the GEM Scale are rooted in the norms and attitudes related to
gender that exist in a given cultural setting. In addition, they focus on change at
the individual and social levels, with a clear vision of the kinds of more gender-
equitable norms that men and women in the same communities say they want.
In terms of final recommendations, our experience suggests the following:
Programmes working with men to promote gender equality should rely on
the voices of men and women at the community level to develop realistic
indicators or outcome-measures. The alternative voices of men who show
greater equality should inform programme development. These young men
should also be engaged at all levels of programme development.
Evaluation must include both individual men, who can be encouraged to
question and reflect about traditional views, and the community, where
norms are promoted.
Attitude questions applied through a questionnaire, as well as qualitative
research, should be combined, so that we understand how change takes
place and can more closely listen to the voices and realities of the women
and men involved.
Finally, it has been a concern of the Program H partners from the beginning that
we did not want our programmes to become yet another jewel box small-scale
159
programmes reaching a handful of men, with little potential for replication.

We have sought to identify practices and methodologies that can be replicated
elsewhere at a reasonable cost and that can, together with other partners,
contribute to our collective goal of gender equality.
Acknowledgements
Gary Barker, Mrcio Segundo, and Marcos Nascimento all work with Instituto
Promundo in Brazil. Julie Pulerwitz is with the Horizons Program, Washington
DC, USA. The lead author wishes to acknowledge key individuals in the
Program H partner organisations: Jorge Lyra and Benedito Medrado, Instituto
PAPAI; Benno de Keijzer and Gerardo Ayala, Salud y Gnero; and Jose Roberto
Simonneti and Sylvia Cavasin, ECOS. Program H has been supported by a
diverse range of funders, and has a number of collaborators, including the
International Planned Parenthood Federation/WHR, the Summit Foundation,
the Moriah Fund, WHO/PAHO, SSL International (Durex condoms), the
Interagency Working Group on Gender/USAID, Horizons/Population Council,
the Ford Foundation, Oxfam GB (supporting Instituto PAPAI to implement
Program H in northeast Brazil), and UNFPA. The GEM Scale research was
funded through the Horizons Program (USAID), the MacArthur Foundation,
and SSL International. Additional thanks to Miguel Fontes and Cecilia Studart
of JohnSnowBrasil, Peter Roach of SSL International (Durex), and Christine
Ricardo of Instituto Promundo.
Notes
1 Instituto Promondo and Instituto NOOS (2003) Men, Gender-based Violence and Sexual
and Reproductive Health: A Study with Men in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto
Promondo/ Instituto NOOS.
2 See D. Almras (1997) Compartir las Responsabilidades Familiares: Una tarea para el
desarrollo, Santiago, Chile: CEPAL (Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina y el Cariba,
Septima Conferencia Regional sobre la Integracin de la Mujer en el Desarrolo Econmico y
Social de Amrica Latina y el Caribe, 1921 November, 1997), background document for
participants; A. Kornblit, A. Mendes Diz, and M. Petracci (1998) Being a Man, Being a Father:
A Study on the Social Representations of Fatherhood, presented at the Men, Family
Formation and Reproduction seminar organised by the International Union for the
Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and the Centro de Estudios de la Poblacion (CENEP),
Buenos Aires, 1315, May, 1998; and B. Medrado (1998) Homens na arena do cuidado
infantil: imagens veiculadas pela mdia, in M. Arilha, S. Ridenti, and B. Medrado (eds.)
Homens e Masculinidades: Outras Palavras, So Paulo: Ed. 34/ ECOS, 1530.
3 D. Almras (1997) op. cit.
160
4 J.Olavarria (2000) La Reproduccin: Los Padres Populares en la Crianza y las Actividades

Domesticas, Santiago, Chile: FLACSO.
5 G. Barker (2000b) What About Boys? A Review and Analysis of International Literature on the
Health and Developmental Needs of Adolescent Boys, (Geneva, World Health Organisation).
6 G. Barker (2000a) Gender equitable boys in a gender inequitable world: reflections from
qualitative research and programme development in Rio de Janeiro, Sexual and Relationship
Therapy, 15 (3), 26382.
7 J. Pulerwitz and G. Barker (2004) Measuring Equitable Gender Norms for HIV/STI and
Violence Prevention with Young Men: Development of the GEM Scale, unpublished mimeo.
8 These costs can, of course, vary tremendously by country, depending on relative costs, but
these figures give a general sense of the costs.
9 Personal correspondence, Ravi Verma and Julie Pulerwitz, December 2003.
161
return to contents
Strategies and approaches to enhance

the role of men and boys in working for
gender equality: a case study from Yemen
Magda Mohammed Elsanousi
Introduction
In 2000, Oxfam GB initiated a programme to address violence against women in
Yemen, in partnership with thirteen civil society organisations and the Womens
National Committee.1 This chapter first reviews the factors that have contri-
buted to and sustained gender inequality in Yemen. Drawing on empirical
fieldwork, it then identifies strategies and approaches to the involvement of men
and boys in initiatives to end violence against women by fostering partnership
between womens organisations and influential men in Yemeni society. The
paper concludes with recommendations for development practitioners
establishing similar programmes elsewhere, particularly in conservative
societies in which gender equality remains a sensitive issue.
Gender equality: the Yemen context

Socialising women to be powerless
Yemen is one of the least developed countries in the world.2 Although levels of
poverty vary between social groups depending on factors such as class, race, age,
disability, and gender, the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) for Yemen has
shown that the overall percentage of those living in poverty increased from
19 per cent in 1992 to 33 per cent in 1998. More recent indicators show that
42 per cent of the population is incapable of obtaining all their food and
non-food requirements (shelter, clothing, transport, etc.).3
The position of Yemeni girls and women in general is shaped by social and
cultural factors that tend to marginalise them and to restrict their participation
in social, economic, and political affairs.4 For example, boys have greater access
than girls to education, and men are over-represented in decision-making
positions. Men dominate the paid labour force and have high mobility, while
womens participation is restricted; the latter tend to work unpaid, on family
farms in rural areas. Due to a range of factors including religious beliefs and a
preference for male children (who will support their parents in old age), fertility
rates are high, and families are often large.
162
Strategies and approaches: a case study from Yemen
Women are socialised to be obedient, powerless, and voiceless, and mens

abilities are valued more highly than those of women. Women are raised to fulfil
the role of good wives and mothers. Although women rear children, care for the
sick and elderly, and maintain the household (through cleaning, cooking, and
fetching water, for example), their labour remains largely invisible. Unequal
gender relations are reinforced in households (by mothers, fathers, and older
women and men), and influence individual and community behaviour and
social institutions and structures. For instance, the school curriculum encourages
the development of gender stereotypes for girls and boys. Women are rarely
engaged in sports or community activities (apart from the activities in which
only women participate). Men are visible and dominant both in public and in
private life. The space for women is more in the private sphere, in which they
have less power than men, and little recognition for their reproductive roles.
Following the unification of Yemen in 1990, a process of democratisation began.
This provided some space for civil society and womens organisations to build
their constituencies and agendas for the promotion of womens rights. Women
in Yemen have been unable to build a strong womens movement, however, and
as a result they have not had sufficient strength to challenge the embedded
patriarchal power in Yemeni society.5 Overall, the gender-power gap is unchanged,
and women remain followers rather than leaders or equal partners in the
process. Women as voters have been manipulated during elections by various
male-dominated political parties. During the parliamentary elections in April
2003, political parties excluded women from standing for election; as a result,
there is only one woman in parliament out of a total of 302 representatives.
It is important to note, however, that gender inequality is strongly associated
with poverty and other kinds of inequality. Economically independent women
in urban areas feel less threatened by their men, because they are able to make
choices. Educated middle-class women now derive part of their identity from
their affiliations to political parties; many support their partys agenda and
mobilise poor women during elections on behalf of the party. But for poor and
marginalised women and rural women, with less education and skills and who
are economically dependent on their male counterparts, democracy makes little
difference. They silently accept mens domination because they have no
alternative. The greater challenge for them is to address issues of their poverty
and survival.
Socialising men to be in control

The socialisation process in the household supports patriarchal institutions in
society, and prescribes the gender roles and responsibilities that consolidate
gender inequality from birth throughout the life cycle. Unequal power relations
163
extend into the wider community, and are reflected in the policies and practices
of government institutions.
Boys and men are socialised within a narrow concept of masculinity. They are
supposed to be strong, dominating, earners and breadwinners, guardians of
their female counterparts (mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, and female relatives).
Reflecting this image, the national costume for men includes a knife worn at the
front, emphasising the importance of courage and the ability to fight.
In 2002, Oxfam GB held a workshop with partner organisations in Yemen to
explore mens identity and socialisation. The participants were a group of male
directors of NGOs drawn from the middle class, intellectual, and lite strata of
society, and a group of middle class, educated, and activist women. Between
them, they illustrated how Yemeni women and men are socialised.
Boys are treated as superior to girls in the family.
Women in the family serve men; the best quality food is provided for men.
Boys education is given precedence over girls education.
Men are discouraged from performing domestic work (cooking, cleaning,
etc.).
Money is spent on boys education and entertainment.
Males are allowed complete freedom of movement in public life, and boys
can come home late without it being questioned.
Men are meant to be strong, but not emotional; they should not weep or
cry. An often-heard statement in Arab families when a young boy cries is,
Dont cry. Are you a girl?
Men are guardians of their sisters and even of their mothers.
Men are brought up to be decision makers and to hold power over women.
The educational curriculum reinforces the pattern of mens and womens
socialisation (for example, girls clean and cook, boys play outside).
Men are socialised to be violent (with toys such as guns and sticks, and
aggressive games).
Misinterpretations of Islam enforce mens domination.
Recreational activities, including sport, are restricted to men.
Girls schools dont provide sporting activities.
Social clubs are available only to men.
Activities take place during Qat sessions that exclude women for cultural
reasons, women are not allowed to sit with men during Qat chewing
sessions.6
164
Participants then went on to describe aspects of mens identity that hinder

gender equality.
Men dominate in the family, the wider society, and the State.
Men dominate politics and decision making.
Men are guardians of women.
The culture of masculinity dominates at different levels (for example, a real
man should be a fighter, and violent).
Men have limited understanding and vision in relation to gender issues.
Finally, the participants identified aspects of mens identity that support the
vision of a society free of violence.
Men are responsible and care about their families.
Men have strong and loving feelings as parents.
Men protect women in the family (for example, fathers and brothers
protect their daughters and sisters when treated badly by their husbands).
Men accept womens work in the formal labour market in public.
Society dishonours men who mistreat or insult their wives and daughters in
public. It is a great shame for a man to batter his wife.
It is essential, however, to emphasise that Yemeni men generally resist two
concepts: gender (which they consider to be a Western concept), and equality
(which they regard as impossible, basing their arguments on Islamic codes).
Although men of different classes and positions enjoy different degrees of
power, they are united as a group by the power they hold over women a power
that remains largely invisible to them. Gender equality is a threatening concept
for men, who are upset at the idea that they may lose their entitlements.
Men believe that their privilege and power are natural, normal, and just. A man
might lose his power in society, but maintain control over the women in his
household.
Factors that reinforce unequal gender power relations

Patriarchy in Yemen operates in a systematic and organised manner. The space
provided to women is related to the demand for womens labour and other
inputs that help to maintain the functions of society and the State, and expands
and contracts according to mens needs. Similar constraints apply to womens
space in relation to democratic participation. The challenge that active womens
groups and organisations face is to change the way patriarchy operates within
households, communities, and the State. In other words, they must change mens
attitudes towards women as suppliers, so that men realise that women also have
demands, and that men have a responsibility to support these. This necessitates
165
working intensively with men at different levels to encourage them to work for
gender equality.
During the last two decades, gender relations and womens status have been
affected by two major factors: the reunification of North and South Yemen,
and the global spread of fundamentalist movements. These factors have
reinforced existing gender relations, and bolstered traditional gender roles and
responsibilities.
The unification of North and South Yemen

Following the unification of North and South Yemen to form the Republic of
Yemen in 1990, women from the south argue that they have lost several of their
legal rights. The minimum age at which women can get married has been left
open in law, and guardianship has been enforced for female marriage, depriving
women of rights and choices over their decisions. Women are now poorly
represented in decision-making positions and inadequately represented in
certain professional fields: for example, the number of women judges dropped
drastically by nearly 80 per cent following unification. And whereas very few
Yemeni women used to wear the Hijab (black veil) before unification, now they
do so for fear that men will harass them if they dont wear it.
The spread of fundamentalist movements

Sharia law (Islamic law) is the main source for the Yemeni constitution and laws,
in particular, for family law.7 The spread of radical Islamic movements, which
has affected Yemen, has resulted in the presence of institutions which often
misinterpret Islam to endorse gender inequality. Early marriage, polygamy, and
divorce are often legitimised by misinterpreting religious discourse to enforce
womens subordination. For example, a man may divorce his wife without
notification or even giving a reason, but a woman often has to present witnesses
to claim a divorce; this process may take years, as male-dominated courts and
male judges often support men, and delay womens cases in court.8
The classification of Yemens society is based on tribalism, and race and gender
relations should be seen within that framework. In rural areas, for example,
where women are burdened with a triple role (productive, reproductive, and
management in the community) the gender-power gap is significant; women
are left with less bargaining power.
166
Promoting partnership between women and men to

combat violence against women in Yemen:
the conceptual framework
Oxfam GBs programme to end violence against women (EVAW)
in Yemen
In 2000, Oxfam GB in Yemen started a programme to End Violence Against
Women, based on a definition derived from the 1993 UN Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence Against Women.9 National studies have revealed that
violence against women is a widespread phenomenon, manifested in wife
battering, forced early marriage, and honour crimes. It is also linked to and
helps to sustain the exclusion of girls from education, the denial of womens
inheritance rights, and the limiting of womens opportunity to claim divorce or
alimony. All of these factors contribute to womens material and non-material
poverty (deprivation, exclusion, threats, fear, voicelessness, and so on). The
programme was developed in partnership with civil society organisations and
the Womens National Committee, and its components included awareness
raising and educational campaigns, advocacy and lobbying, research, and legal
and psychological support for women survivors of violence.
During 2000, partner organisations included men and boys extensively in joint
work-based awareness-raising sessions with women and girls. This approach
was exciting and unique in the context of the Arab world, where the conven-
tional approach of the womens movement with regard to gender-equality work
has been to focus on women only.10
When womens organisations were asked why they were inviting men to forums
to discuss gender equality, some argued that work is the only public space where
women and men interact. In Yemen, women and men do not associate outside
the workplace, so ascertaining mens attitudes and perceptions of gender
equality could only be done through these forums. Other womens organisations
responded that changing mens attitudes had been recognised by women as
being crucial for womens development, especially given the absence of a strong
womens movement to articulate their demands.
However, the initiatives to integrate men and boys into the programme were
limited in the extent to which they were able to develop lobbying and advocacy
activities to encourage positive action by men in support of gender equality and
ending violence against women.
167
Collaborating with Oxfams Gender Equality and Men project

In May 2002, building on the initial experience of partner organisations in
working with men and boys to promote gender equality, Oxfam in Yemen
collaborated with Oxfam GBs Gender Equality and Men (GEM) project (see the
Introduction to this volume for further details about GEM). A workshop was
held with partner organisations to explore the potential for women and men to
work together to end violence against women. The collaboration sought to
formalise the efforts of partner organisations to work within a comprehensive
framework which would not only aim to raise mens and boys awareness of
gender issues, but also to work with them as key actors to influence gender power
relations and to reduce gender inequality. Participants in the workshop were
encouraged to include men in their analysis and actions on gender equality, and
to use the outcomes of the workshop to assist further integration of the GEM
approach into the programme to End Violence Against Women in Yemen.11
The workshop explored a conceptual framework for developing partnerships
between men and women. The core components were:
establishing shared goals, such as an end to gender-based violence,
improved livelihoods, better governance, or poverty-reduction, and
understanding that both men and women have a role to play in achieving
these goals;
fostering co-operation, based on the understanding that working together
is more effective than working in isolation. The division of labour, however,
will reflect differing levels of power and voice;
understanding complementary roles: a division of labour will consist of
different tasks that will fall along traditional power and gender lines.
Men and women will articulate agency, willingness, and efficiency to
perform separate tasks differently;
showing commitment: the motivations for men and women may be
different, but a commitment to the process is crucial for partnerships;
gaining trust: the benefits of partnership will be shared equally; each
partner will uphold their end of the bargain so that unequal power
relations will not be re-established.
The framework also suggests that partnerships may become stuck at some stage;
but in the end, it is usually possible to negotiate to a point of trust, where equality
can be realised. Female partners emphasised the importance of building the
collaboration between men and women working to end violence against
women, and that requires the development of trust between the male and female
individuals and organisations involved. At an Oxfam meeting with partners in
Taiz in March 2002, women participants had doubted whether the men who
168
wanted to work with them in EVAW genuinely believed in and were committed
to challenging unequal power relations. In short, could men working to challenge
gender inequality shed the conventional framework of masculinity within the
patriarchal society they lived in?
Strategies and approaches

Working with men as allies
Oxfam encouraged partner organisations to put pressure on key policy makers
and community leaders to tackle gender inequality and violence against women,
using the entry point of awareness raising among men. Here we review practical
initiatives to build partnerships involving men as allies, relate these to the
conceptual framework above, and explore the different approaches to the
implementation of each strategy.
To enhance partner organisations lobbying, alliance building, and advocacy,
Oxfam encouraged partners to form advocacy groups of potential key male
actors in their area of work and in their respective provinces.12 Below we
examine this approach through a case study of the experience of three women-
led partner organisations: the Yemeni Womens Union in Taiz and Hadhramaut
and the Womens National Committee.
Establishing common goals

The Yemeni Womens Union is a large pioneering NGO with branches all over
the country. The Unions mandate is to promote womens status (through
income-generating activities, literacy classes, etc.) using a women in develop-
ment approach. It was working exclusively with women before the EVAW
programme was established.
Beyond Oxfams expectations, both branches of the Union targeted men in key
positions who have a role to play in challenging violence against women in a very
strategic way. In Taiz, the Yemeni Womens Union (YWU) formed its advocacy
group from 15 men and three women (the head of the branch, the co-ordinator
of Oxfams EVAW programme and a secretary). When the project started in
August 2002, the Union held eight meetings with the advocacy group, and
formed its mandate jointly with the members, who devoted their time voluntarily
to supporting the Unions goal of ending violence against women. The Union
stated that the main aim of the advocacy group was promoting the rights of men
and women in society, monitoring and documenting cases that violate womens
rights (and in particular domestic violence and harassment in work), and raising
the awareness of women and men on issues related to violence against women.
169
The men in the group include policemen, judges, lawyers, and academics, and
are described by the leadership as respected in the community. They have a lot of
influence, and are committed to supporting womens equality and human rights
in general.13
In the YWU branch in Hadhramaut, a similar structure was established for the
advocacy group, but there was a gender balance in representation (ten men and
nine women). The male members include the chairperson of the Legal Affairs
Office, the director of the Security Office, the director of the Lawyers Union,
the vice-chair of the Criminal Department in the Ministry of Justice, the director
of the Social Affairs Office, and three people working in the media.
To gain the support of key male actors, the starting point for the YWU branches
was to develop dialogue, to show that women have problems that cannot be
resolved without mens support. The message that womens issues concern men
too generated great interest among the men. The process helped to develop a
common goal, which targeted and brought together both women and men. This
was expressed in an interview with two female members of the YWU in Taiz:
We cannot work to end violence against women by focusing only on women
and ignoring men. Men in the advocacy group have been of great help in
raising the awareness of other men, in particular police officers. Key men in
society who joined us have helped to strengthen the role of both women and
men in combating violence, and have reactivated grassroots linkages with poor
women. Men in the group know by now what types of violence women
experience, which encourages broader society to acknowledge that violence
against women exists.
(Interview with Ms. Soad and Ms. Ishraq, Yemeni Womens Union, Taiz,
September 2003)
Fostering co-operation
Because of the socialisation process and the lower status of women in society, the
impact of action by women in Yemen to raise awareness of gender issues among
men remains minimal. In relation to sensitive issues such as violence against
women, HIV/AIDS, or gender equality in general, men should take a leading role
in educating other men. Most of the female trainers who have run awareness-
raising sessions on violence against women, especially in rural and traditional
areas, have been harangued by men and accused of promoting family
destruction. During a field visit to the YWU in Taiz, we met with a male member
of the advocacy group, and explored how he collaborates with the Union in
combating violence against women. Mr. Hussein Alademeei, a human-rights
activist said:
170
I am collaborating with the YWU to raise the awareness of men and police
and security on the rights of women and men in detention. Because Yemen is a
conservative and religious society my starting point has been to use Islamic
codes, then to move to national law, and thereafter make links with
international Human Rights Conventions. I dont use the term gender,
which is not accepted in Yemen. It is about absolute equality between women
and men, which is not possible in Yemen. We may need to Yemenise the
gender concept.
This reflects the understanding women have of their limitations in addressing
gender issues without mens support in Yemeni society, which necessitated their
co-operation with men.
Understanding complementary roles

Given the position of women in Yemen and their limited access to and control
over decision making, the YWU has found that men can play a significant role in
complementing their efforts. For instance, female lawyers in the Unions
branches have been providing legal support to female survivors of violence, but
when these cases are considered by the courts, women are discriminated against
by officials. The complementary role of key male actors from the advocacy group
is illustrated in the excerpt below from an interview with two female members of
the Hadhramaut branch:
The presence of men from key positions in Hadhramaut in the advocacy group
has really provided us as members of the Union (which used to be only open to
women), with great moral support. Having men who came to support us was
so meaningful for us. When we talk now, we feel that men understand us.
Their presence has changed the way society used to think. Womens issues are
not any more womens issues; it is now womens and mens issues. In
Hadhramaut, men occupy key positions in government ... and institutions
such as the courts and police service, where women are not represented.
They have access to power and decision makers; therefore they act as mediators
between decision makers and ourselves. They facilitated and helped in many
cases of women prisoners and women who are discriminated against in court
through the dialogue and actions they have pursued with other men.
The presence of men in the advocacy group gave the group strength, because
it fosters a new image in our society, one where men are with us in combating
violence against women.
(Interview with Alyaa and Hanan, Hadhramaut, September 2003)
171
Showing commitment
It is important to emphasise that the socialisation of men, and gender roles more
generally, are strongly rooted in Yemeni society. It requires considerable courage
for men to work for gender equality. Promoting full gender equality may not be
the main motive behind mens support for womens issues; but commitment to
work in this direction is a prerequisite that may eventually shift mens attitudes
towards full commitment to gender equality.
Dr. Mohammed is a lecturer in the faculty of law in Taiz University, and also a
member of the advocacy group. When asked about his motive for joining the
group, he said:
At the beginning the YWU asked me to provide training for police on the
rights of accused persons. That request was appealing for me, because I have
seen that accused women and men are treated badly, aggressively, and
sometimes violently. I wanted to change that practice to ensure that the
accused are treated according to law. Just for police officers to come to the
Union and receive the training is a success in itself. I then joined the group,
because I thought it is amazing that a womens organisation took that
initiative. This has further motivated me to encourage new graduates from
the School of Law to take action. I have a group of new graduate lawyers
women and men who provide legal support to poor women free of charge.
(Dr. Mohammed, Taiz, 2003)
Another group member argued that:
Women are half of the society. The woman is the mother, the sister. Women
are our daughters, wives, and colleagues at work. I believe in womens legal
and social rights and recognise the violations of these rights. I highly encourage
any man who cares for his mother, sister, wife and daughter to join the
advocacy group to advocate for womens rights and to enable the society to
understand that women have rights that should be respected. I have been
advocating for that among male colleagues in the workplace.
(Interview with Mr. Abdelrahman Saeed, Hadhramaut, September 2003)
From the above, it is quite evident that men hold strong feelings of humanity
and justice that support their commitment to gender equality. In the Yemeni
context, men value the extended family, and mens obligations towards female
family members are substantial. This provides a strong platform for convincing
them that what is at issue are gains for the family, rather than gains for women.
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Gaining trust
In working to gain trust, womens organisations have initiated dialogues with
key policy actors. The Womens National Committee (WNC), for example, has
established contacts with the Ministry of Endowment, the highest religious
institute in Yemen, whose work relates to Sharia Law. Members of the WNC have
argued that the Ministry is open to considering womens issues and to
understanding violence against women, even though key actors in the Ministry
have stated that gender equality contradicts the principles of Islam. Ministry
officials have asked the WNC to identify the messages they would like to be sent
through mosques with regard to violence and womens rights; the Ministry is
taking these forward so that they can be included in Friday prayers. Persuading
officials of the Ministry of Endowment to support work to end violence against
women reflects the awareness of the WNC of the importance of linking with
religious leaders and of looking at the whole discourse on violence against
women in the context of what is achievable in the Yemeni context.
The WNC has succeeded in mobilising male policy makers and improving their
understanding of womens issues; the mens attitudes have slowly shifted, and
they have been encouraged to begin to challenge the harmful practices that affect
women. For example, under the law, women are entitled to be issued with travel
documents on request; however, the male-dominated Ministry of the Interior
requires that any travel documents for women must be issued via a male
guardian a practice that has no legal basis. The WNC raised the issue with the
Deputy Minister of the Interior, who immediately sent a circular to all officials to
enforce the rights of women to request travel documents independently
if officials do not apply the law properly, they will be reprimanded.
Conclusion and recommendations

Based on examples of practice, this chapter has focused on building partnerships
at organisational level between women and men, to promote gender equality
and to work to end violence against women. It has looked at the work of partner
organisations with men and boys on gender-based violence prior to the intro-
duction of Oxfam GBs GEM (Gender Equality and Men) approach in 2000, and
the significant changes in partners work with men and boys following its
implementation in 2002. The main findings indicate that although gender
inequality is embedded in patriarchal institutions and reproduced through
family socialisation processes in Yemeni society, there is great potential to work
with men as allies for gender equality.
In line with GEMs partnership methodology, enlightened male academics,
human-rights specialists, and government officials demonstrated co-operation
173
and the commitment to promote gender equality, and took real action. In doing
so, they used approaches that are acceptable within the constraints that are
present in this society, and promoted dialogue based on justice and human
dignity. Trust has been built between mens and womens organisations,
recognising the power of access and influence that particular men hold over
others. However, operating within the current limits of mens identity in Yemeni
society means that male allies for gender equality must keep a relatively low
profile, and avoid being provocative and outspoken.
The chapter highlights some effective approaches to involving men in strategies
to mainstream gender equality. It suggests the following guiding principles for
development workers in similar contexts:
Practitioners need to be aware that successfully integrating boys and men in
development programmes depends on recognising both the negative and
the positive roles they can play. The GEM approach is based on minimising
the negative and building on the positive attitudes of men and boys towards
gender equality.
In most developing countries, including Yemen, there are many womens
groups and organisations that work to promote womens rights, but there is
little focus on men; promoting partnership between womens organisations
and key male actors in government and non-government organisations can
result in effective alliances to support work for gender equality. As a starting
point, development workers should seek to promote dialogue between
women and men, so that the fears of both sides can be understood, and the
most useful approaches for promoting partnership can be identified.
Drawing on these principles, development workers should take practical action
to:
1 Understand the dynamics of gender inequality at macro level and among
different social groups, through in-depth gender analysis and mapping of
the various aspects of gender relations. External factors that affect gender
relations and the potential impact of changes should be considered, so that
workers can exploit opportunities and avoid risks.
2 Analyse the socialisation process and external factors in depth, breaking
such analysis down by social class, race, age, religious affiliation, and so on;
radical religious movements, individual laws, and household poverty are
all examples of factors which reinforce gender inequality. Development
workers should carry out these analyses in the first stages of programme
formulation (problem identification and analysis) in their work with
partners.
174
3 Identify the economic, social, and political spaces that women would most
like to explore, based on the above analysis, and support womens struggles.
Practitioners should test out approaches to working with men and boys
that allow more space to be opened up for women; the specific intervention
adopted in each case will depend on the level of mens resistance.
For example, improving access for girls to education may face less
resistance from men than does increasing womens political participation.
4 Build partnerships between womens organisations and key male policy
makers through:
establishing dialogue with womens groups and organisations to foster
their understanding and acceptance that men hold power that they
could use to support gender equality;
encouraging womens organisations to use discourses that are accepted
by policy makers and key male actors, and avoiding approaches that
challenge mens identity too overtly, which may threaten them;
providing training on gender equality for potentially gender-sensitive
men to shift the attitudes of men in the community, and influence
change using appropriate and accepted dialogues in the community
(for example, in the Yemen context by building on Islamic codes and
concepts of morality);
encouraging womens organisations to consider partnership with men
at all levels to promote gender equality;
exploring the positive characteristics of men that lead them to support
gender equality, and understanding the risks they may face as a result
of their support, and how to overcome them.
It is important to emphasise that men own the private and the public spaces in
Yemen. Women own as much space as men wish to allow them. To achieve equal
gender space requires integrating men and boys into development programmes
to challenge and change their patriarchal attitudes.
Notes
1 The Womens National Committee is the government body with lead responsibility for
promoting womens rights.
2 Yemen is ranked 133 out of 148 countries in the Human Development Report
(UNDP, Human Development Report 2001).
3 Republic of Yemen, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (20032005).
4 For a more detailed description of gender relations in Yemen, see M. Colburn (2002)
Gender and Development in Yemen, Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung/Oxfam GB.
175
5 For example, in January 2002, the Islamic parties in the parliament wanted to pass the Bait Al
Taa law (the house of obedience), which means that wives can be dragged to their husbands
homes against their wishes. However, enlightened women activists from the Yemeni Womens
Union in Aden (South/Socialist) succeeded in halting the endorsement of the law by sending
strong messages to the government via the media. The cost was high: women from Aden were
excluded from the Unions elections in September 2003.
6 Qat is a green leaf that is chewed, mainly by men, but also by women. It is classified by the
WHO as a narcotic. It has contributed to the poverty crisis in Yemen, as growing qat has
replaced growing vegetables and fruit in many areas. Qat therefore has a social and economic
impact on households.
7 Family law in Islam has not been turned into civil law. Polygamy, husbands absolute right to
divorce, and male guardianship over women have not been challenged so far.
8 Under Yemeni law, a man has the entitlement to divorce his wife if she has a chronic health
problem. Women are not entitled to divorce their husbands for this reason.
9 The declaration defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that
results in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats
of such acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or
private life.
10 The author participated in two regional conferences in Lebanon and Cairo on the status of
Arab women and CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women), and on violence against women in 2002 and 2003 respectively. Both regional
conferences were for women only.
11 The core discussion was based on how partners view a violence-free society, and was guided by
five questions: what would a violence-free Yemen look like (physical violence in public and in
the home)? What is it about mens identity that prevents the achievement of this vision?
What is it about mens upbringing and socialisation that creates this identity? (Why are men
this way?) How do women and men need to change the way they think and act to reinforce
the positive? What can the participants do differently to make Yemen free of violence?
What new partnerships, programmes, changes in ideas and beliefs (policy, practice, and ideas),
are needed?
12 In the administrative structure of Yemen, the country is divided into provinces. Each is
composed of a number of districts, and each district is divided into local councils.
13 Based on the nature of their employment, the male members of the advocacy group have been
divided into six committees, including: monitoring and documentation; rights and freedom;
awareness raising; security and defence (working with the police and security in raising their
awareness of violence against women, with a particular focus on juvenile rights, media, and
legal support for women).
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return to contents
What men think about gender equality:

lessons from Oxfam GB staff in Delhi and Dhaka
Sharon Rogers
The greatest harm done to this movement is done by gender fundamentalists.

Gender is not only a womens issue.
Gender equality is not a piece of work. We cant address it once or twice in a
project and expect big results.
We need to practice and say it and believe from our hearts. We start from our
own lives and start from now.
South Asia is the only region of the world where men outnumber women.
According to UNICEF, an estimated 79 million women are missing through
discrimination, neglect and violence.1 Extreme forms of culturally specific
violence, such as honour killings, acid throwing, and female infanticide, along
with a very high incidence of domestic violence, sexual harassment, trafficking,
and sexual exploitation, severely inhibit human and economic development in
the region. They serve as an indictment of governments failure to protect their
citizens human rights.
Within this context, Oxfam GB has come to believe that we need to build from
our current programmes that target violence against women, which have
focused on service provision, awareness raising, policy advocacy, and changing
the practice of institutions such as the police and the judiciary. Oxfam GB
understands that changing laws and institutions will continue to be ineffective in
the face of mass attitudes which devalue womens lives and which justify control
of our production, movement, and sexuality, and has therefore chosen to
campaign for a fundamental shift in the attitudes and beliefs among men and
women that perpetuate gender violence. The organisation is currently working
to develop and launch popular campaigns in five countries: Bangladesh, India,
Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Developing a campaign primarily targeted at ordinary men and women, rather
than policy makers, is new for Oxfam GB. In thinking through how to bring all
our staff into the planning process, it has become clear that the campaign is a
pilot for Oxfam, not only in terms of campaigning for behaviour and attitude
change, but also in terms of gender mainstreaming. The audience for the
177
campaign must include not only the general public, but also, and perhaps
fundamentally, all Oxfam GB staff and partners.
Men working for Oxfam GB in the region appear to be interested in the
campaign concept, and have participated actively in visioning exercises and
initial discussions. Yet their interest is combined with guarded scepticism about
how much they can or will be involved, and about how the campaign will target
men in general. All agree that Oxfam must seek both men and women as allies
and change agents, and that the campaigns must not portray men solely as
perpetrators. Some discussion has also revolved around the extent to which
women in South Asia perpetuate gender inequality and perpetrate gender
violence. To date, however, male staff in the region have had few opportunities to
discuss how gender equality and gender violence relate to their work, and even
fewer to discuss the issues in relation to their personal lives.
As the regional campaign adviser, I felt that the development of this book
provided an especially well-timed and constructive opening. This article
highlights the voices of 25 men working in Oxfam GBs offices in Dhaka and
Delhi,2 and explores their experiences with and views and feelings about gender
and gender equality, using the following questions as a guide:
How do Oxfam men understand gender, gender relations, and gender equality?
How have gender issues become visible to them? What generated their
commitment to gender equality?
What barriers do they face in working for gender equality? What discourages
them?
What recommendations do they have for Oxfam GB and other organisations
trying to mainstream gender equality?
Male colleagues organised, facilitated, and recorded men-only discussions in
both the Delhi and Dhaka offices. Staff in Dhaka set up separate conversations
among men of the Bangladesh team and among the local administrative and
finance staff of Oxfam GBs Regional Management Centre. Discussion notes
recorded both consensus views and, to some extent, anonymous individual
voices within the talks. In addition, I conducted nine follow-up interviews with
staff in Dhaka and two with the smaller Delhi team. There is a range of opinion,
experience, and emphasis represented among the contributors. I tried to note
instances where only one person raised a particular issue, as well as where there
seemed to be a significant number of men conveying the same message.
I have sought to explore the implications of the mens views for people
and organisations seeking to involve more men in gender-equality work.
The learning and recommendations that have emerged highlight possible
sources of mens resistance or indifference to the work for change that Oxfam GB
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What men think about gender equality
has been doing so far. The interviews have also helped me as an individual
activist, and Oxfam GB as an organisation, to identify entry points for wider
discussion and co-operation between men and women to achieve gender
equality. Beginning this dialogue now, even in a limited number of our offices, is
a first step towards mainstreaming a commitment to gender equality among our
own colleagues, and making it more than womens work. Unless Oxfam actively
involves men, they are unlikely to buy in to our campaign against gender
violence, and the campaign is unlikely to be successful.
Understanding gender relations and gender equality

Men are dominating our society ...
Although none of the discussion questions specifically asked for an analysis of
gender and the state of gender relations in Bangladesh or India, Oxfam staff in
Dhaka and, to a lesser extent, in Delhi, offered several views. A significant
number of comments reflected the contributors recognition of male dominance
in society and womens subordinate status. As one man said during a group
discussion:
Men are dominating our society, so what males like, what males want, what
males desire, or what males want to see, is happening ... At this moment,
women are getting few rights, [and it is difficult for them] just to have [a] ...
movement [for equality]. Men are not fully ready to reduce their control over
resources, decision-making processes, or even over female counterparts.
In the same discussion, another man highlighted the undervaluing of womens
traditionally gendered roles as wives, mothers, and teachers, and the way in
which Islamic customary law in Bangladesh denies women equal inheritance:
Womens contributions are not recognised, and they dont get an equal share of
resources. Discussion drew out the participants understandings of gender
as socially constructed, with formal education, culture, religion, and families
all mentioned as contributing to creating and reinforcing gender norms.
God created the earth, male and female, with balancing, but as humans, we have
created imbalance for our own benefit.
Gender inequality: a personal or structural issue?

Recognising male dominance, womens subordinate status, and the social
construction of gender does not necessarily translate into a clear analysis of the
causes of gender-power imbalances. Some men within Oxfam feel that there is a
tension between believing in gender equality as a principle, and feeling that an
undue burden is placed on men to answer for womens subordination; a tension
179
that is highlighted by the quotations below. The discussions also highlighted

mens uncertainty about how individual men and women can contribute to or
undermine gender equality.
One man stressed the systemic causes of gender discrimination:
Some people have a firm conviction that men are responsible for gender
discrimination as a community, but I disagree. Its social structures and
religious barriers, for example, which prevent women from leaving the house.
We need to address the social, political, and economic systems at once. ...
The family is not exempt from the external environment, so its better to look
at the structural level of things and how that influences the family [if we want
to change gender relations there].
Although gender inequality is structural, the emphasis on structure obscures the
disproportionate power that men continue to have, both as individuals and as a
group, to control and benefit from the structures that perpetuate inequality.
It also creates an opportunity for some men to deny or ignore their power to
affect gender relations at a personal level. Institutions like the family are created
and maintained by people; they dont exist on their own.
At the other end of the spectrum, some contributors focused on individuals
roles to the exclusion of other factors. For example, one man commented,
Its not a question of discrimination ... its a reciprocal relationship. Such an
approach can reduce gender inequality to a question of negotiation between
individuals, presuming that individuals have equal power and opportunities,
and act on a level playing field, in isolation from other influences. Another
contributor stressed that he sees men and women as equal, and strives in his
day-to-day life, both at work and within his family, to treat people in a gender-
blind manner: For me, gender is not an issue. Neither viewpoint seems to
acknowledge the disproportionate risks and burdens women face in operating
within male-dominated systems and institutions, which can be as big an obstacle
as overt discrimination. Efforts to involve more men in initiatives for gender
equality must include discussions of gender analysis and the various levels
at which we can work for gender equality, from the individual to the
institutional.
Who maintains gender inequality?

Many participants stressed that a key element of this analysis should be to
explicitly recognise both mens and womens roles in perpetuating gender
inequality, rather than to focus exclusively on men:
I think gender is an issue for all humanity, but I also think how much women
are responsible for creating imbalances. Women are responsible for making me
180
male or female in terms of attitude, behaviour, and practices, because they are
the masters of the socialisation process.
[Oxfam programme documents on gender equality] often refer to Indias
gender inequality stemming from its patriarchal culture, but gender inequality
can happen in a matriarchy too.
These men feel frustrated by their perception that many gender-equality activists
say gender and mean: women equal victims, equal powerless, equal weak,
equal good; and men equal perpetrators, equal powerful, equal dominating,
equal bad. By stressing womens roles and power in socialisation, the men
indirectly challenge such an essentialised hierarchy as inaccurate and unfair, and
make a case for a more nuanced analysis of mens and womens gender attitudes
and practices.
Rather than assign blame for the maintenance of gender imbalances, gender-
equality activists might more usefully stress the positive roles that both men and
women can play in creating space for children to develop without undue gender
stereotyping. It is also important to discuss the differential costs and benefits for
men and women in adhering to and passing on dominant gender norms, and
the obstacles they face in challenging them. For example, men socialised to
exhibit masculine qualities of competitiveness and independence are likely to
be considered successful, while women and girls who exhibit these qualities are
likely to be punished in myriad ways, including with violence. Qualitative
research commissioned by Oxfam GB into attitudes to gender and domestic
violence in India found that a significant number of women survivors of
violence feel that, although they want their daughters lives to be different, the
abuse they suffer prevents them from modelling most of the behaviours and
values they would like their daughters to espouse. To hold women, especially
mothers, primarily responsible for socialisation, without acknowledging and
confronting mens roles not only in direct socialisation, but also in compelling
women to conform to mens values would be as inaccurate as to hold men
solely responsible for perpetuating patriarchy.
Responsibility for gender-based violence

Discussion of gender-based violence raised similar issues. Several men commented
that women, as well as men, commit violence against women:
We need to re-analyse domestic violence and to recognise that women
also commit it. Oftentimes, while a victim may be a woman, the perpetrator
is also ...
Women are not immune from committing acts of violence; for example, some
women beat their maids.
181
These men, like the men quoted in the section above, seem to be challenging a
definition of oppression that places mens domination of women as its centre,
and labels men as the only perpetrators of violence and abuse. Their own
experiences tell them that the actions of individual men and women are shaped
by intersecting identities and power dynamics, of which gender is only one.
In South Asia, where extended families are strong and joint households are
prevalent, older women may abuse their daughters-in-law or push other family
members to do so, as a way of maintaining their limited power within the family
hierarchy. In other cases, as with womens violence against their domestic
servants, while women are at the bottom of the gender hierarchy, they may act in
dominating and oppressive ways, using their power and position within the
hierarchies of class, religion, age, and so on.
There were also a few comments about womens violent or oppressive
behaviour towards men, especially their husbands and co-workers. Since
violence against women and its implicit threat is at the foundation of gender-
power imbalances, it is critical that we include discussion and analysis of it in
all our gender-equality work. All conflict is not oppression or abuse, which
necessarily involves the use of systemic or institutional power as a means of
control. When women engage in conflict with men in their families, they rarely
have the same social, cultural, religious, and legal sanction for their behaviour
that men do when they abuse women. Emphasising individual womens
oppressive behaviour toward men not only fails to recognise the lack of
institutional power behind most of the womens actions, it can also minimise the
overwhelming incidence of domestic violence perpetrated by men against
women across all classes and cultures.
Making gender visible and generating commitment to

gender equality
The majority of the men in the discussions described experiences within their
families, universities, and the NGO sector as sources of their gender awareness,
and several credited the womens movement. One person credited television and
popular culture, which continue to play an increasing role in shaping opinions
and raising issues. Overall, perhaps the strongest factor moving men to
internalise commitment to gender equality has been seeing the effects of gender
discrimination on women they know.
Parents and children

Many of the men view their parents and families as the most important source of
messages about gender. For example, one man related that, when he looked for a
182
wife, in contrast to most of his friends, he looked for a woman who had a job and
wanted to work, because he grew up with both his parents working and learned
from them to see women as equals. Another contributor had seen his parents
relationship change as a result of the growth of his own awareness of gender
equality, which has provided an important source of positive reinforcement in a
society where family condemnation would be a significant barrier:
My fathers family is ... more traditional. As a son, its expected that I
contribute money to my parents, even though they dont really need it. I used
to give them one envelope, but then I realised that my mother wasnt spending
any of it. Now, I give them two envelopes: one for my father and one for my
mother ... Both my parents have accepted this change without a problem.
Others stressed the ways that both fathers and mothers can perpetuate gender
inequality, either by example or by direct intervention. One contributor said:
We learn from how our fathers act toward our mothers. In Bangladesh, most
of the time, we see our mothers practically jailed at home, so even if we know
its wrong, some of us think its something we can do and get away with.
Another recalled his mother and male peer group pressuring him to conform to
the dominant norm of masculinity, despite his initial inclination to be different.
When I was little, I liked fancy clothes, but my mother told me, no, they are
only for a little girl. When I was older, I played with boys and girls both and
had lots of girl friends, but then my male friends told me not to play with girls
and that there are certain games particularly for boys, like football ... and there
are other games for girls.
All of these mens experiences point to the importance of creating opportunities
for mothers and fathers to learn and talk about alternative models of relating to
and raising their children within a framework of gender equality. Although not
all parents will become role models for perfectly equitable gender relations,
simply being open to their childrens diverse expressions of gender can support
both boys and girls to grow up without rigid beliefs about gender roles.
For the men quoted below, becoming fathers of girls has motivated them to
think about gender and gender inequality and has profoundly affected the way
they see the world and gender relations.
For me, now that I have a daughter, who is my only child, I see everything
through her eyes. For example, when I see an eight-year-old girl teased, I now
think, I want a different future for my daughter. My daughter will one day go
to someone elses house. How will she be treated there? How can I prepare
her?
183
I have seen a shift in thinking among my friends. For example, some are
buying property for both their sons and their daughters, because the law does
not allow equal inheritance, and boys legally get twice the inheritance of
their sisters.
I have only one child, my daughter, and we have ... given [her] the kind of
freedom that, in typical Indian households, would only be given to a boy ...
Despite ... criticism [from our neighbours], weve withstood the pressure to
control her. Now, the neighbours praise us when our daughter does things that
typical girls cant do, and when she accomplishes great things ... I am really
proud to see girls five to six years younger than she is looking to her as a model
... Their parents talk to us and ask advice. They are very apprehensive about
the social implications of their daughters behaving differently, but my wife and
I can reassure them. We can relate to their fears and concerns, but because we
have dealt with them, we can also be helpful and provide support. My greatest
joy is that my wife used to be under tremendous pressure, ... and people held
her more responsible [for my daughters behaviour than they did me], but now
she feels justified and rewarded. I supported her, ... but it was hard for her.
By seeing women and girls through their daughters eyes, these men have
begun to think about aspects of gender inequality, such as sexual harassment,
inheritance law, and mobility, which might not have concerned them before.
They have also been moved to find ways to defy restrictive laws, practices, and
social pressure, creating strategic models for their children and peer groups to
follow, which in turn allow their children to become role models as well.
The womens movement and NGOs

The success of the womens movement in putting gender equality and womens
issues on human rights and development agendas has also been an important
factor in making gender and gender discrimination visible to men. This is
particularly true in the NGO sector and in Oxfam GB, which the contributors
see as a leader in opening space for men to think about gender. For example, one
man noted that only after he began working for development NGOs did he
begin to understand the types of discrimination. ... I dont like [the fact] that
women are often in violent situations. Many men believe that the formal
commitment to gender equality of Oxfam and other NGOs has resulted in men
who are sensitive [and] highly conscious. They stressed that a gender-balanced
staff and Oxfams efforts to seek qualified women for all posts, even those in
which it is not traditional for women to work, are signs that the organisation
takes gender equality seriously. For example, As soon as you arrive at Oxfam
[in Dhaka], you realise that something is different and that Oxfam supports gender
equality, because it employs a woman as a gatekeeper, which is very unusual.
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In Bangladesh, womens social advancement and increased participation in

public life has given the message that women can do it, and has inspired
[the contributors] to think positively about gender equality.
Informal social and professional contact with women

At the same time, a critical mass of women in schools and workplaces has created
opportunities for friendship and camaraderie between men and women, which
are especially important in societies like India and Bangladesh, where they are
often segregated. As one father commented:
My son is experiencing co-education for the first time in university, and it is
changing him. He has women friends, fellow students, calling the house to
speak with him, and he is seeing women as equals and friends now, whereas he
didnt have as much of a chance before. Separate schools for boys and girls are a
barrier to achieving gender equality. When I was in university, there was only
one girl in my class. In my sons class, there are 30 per cent women.
For the contributors, having the chance to work and study with women as peers
was an important opportunity to become more comfortable working with them.
It was also an opportunity to understand their problems better and to see the
differences in the ways men and women are treated.
Communicating positive, alternative cultural models

Although only one man talked about how popular culture has shifted his
thinking about gender, I include his example because television and popular
culture influence increasing numbers of people, especially young people, in
South Asia and around the world. From television, he took both examples of
diversity and a stronger awareness of gender inequality.
For example, on Star Trek: Voyager, there are creatures that are neither male
nor female, neither men nor women. Diversity means, to me, that every entity
should have its equal rights ... A few months after joining Oxfam, I saw a
television show from West Bengal in India, during which the host read a letter
from a girl who wanted to change her sex to become a man so she could explore
the world and experience it more. I was really struck by this; the girl didnt feel
she had the right to be human as long as she was a girl.
Concurring with several other participants, he recommended taking a positive
approach to cultural messaging, offering alternative models of gender relations,
instead of simply negating the dominant values.
Newspaper articles about womens rights and violence against women have
little effect. People turn off ... this kind of news, because its generally negative,
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and there is so much bad stuff happening in Bangladesh. We need positive

examples. US movies almost always end well, and we need to take a lesson
from that approach and its appeal.
Another contributor phrased it this way:
I dont agree that we need to or should challenge [all] of Indian culture.
All value systems have both positive and negative aspects, and we interpret
and practice them to suit our needs. I am a product of the same general value
system as other men are, and I do things differently anyway. We need to
revive or emphasise the good examples of gender equality in the culture and
de-emphasise the bad, without telling people everything they do and think
is wrong.
If we want to transform gender relations, we need to provide models and an
alternative vision of what we want that change to look like, and we have to be able
to show how it would benefit both men and women.
Barriers to working for gender equality

Several contributors emphasised that many men believe that gender equality is
about special treatment and quotas for women. They feel that such mechanisms
are not only unnecessary, but also that they create a backlash and the perception
that mens needs are unrecognised, especially by the government and NGOs.
Beyond this overall frustration that gender equality often translates into
womens advancement to the exclusion of men, the contributors talked about
three other barriers to involving more men in achieving gender equality:
fear of condemnation;
being seen as illegitimate or foreign voices by the womens movement and
by their own communities; and
conservative interpretations of Islam.
Fear of condemnation
Fear of criticism silences a number of the men I interviewed, preventing them
from discussing gender issues or, in some cases, even from interacting with
women. The following story represents some contributors fears that their good
intentions will be misunderstood or mistrusted and that they will be seen
primarily as potential perpetrators when engaging with women.
It was 31st December, and I was leaving the office late. It was dark and raining
and cold, and I saw a woman walking alone toward the main road [which is
quite a distance from within the office park]. For a minute, I thought of
186
stopping and giving her a ride, but then I just stepped on the accelerator and
passed her by. I thought about this incident for days afterward, and felt very
badly that I hadnt stopped. I talked about it with my wife and daughter, and
my daughter said, You should have given her a ride. I finally realised that I
was afraid ... that if people saw me take her into the car, or if she had been
afraid and created a fuss, I would have had no explanation. People would have
questioned my motives, and I might have had problems.
In a professional context, all of the Delhi participants felt similar fear and self-
protectiveness. Although they feel positive about gender-equality work, in
discussing whether they feel that they are welcome to contribute to gender-
equality forums, they all indicated a disturbing level of discomfort; they feel
highly defensive, vulnerable, cautious, and afraid to be misinterpreted.
As one man put it, Everybody is watching you.
Two of the men recounted the same, now infamous, incident within the Oxfam
GB India programme, in which a male staff member sent a joke to all India
colleagues about differences between men and women getting cash from
ATMs, characterising women in exaggerated, stereotypical terms. Neither of the
contributors commented on the joke itself; however, they both stressed that they
had felt attacked by the public flurry of e-mails condemning the joke, its sender,
and sexism within the organisation, even though they had not been targeted
directly. They suggested that the womens overall message about the problems
with gender stereotyping had been overshadowed by mens defensiveness, and
one felt that he could not have commented at the time without seeming to
excuse the joke. Both recommended that colleagues address issues with each
other one-to-one, so that the person being asked to reconsider his or her words
or actions can do so without feeling vulnerable.
While the fear of being seen as perpetrators or labelled as sexist silences some
men, a few contributors feel that Oxfam GBs hierarchical structure and
organisational culture are barriers that make it difficult ... to act on innovative
ideas, and discourage people from saying things that are difficult to hear.
Since gender inequality is a form of hierarchy deeply embedded into almost all
organisations, these men recognise that to challenge it is to challenge Oxfams
hierarchy, even if some managers are women.
The lesson for Oxfam GB and other organisations working to involve more men
in gender-equality efforts is that we need to create an atmosphere that supports
open, respectful communication among colleagues, regardless of hierarchy.
We need to challenge unacceptable communication and behaviour with
sensitivity, without demonising the people we are challenging. We need to frame
our messages in ways that people will hear, rather than reject them because
theyve shut down and become defensive. If we want more men to take chances
187
engaging in dialogue and acting on their anti-sexist beliefs and convictions,

we need to communicate that we view them as partners with good intentions
and that we will support their efforts.
Being seen as illegitimate or foreign voices

Class prejudice and the perception that gender-equality work is an lite or
counter-cultural issue is another hurdle that some men feel they need to
overcome. For example, a gender programme worker in Bangladesh, who is
from a village, related his experience of struggling to overcome the mistrust of
prominent national women activists, most of whom come from privileged, lite
backgrounds and are unfamiliar with reality at the village level. These feminist
leaders question his perspective and gender-equality credentials, making it clear
that he is not part of their club, despite his having a degree, and long experience
as a gender-equality activist. At the same time, ordinary people from rural areas
outside Dhaka often label him as urban lite because of his job, although he
works hard to maintain relationships in his village.
In contrast, another contributor from a more privileged background stressed
that he struggles against the perception that gender-equality work, and NGO
work in general, undermine the class hierarchy and the status quo.
There are also social barriers to men doing gender-equality work. For example,
when I told an uncle and aunt that I wanted to settle in NGO work, my aunt
said, No, an internship is OK, but a job, no. Some people in my family and
also in the society I live in see NGOs as challenging social norms, and they
disapprove of them. At the same time, NGOs are leading the way on gender-
equality work, so we need to reposition them as more acceptable somehow.
In both cases, talking about gender injustice and the strategies for challenging it
without using language or images that will immediately alienate people, is a key
strategy used by the contributors to overcome mistrust and rejection.
Conservative interpretations of Islam

A theme in the discussion of the influence of Islam was the tension between
pushing for change by challenging some of peoples most fundamental beliefs
and finding elements of those beliefs on which to build. All of the contributors
in Bangladesh stressed Islams role in creating and maintaining womens
subordinate status. For instance, one man commented:
Most men are hypocrites. When wives are earning, men think its great, but if
they cant, they [the men] use religion as an excuse to force their wives to stay
at home. Fundamentalist leaders will allow girls to work cleaning in their
houses, but argue against women and girls working in general.
188
However, although the contributors saw the widespread, unquestioning

acceptance of conservative Islamic values about women as being a major barrier
to working for and achieving gender equality, they all recommended caution in
seeking to challenge it.
No matter how loudly you shout, if you conflict with Islam, which is deeply
rooted here, you will turn off many, many people. We need to show that equal
relations between men and women are not against Islam. There are both good
and bad examples of gender relations in Islamic texts and interpretation.
We need to find entry points to show that women can do everything within
Islam. Whats most important is to avoid contradicting religious dictates.
As one contributor put it, in discussing gender equality, where we begin depends
on our context. We need to encourage men and women to question the
unquestionable, while acknowledging their circumstances and histories,
beginning from points of reference they will trust and with which they feel
comfortable. In one way or another, the importance of starting from where
people are without attacking them, and then exploring gender issues on a
personal basis, became a theme running through all the discussions.
Mainstreaming gender equality: transforming the

workplace
Including men in gender-equality forums
The men in Delhi stressed that, currently, gender-equality forums held by
Oxfam GB are lopsided and they feel there is a predetermined mindset that men
do not know about gender issues. They asked, Why do people only talk about
women in these meetings?. All of the men in the discussion want to contribute to
gender-mainstreaming efforts, and many of them stressed that sometimes,
men can be more gender-sensitive than [women], so men should not be excluded
from forums or initiatives for promoting gender sensitivity. They were quite
passionate in stating, in various ways, that Mainstreaming gender equality should
not only be the gender leads responsibility. People who focus on gender issues need
to involve both men and women. Although it is important in some situations to
have women-only spaces, explicitly inviting men to the table and including them
in our vision of potential allies is a clear first step.
Considering attitudes to gender equality during recruitment

Contributors in both Delhi and Dhaka argued that Oxfam GB should work
harder to develop a more complex and crosscutting practice of gender equality,
189
starting with recruitment. They value working with women colleagues, but
stressed that gender equality is not just about numbers.
We dont want to understand gender equality by increased number of women
staff; rather, we want to see the practice of gender equality at all levels of
Oxfams intervention.
Condemning tokenism, the staff group at Oxfams Regional Management
Centre in Dhaka noted that, Compromising skills to recruit a woman is akin to
undermining the dignity of women. Instead of using job advertisements that
state, Women are specially encouraged to apply, which many contributors
criticised, one man suggested alternative language, such as, This organisation
promotes gender equality, or We are an equal-opportunity employer. Others
recommended that Oxfam GB explore candidates attitudes toward gender
equality during recruitment. For example,
We hear a lot about the ideal of gender equality, but how did Oxfam manage
to get so many people who are striving for it? Luck. The only question about
gender equality ... in my interview was if I would have a problem working for
a woman boss ... I am working for Oxfam because it is fighting against poverty,
but the connection [between gender equality and poverty] was not there.
Another man recommended that Oxfam work harder to consider other aspects
of diversity besides gender, which would help to avoid fostering an analysis of
power inequality limited to gender.
Strengthening induction and training

From improvements in recruitment, discussions turned to improving Oxfam
GBs induction and training on gender analysis and gender mainstreaming.
One contributor noted that, currently, lack of communication mechanisms and
uneven capacity [gives people] scope to say I dont know. Nothing can be done.
Our response needs to be, We do know something. What can we do to put our
knowledge to work?. For example, although several of the men mentioned
having taken the initiative to read some of Oxfam GBs policies and materials on
gender equality, they still feel uncertain about how to apply it in their work.
Most had not participated in workshops on gender issues, but would like to.
I want to learn what Oxfam thinks and has learned about gender equality,
not just what we do in our gender-equality programmes. The checklists alone
are not enough to change our behaviour. We need training to get us to think
critically. A checklist could actually close our minds. One option is to have
discussion, and make developing checklists for mainstreaming gender equality
a participatory process.
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Other suggestions included requiring training in gender analysis as part of all

inductions, investing more in the ongoing improvement of the understanding
of Oxfam staff about gender issues, and reducing staff turnover to retain gender-
aware staff who could become ambassadors of Oxfam and gender equality.
Creating space for informal dialogue

For most of the men consulted, discussions for this article were the first
opportunities they had had to explore gender issues in depth. They valued the
chance to speak among themselves and to share their views, and also to feel that
they had been heard by a gender-focused staff member. Recognising that
training alone will not be enough, all of the men strongly recommended that
Oxfam GB create opportunities for informal, open dialogue on gender issues
and for sharing views about family life and gender relations outside the office.
Specific suggestions for taking this forward ranged from reviving informal
weekly discussions about staff learning in the Dhaka office and focusing on
gender, to having men-only discussions every two months, with men and
women coming together twice a year to meet and discuss gender issues and to
audit themselves. Another suggestion was to hold workshops focused on
gender equality beyond our programme work, which would send the message:
Treat women as equals not only at work, but also at home, in your personal
lives. Even our mothers and sisters might not get the same privileges that we
get as sons, and we can address this root-level inequality.
One colleague volunteered to start a mens group modelled on the Bangladesh
Womens Forum, an Oxfam-supported group that creates space for mid-level
female staff working for Oxfam partners to discuss gender issues within their
organisations.
Support and example setting from management

The final area of recommendation is about the strengthening of management
practice to support and model efforts towards gender equality. Several men
emphasised that mainstreaming gender equality should be taken seriously as
part of the performance objectives and development plans all Oxfam GB staff.
One man discussed the value of clear policies against harassment and
discrimination, and stressed that, although administrative or managerial action
will not make staff more gender sensitive, ... it can set limits against overtly sexist
behaviour. Another contributor cautioned,If men act from fear of losing our jobs,
... we might act with false faces. ...[Gender equality] should not be routine [and
bureaucratic], because then we dont do it with full commitment and reflection.
Most feel that individual managers behaviour, rather than management systems
191
and policies, make the critical difference in peoples willingness to challenge

gender inequality. By modelling the kind of behaviour they want from colleagues
and being forthright in discussing gender issues, managers help to create the
kind of open, supportive atmosphere that the men felt was a prerequisite for
them to be involved in gender-equality work. As one contributor summed up,
Guidelines, encouragement, and creating space for discussion, thought, and
practice are better tools than punishment and rules.
Conclusion
Working on this article has given me a chance to see some of my colleagues in a
new light. Taken in their entirety, most of the interviews were moving and
emotional in ways I had not expected. I think this was because many interviewees
spoke about themselves and about the people that matter most to them: their
families. We werent talking about projects and how they would impact upon
women, gender relations, the environment, or poverty alleviation; we were
talking about home.
Oxfam GB believes in story telling: that we work with people, not with statistics
or generalised categories of poor people. Yet, when it comes to our efforts for
gender equality, the stories we have told have been, in effect, outside of us, in
communities in which we have projects, but in which we do not live and with
which we may not identify closely. For many of us, even if we have seen that
gender equality is about us, it may have seemed to be a different gender equality
from the gender equality we seek in our programmes. Even if we have seen it as
about us, we havent recognised that many of our colleagues, including men,
also see it as about them. Working on this article has removed my blinkers.
If Oxfam men in Dhaka and Delhi have so much to say about gender and gender
equality, then its likely that men in the rest of our offices do too, and that Oxfam
would learn even more by soliciting their opinions and engaging in dialogue
with them on a regular basis.
Talking to men once, for a single article, is not enough to get them on board as
active participants in gender-equality work within Oxfam GB or within our
programmes. To support men to contribute by asking questions, making
suggestions, and sharing experiences about gender issues, we need to follow
up by acting on the learning from the discussions. One man said:
Why dont we start changing things at home? In my household, I share
responsibility with my wife for work. ... If I dont do this, how will my wife do
all of her things? If I expect something good, then I have to work for it and
share family things with my wife. If we dont believe this, then our son would
see it and know it.
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The same could be said for Oxfam GB. Start at home. Spread expectations for
gender awareness and responsibility for gender-equality work; if you dont,
how will the few staff responsible for it be successful? If you want to achieve
mainstreaming of gender equality, then you have to work for it. If we dont
believe this, then new and prospective staff, other organisations, our partners,
and communities will see it and know it. We wont be as effective or credible,
because we wont be building on the strength and commitment our staff could
generate.
Ultimately, whether we view men as potential allies, targets of our gender-
equality work, or both, we need them; achieving gender equality demands
radically transformed relations between and among men and women; a shift not
only in attitudes, but also in power and its exercise. This can only happen when
both men and women work towards it, separately and together. Achieving mere
tolerance of change, mere tolerance of womens rights, womens participation,
and gender-equality programmes will not be enough, if we want change to be
mainstreamed. For it to take root and spread, change will need to be both
personal and structural. In practice, this does mean men giving up privilege, and
thinking more about the gender implications of their words and actions; but it
also means women examining their own attitudes and behaviour, and men and
women supporting each other when they choose to act outside of the dominant
gender norms. As one of my colleagues said, We need to practice and say [it] and
believe from our hearts. We start from our own lives and start from now.
Notes
1 United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Regional Office for South Asia, with the Centre for
Child Rights, Delhi, Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Children in South
Asia, prepared for the Second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children 2002, page 10, Kathmandu: UNICEF.
2 The author is grateful to all the Oxfam GB staff members who took part in this exercise, and to
Oxfam staff who facilitated discussions. Not all of the participants were comfortable with
being identified by name for this article, so the participants have been quoted without
attribution.
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return to contents
Evolving the gender agenda: the responsibilities

and challenges for development organisations
James L. Lang and Sue Smith
Introduction
This article explores the progress of two development organisations in tackling
the place of men working on gender equality.1 It describes internal lobbying
and capacity-building initiatives within the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), and the UK-based NGO, Oxfam GB. These initiatives are,
respectively, the Working Group on Men and Gender Equality and the Gender
Equality and Men project.
The role of development organisations in promoting gender equality

Many development organisations have a mission to achieve gender equality as part
of their overall development goals. These organisations, especially multi-laterals
and bi-laterals, help to shape policy discussions and more gender-equitable
policy frameworks for governments, while at the same time implementing
programmes and projects of their own with partners and beneficiaries. They
have the capacity for a wide reach and influence in settings where equitable
public co-operation between women and men may be relatively uncommon.
They intervene in circumstances where people are vulnerable, living in poverty
and in emergency situations and many of these organisations aim to
demonstrate that greater gender equality and flexible gender roles can alleviate
these situations.
Development agencies have an obligation not only to help to ensure that the
development-policy agenda reflects the fact that development goals will only be
reached if gender inequality is addressed, but also to nurture more equality
through programming both their own programming and that of the partners
they are working with. They must start internally with their own policies, staff,
and organisational culture, instilling gender equality into the thinking and
behaviours of all staff (male and female). This article tells the story of two
organisations attempting this modelling within their own internal processes.
194
Evolving the gender agenda
Why the problem? Some constraints on mens greater involvement

in gender work
Conceptual constraints
After almost two decades of programming for gender equality, there is still an
understanding among most development practitioners that, in practice,gender
means women. They could be forgiven for making this assumption: in the same
way that only black people have race, only women have gender, and men
a dominant social category whose privileges are taken for granted remain
invisible.2 Most of the resources reserved for gender equality, and most policy
attention, has focused on women, working from the premise that women are the
majority in the poorest groups, suffer the greater abuse of rights, enjoy less
power, and have more limited access to resources and decision making than men
at all levels. So the recent focus on mens potential contribution to gender
equality an analysis of masculinities and mens gender roles, a focus on if and
how men lose out, and on how to encourage mens contribution to gender
equality has left many practitioners deeply confused. How can gender equality
mean a focus on men? How is it possible to focus on men without old power
dynamics reasserting themselves? What does it mean, in both theory and
practice? Staff and partners in development agencies are finding the new area of
gender equality and men conceptually challenging.
Structural constraints
Gender-equality goals pose particular challenges to men working within
development agencies. While their external (and often rhetorical) objectives
commit many agencies to working for gender equality within a framework of
human rights and human development, their internal functioning often reflects
the patriarchal norms and practices that maintain gender inequality. Individual
male development practitioners may commit themselves to gender equality, but
they work within organisations whose entrenched cultures and structures may
embody male privilege.
Organisational barriers
Organisational and human-resource policies do not consistently encourage
the flexible gender roles central to good development practice. For example,
there are still cases where corporate policy does not include paternity leave,
a sexual harassment policy, and flexible working and childcare arrangements.
Gender competency is often not included as a requirement during recruitment
processes, and gender-equitable skills and attitudes are not yet systematically
nurtured through longer-term staff development. In many organisations, the
majority of senior management positions continue to be filled by men, and
195
action to redress gendered power imbalances within organisations can still cause
tensions among women and men staff.
Even when gender-equitable policies do exist, they may not be put into practice,
because of the prevailing legal and cultural climate. For example, in an
organisational ethos that equates hard work with long hours at your desk,
some staff male and female may feel hesitant to take parental leave, or to work
flexible hours, as they fear sending the message that they are not serious about
their work. There is also a risk that such policies can reinforce traditional gender
stereotypes if they are used exclusively by women, perpetuating the notion that
women are the natural carers.
Personal constraints
Related to the general issues of organisational culture and structures, there are
personal and interpersonal constraints. Although many women and men see
mens participation in unpaid household and caring work as a positive step
towards achieving equality, there is still resistance to it on the part of some men
and women. For obvious reasons, there are hesitancies on the part of some
women to welcome men into the struggle for gender equality. For example,
concerns exist that men will manipulate the gender discourse to their own
agendas, or that resources earmarked for the advancement of women will now
be diverted to a focus on men and boys. More tacit resistance may have to do
with the nature of these new partnerships required by more male involvement.
The realm of gender was once a sanctuary for women in a world dominated by
men and more involvement of men necessitates power sharing and
compromise within this one area where women were once sole proprietors.
For some men, resistance to greater mens involvement is rooted in the fact that
it entails a greater focus on their gender and how their own privileges are
maintained. One privilege of gender inequality for men is the relative invisibility
of their gender. If we do not talk about men and gender, we will not understand
mens positions and privilege, and we will not be able to outline mens
responsibilities in work towards gender equality. Also, some men may feel that
women often are more articulate in and dominate conversations about gender.
For some men, gender is perceived as womens space, and as a result they feel
intimidated discussing gender issues with women. Unless opportunities are
opened up for women at the same time as encouraging men to enter the gender
discourse on their own account, progress is difficult.
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Some experiences
The United Nations Working Group on Men and Gender Equality
Background
The UN Working Group on Men and Gender Equality was an informal working
group that grew out of gender capacity-building workshops for staff of the
United Nations Development Programme in the late 1990s. The working group
included both men and women mainly staff from UNDP, UNICEF, and other
New York-based UN agencies.
The group aimed to raise awareness around men, masculinities, and gender, and
to challenge staff to think about the connections between gender-equality goals
and their personal and professional lives. It also encouraged an understanding of
the biases and barriers hidden behind some development policies and practice,
and advocated for the deeper incorporation of concepts of masculinities into
gender analysis and an increase in opportunities for men to play a part in work
towards gender equality.3
In practice, the group took action as an internal advocacy and awareness-raising
initiative. At its inception in February 1999, the 12 founding members released a
statement to all UNDP employees, both at the headquarters in New York and in
its country offices throughout the world, reaching more than 5000 staff.
The statement announced the formation of the group, outlined its prospective
work, and highlighted the rationale for its existence. Some of the points raised in
the statement were:
Fear: Men are often fearful when first presented with a gender mainstreaming
agenda. The advancement of women may be perceived as a threat to mens
personal and professional status. This may be buttressed by anxiety about
ridicule or compromised masculinity if one is widely perceived as an advocate
of gender equality.
Lack of experience: Men recruited by UNDP, and a majority of those already
working for the organisation, do not have experience whether academic or
professional on related gender issues. Concurrently, it is frequently women
who are recruited or appointed to handle gender concerns, regardless of their
expertise. Therefore, any meaningful dialogue on gender equality and the role
of men and women in gender mainstreaming could be viewed as disunited
from a common agenda.
Organisational culture: UNDPs organisational culture is a product of
accumulated legacies that can maintain inequalities between men and
women. An absence of incentive structures for staff to view gender equality
197
as integral must be confronted and institutional acceptance of a

zero tolerance policy toward sexual harassment is imperative.
(Gender Mainstreaming: A Mens Perspective, UNDP 1999)
As the group expanded, it held approximately one planning meeting a month,
and established an e-mail discussion list that grew to 125 members. An alternating
chair convened the planning meetings and ensured that the commitments of
individual members were met. The UNDP Gender in Development Programme
offered an intern for one summer, space on their website, and ad hoc financing
for the lunchtime talks, film events, and UN panels which became the main
awareness-raising activities of the group. The group co-organised and sponsored
three high profile events (discussion panels and film screenings) for the
annual UN Commission on the Status of Women (19992001), as well as for
the Beijing +5 conference in 2000.
From talk to transformation

A basic question which inspired the formation of the working group was,
If gender equality is necessary for sustainable development, why are so few men
in development organisations working on gender issues?. The preliminary,
more obvious answer was a combination of the structural and the institutional
that is, some of the constraints outlined in the first section of this article.
Talking about these structural constraints in the abstract was second nature to
the groups participants. Many development professionals, including the
membership of the working group, are economists and other social scientists,
who think about and discuss social systems and processes as part of their work.
But a concrete way forward to redress the problem of the lack of men in gender
work within UN organisations started with the personal, and required self-
reflection, behavioural change, and commitment. Many of the men who formed
the working group indicated that their commitment to, or interest in, gender
equality arose from two related sources. The first was a commitment to human
rights and equality as valid political principles on which development work
must be founded. The second was their observation of the inferior treatment and
consequent struggles of their mothers, partners, and sisters, and especially their
hopes and aspirations that their daughters lives would be different. Later
conversations focused on the constraints and burdens of living up to dominant
concepts of masculinity.
Thus, mens participation in these discussions began to demonstrate the well-
known feminist insight that the personal is political, and that potential for
transformation exists when this connection is made. For some, it was also true
that they were able to understand better how gender roles, modelled within their
households for their own children to observe and learn from, were part of the
198
arena for social change, as were the gender relations within their workplaces.
As one working-group member states, For me, this was the first time I was able to
make clear connections between my personal life and relationships and the
structural inequalities that lie behind poverty. Understanding how gender and
power play out in my own life truly helps me do better development work.
The transformative process followed by some members of the group can be
envisioned as moving inwards, towards the personal, through a series of
concentric circles. First, the group opened the conversation by discussing gender
equality and development in conceptual, theoretical, and normative terms.
The second, more focused circle, was defined by conversations about experiences
observed within the workplace: anecdotes in which the speaker was a more or
less passive observer of patriarchal behaviours, such as inappropriate jokes,
sexist attitudes, and even sexual harassment. Often, members of the group
confessed to having remained silent, and thus complicit, in these situations.
Finally, the conversations turned inwards, towards the individual. Why do men
behave the way they do; what do men feel and value? What are the inconsistencies
between these values, behaviours, and beliefs? With the identification of these
inconsistencies came the suggestions for behaviour modification, as well as
suggestions for areas for advocacy and action for the group.
Roles for women and men

The women in the group were gender advocates, who saw the potential advantages
of more involvement of men, and were willing to experiment in working more
closely with them. These women in turn became strong advocates for the
group with other, more sceptical, women. Overall, the groups membership was
primarily men, but involving women in key positions was vital for the existence
and financing of the group. The women who played key behind the scenes
roles in the group, from the various UN gender units, saw it as strategic that
men in the group should play more public roles, as shared messages were
strengthened coming from male messengers.
It proved to be vital for men to talk with other men, and for each individual to
feel comfortable in this space. For example, in initial conversations about attitudes
and behaviours in the workplace, and in the subsequent discussions at the
personal level around self-awareness, the group was more comfortable starting
the discussion with men only. This enabled men to let down their guard,
articulating and affirming that they did not necessarily conform to, or want to
conform to, dominant models of masculinity, and did not condone sexist and
patriarchal behaviours.
After these men-only discussions, and having achieved some level of self-
realisation, it was easier to discuss these issues with women. The majority of men
199
involved were from a younger generation, and the working group made some
efforts to attract both older men and senior management. This may reflect the
fact that younger men appear to be more open to renegotiating gender roles than
older men a hopeful sign, in terms of achieving a more widespread trans-
formation among men in future.
Conclusions
By the end of 2000, the working group started to lose momentum, when several
active men within the group left UN Headquarters in order to pursue new
professional interests, or took posts in dispersed locations. With the departure
of several core members, the group slowly dissolved. This was accelerated by
reforms in the UN system which affected many gender programmes, such as
the Gender in Development Programme at UNDP.
While a residual influence of the working group still exists, activities such as the
e-mail network and active support to panels have ceased to exist. Individual
members, however, have carried the initiative forward in new settings, particularly
at a local level. In addition, the working group was, along with other groups
and individuals, part of a movement that placed men as partners firmly on the
UN development agenda, as evidenced by the fact that Mens Roles in Gender
Equality was a sub-theme of the UN Commission of the Status of Women
inter-governmental review in 2004. It is envisaged that this will provide further
stimulus for new initiatives and, potentially, for new forms of working groups.
Oxfam GBs Gender Equality and Men (GEM) project

The position of men in Oxfam GBs gender-equality work
Since the establishment of its Gender and Development Unit in the early 1980s,
Oxfam GB has committed resources to the achievement of gender equality, both
centrally and in its international programme.4 Over nearly two decades, Oxfam
staff and partners have increasingly targeted women and promoted gender
equality in supported projects; put policies in place that support gender equality
at both regional and central levels; published the results of their experience; and
promoted gender awareness and sensitivity among staff (primarily in Oxfams
international programme). A focus on involving men in working for gender
equality did not emerge until the late 1990s, when gender work in the
organisation was already well developed. The focus achieved a foothold within
Oxfam GBs gender and development work, stimulated by external discussions
among development academics, by the appearance for the first time of male
managers at the headquarters who had active responsibility for the imple-
mentation of gender strategies, and by the desire for a more complete gender
analysis which would look at mens as well as womens gender roles. Milestones
200
in the development of the focus on working with men have been the publication
of an edition of the journal Gender and Development on men and masculinities,5
the organisation of a seminar series by Oxfam GB in collaboration with others
on the same theme,6 and a publication on mainstreaming men into gender and
development.7 However, relatively little attention has been given to how and
where men are included in Oxfam GBs international programme work, and
what attention there is, is little recorded.
Many Oxfam staff and partners have talked informally over the years of the need
to engage men in gender-equality initiatives. They have been aware of the effect
on men of empowering women at household and community level, and the
resistance of some men to such initiatives. In one example, the project officer in
a partner womens organisation begged Oxfam to start brainwashing our men
about the importance of empowering women. Gender advisers are occasionally
made aware of debates about the role of men and women in particular
geographical contexts, often highlighting the difference between rhetoric and
reality within programming. However, these discussions have rarely been
articulated in reflections on the impact of Oxfam GBs work.
Such a long history of programme work on gender equality has created at least
the rhetoric of widespread acceptance among staff in all parts of the organi-
sation that gender equality is an integral part of Oxfam GBs mandate, that
gender equality is an issue of rights and justice, as well as more effective
programming. Organisational carrots, and occasionally, sticks, are in place to
encourage this acceptance; as one male senior manager put it recently, you cant
get away with not doing gender. This public acceptance of the discourse within
Oxfam GB suggests that if male resistance remains, it may be that it exists under
the surface.
Developing the GEM project

In 2001, a more active attempt to establish a holistic gender analysis which made
mens roles visible was led by the Oxfam programmes in the Middle East and
Eastern Europe region and in the UK.8 In recent years in these regions,
enormous economic and social changes have resulted in poorer employment
prospects, with a connection to worsening health indicators and higher
mortality rates for some men particularly those in the lower social classes.
In part, this is due to the difficulties men experience in adjusting to the new roles
these changes demand of them. This reality led to the development of a proposal
to improve gender analysis to include men as well as women. The proposal also
aimed to encourage better programme practice to tackle the impact of poverty
on women and men separately, and to influence gender relations positively at
household and community level.
201
A development officer engaged Oxfam GB staff in its nine international regions

in an interim study of the organisations gender work with men. A workshop was
attended by staff from six international regions, at which support for the value of
this focus on men was built among key programme staff. Since then, there has
been active work in one or two programme locations. In Yemen, a group of male
advocates working to end violence against women has received active
encouragement from Oxfam; in Georgia, male partners of women affected by
domestic violence have been encouraged to attend separate counselling sessions.
In the UK, One Parent Families York, a partner organisation of Oxfams UK
Poverty Programme, has made changes to the services it provides to promote the
inclusion of fathers sharing care of their children (see chapters by Elsanousi,
Khoshtaria and Pkhakadze, and Ruxton, this volume). Project learning has
shown that engaging men in working for gender equality is slow and difficult,
and that using entry points to engage men in no-blame approaches, recognising
their own gender needs and roles, are more likely to be successful in the longer-
term. However, Oxfam GB is a long way from establishing the right conditions
and a critical mass of committed men and women to embed the focus on men
into its international programme.
The programme work of the GEM project was accompanied by internal
advocacy to managers and staff in all divisions of Oxfam GB, and aimed to
engage male staff actively in gender-equality work. Senior managers have
been broadly supportive of the project, but GEM is not yet firmly lodged in
the mainstream of Oxfams gender-equality programming, and the project
is not located in a particularly influential position for making changes in
programming.
Internal advocacy of the GEM project

The GEM projects objective in internal advocacy was to open spaces in the
organisation in which men could start to think about their personal commit-
ment to gender equality and what that meant in practice for their day-to-day
work. It was also to engage senior managers and the organisational group
charged with mainstreaming gender equality, to lend weight to the debate.
Finally, the GEM project aimed to make clear that gender equality is not just an
issue for the international programme, but for everyone working in Oxfam GB.
The staff involved in the project held two seminars in 2002 to examine the nature
of Oxfams commitment to the transformation of gender roles, as articulated in
its overall gender policy. These policy-level seminars were supplemented by
well-attended events open to all staff at headquarters, with presentations
highlighting mens active involvement in ending violence against women, and
exploring masculinities.
202
The discussion and internal debate that this sparked has been, not surprisingly,
controversial. Some practitioners have maintained that Oxfams mission to
alleviate poverty should not take it into the realm of personal transformation.
Others believed that the commitment to transform gender roles had to focus on
those who would benefit most: women. Some acknowledged that the issue of
mens personal transformation needed addressing, but that this was something
that men themselves needed to take on.
Oxfams gender policy now contains clarifications on the role of men. The new
policy (2003) states Oxfam GBs commitment to work with both women and
men to address the specific ideas and beliefs that create and reinforce gender
related poverty. It goes on to elaborate that we will address the policies,
practices, ideas, and beliefs that perpetuate gender inequality and prevent
women and girls (and sometimes men and boys) from enjoying a decent
livelihood, participation in public life, protection, and basic services. This is with
the proviso that we will ensure that any work we do with men and mens groups
supports the promotion of gender equality.
A significant organisational innovation to promote the greater involvement of
men in gender mainstreaming was the creation of an internal training session in
a series of introductory courses, called The Gender Journey. This is open to all
staff in Oxfam GBs Oxford headquarters, and uses the principle of gender
balance in both the training team and participants. The course was championed
by a male senior manager and resourced by the female Human Resources
director. Men are actively recruited to the course senior male managers in
particular in order to create a pool of skilled men able to act as gender
champions in their departments, ensuring that staff are encouraged and
supported to develop their skills and commitment. The course aims to demystify
gender and to create a space in which participants feel able to challenge and
explore their role in Oxfams gender-equality work. The content is supported
with case studies drawn from the UK context (from Oxfams programme and
from the wider social and economic context), to enable participants to make the
connections between their professional and personal commitment. It has been a
successful experiment in starting to alter the reality that few men feel they know
enough about the issues, even if they are broadly sympathetic. It shows that we
can still be lads, and care about gender equality, was a comment on these changes
by one senior manager.
The Gender Journey has been assisted by slow improvements in the UK
external environment, and social and economic changes which have meant
greater flexibility in gender roles. A statutory requirement for employers to give
staff two weeks paid paternity leave has recently been passed in the UK, although
full parental leave is still a long way off, and the importance of positive male role
203
models for children is a focus of attention in some government policy. The two
male Oxfam GB senior managers interviewed for this article were convinced that
it was now possible and acceptable in some Oxfam departments for men to be
public about their family commitments, and that attempting to achieve a
worklife balance is not always seen as a sign that men are not serious about
their careers. Theres lots of blokes picking up their children from the nursery now,
and saying openly in meetings, Ive got to pick up my child now its five oclock,
said one senior staff member.
For Oxfam GB, initial success in achieving a vocal commitment from men to
gender equality appears to lie in the combination of the institutional and the
personal. For these two senior managers, the inspiration to action sprang from
their own lives. For one, an upbringing by a lone father in an all-male family
meant a clear understanding that gender roles can be interchangeable, and an
ability to give more sympathetic and active support to staff seeking more flexible
working arrangements. For another, his education in the crucible of the feminist
movement of the 1970s meant a lifelong commitment to gender equality.
I always try to be proactive and positive in challenging gender inequality in any
shape or form, all the time., he said. Their personal experience meant they could
be honest about not knowing the right answers, and open to helping other men
who feel uncomfortable articulating their own views. Since Ive been running the
course, people stop me in the street and say things like, I know I should know this,
but what is gender mainstreaming exactly? (Oxfam GB senior manager).
Without institutional support, however, this personal commitment would be
difficult to translate into practice. As a result of the many years in which gender
equality became an increasing priority in its international programme, gender
mainstreaming became one of four corporate priorities for Oxfam GB in 2002.
Support to those male managers who take seriously their job of modelling
visible commitment to gender equality has come from strong personnel and
programme requirements to seek staff with a commitment to gender equality;
the selection of qualified and committed men to some gender posts; and
performance-management systems and annual reviews which in theory require
gender to be made visible. While women continue to demand vocal
commitment as proof of seriousness, the male managers interviewed believed
that setting a practical example was more important. I believe it does make a
difference if you do it, said one. In peoples subconscious, it registers. What we do is
modelling, standing up first, taking the lead. (Oxfam GB senior manager).
204
Conclusions and recommendations

Through discussion, research, and analysis, development organisations can
nurture more equitable institutional cultures and practices and help to explore
and highlight what gender equality looks like at different institutional levels,
such as family, community, workplace, or policy. Organisational support for
family-friendly working practices, for example, demonstrates that gender
equitable behaviour at the household level is encouraged. And as advocates for
rights and equality, development organisations can also encourage staff and
partner organisations to model gender equitable behaviours at all these levels.
This suggests the following recommendations:
Greater conceptual clarity is needed about masculinities, and what is meant
by mens involvement. Men increasingly understand themselves to be
gendered beings, but there is confusion about what this means for the
advancement of women. Efforts such as those of the UN and Oxfam GB
show the importance of connecting the personal to the professional for
gender transformation.
Dominant ideas about masculinity in many societies are often in direct
opposition to the behaviours, ideas, and beliefs that are more gender
equitable and beneficial for women and men. Exploring this tension
between development goals and masculine ideals with male (and female)
staff of development organisations is a good entry point for personal and
organisational reflection.
Development organisations should lead by example in implementing
organisational policies in relation to, for example, paternity and maternity
leave, flexible working hours for both women and men, childcare provision
(with male and female staff), and sexual harassment. Special attention
should be given to policies that encourage more flexible gender roles,
such as increased opportunities for childcare for men and the reduction
of the double burden of paid and unpaid work for women. These will help
to rebalance gendered divisions of labour and income inequality between
women and men.
To ensure fertile ground for these policies to take root, it is important that
more senior managers, particularly men, become involved as active
champions in the cause of gender equality. Male managers as positive,
gender self-aware role models are key to changing the attitudes of those
who may be unsure or ambivalent about new gender policies.
Gender teams, units, or gender focal-point networks should be comprised
of both women and men, and the gendered personal dynamics of these
teams should be discussed in various arenas.
205
Organisations should establish opportunities for men to talk to other men

about gender issues, in addition to discussions between men and women.
Both men and women need safe, comfortable, and at times separate spaces
to discuss the political, personal, and organisational dimensions of gender.
Greater gender self-awareness and shared professional goals can lead to
alliance building between women and men. Exploring the concepts of
gender equality and sustainable development in terms of achieving goals,
and deconstructing personal gender behaviours, beliefs, and constraints
encourages deeper partnerships among and between groups of men and
women.
Adequate resources (human and financial) are needed to sustain gender
initiatives, including those focused on the advancement of women, as well
as initiatives such as the UN working group and the GEM project.
Notes
1 This article is based in part on the authors observations and interviews with staff of Oxfam
GB, UNDP, and other UN and bi-lateral agencies. The case study on the UN working group
contains additions and edits from Alan Greig, Sarah Murison, and Geoffrey Prewitt. The case
study on Oxfam GB is based on the authors experience of developing and managing the GEM
project, and discussions with two senior men in Oxfam GB with responsibility for gender
equality.
2 M. Kimmel (2000) The Gendered Society, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3 This thinking was synthesised in the subsequent UNDP publication Men, Masculinities and
Development: Broadening Our Work Towards Gender Equality, by A. Greig, M. Kimmel, and
J. Lang (UNDP 2000).
4 For more information on Oxfam GBs work on gender equality, see Changing Perceptions,
T. Wallace and C. March (eds.) (1990), and Gender Works: Oxfam Experience in Policy and
Practice, F. Porter, I. Smyth, and C. Sweetman (1999).
5 Available in book form as C. Sweetman (1997) Men and Masculinity, Oxford: Oxfam GB.
6 Men, Masculinities, and Gender Relations in Development, a seminar series held in 2000,
funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. A selection of the contributions was
published in C. Sweetman (2001) Mens Involvement in Gender and Development Policy and
Practice, Oxford: Oxfam GB, also available online at www.oxfam.org.uk/publications
7 S. Chant and M. Gutmann (2000) Mainstreaming Men into Gender and Development, Oxford:
Oxfam GB, also available online at www.oxfam.org.uk/publications
8 Oxfam GBs programme in these regions covers the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States; and the UK Poverty Programme reaches people in
poverty in England, Scotland, and Wales.
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return to contents
Conclusion
Sandy Ruxton
The contributions to this book confirm that masculinities and male practices are
much more diverse than conventional explanations allow. Far from being fixed
by genes or social structures, they are influenced in dynamic ways by factors such
as race, culture, class, age, ability, religion, and sexual orientation. Such
differences result in men having interests that divide them (as well as some that
unite them). Many men especially those belonging to dominant groups in
particular societies continue to hold power over and derive services from
women, and are therefore resistant to moves towards gender equality. But the
authors of this collection suggest that there are other men who reject
stereotypical perceptions of masculinity and rigid gender divisions, and are
more open to supporting gender equality.
Reflecting the views expressed in this publication, the UN Secretary General has
endorsed the importance of supporting mens active participation in promoting
gender equality. As he stated in a recent report:
Men in many contexts, through their roles in the home, the community and at
the national level, have the potential to bring about change in attitudes, roles,
relationships and access to resources and decision-making which are critical for
equality between women and men. In their relationships as fathers, brothers,
husbands and friends, the attitudes and values of men and boys impact
directly on the women and girls around them. Men should therefore be actively
involved in developing and implementing legislation and policies to foster
gender equality, and in providing role models to promote gender equality in
the family, the workplace and in society at large.1
Encouraging increasing numbers of men to act in favour of gender equality
remains a significant challenge facing governments, public and private
organisations, civil society, and communities. At international level, the 48th
session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March
2004 addressed the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality. It
concluded, among other things, that key stakeholders (including governments,
UN organisations, and civil society) should promote action at all levels in fields
such as education, health services, training, media, and the workplace, to
increase the contribution of men and boys to furthering gender equality.2
207
The evidence presented in this book suggests that examples of positive initiatives
are emerging often small-scale and struggling which are encouraging men to
show support for gender equality. A small number of men and mens groups are
actively working to sensitise other men to gender issues, often in alliance with
women and womens groups. Increasingly, development organisations such as
Oxfam GB are adding their weight and voice to such efforts, as the publication of
this collection testifies.
There are both risks and resistances to attempts to reshape masculinity, as we
identify in the Introduction. Gender and Development (GAD) approaches
involving men seem to remain at a conceptual level, rather than being integrated
into practice, reflecting uncertainty among policy makers and practitioners as to
the most effective ways forward. If this remains the case, it will raise serious
questions about the worth of such approaches.3 It therefore seems timely to
encourage greater efforts to test out GADs propositions. Developing work with
men from a gender-relations perspective is one way to do this.
Drawing on existing theory, the Introduction provides a conceptual framework
for thinking about men, masculinities, and gender relations, and shows how this
is related to the subsequent chapters. Based on this framework, and the
exploration undertaken by Oxfam GBs Gender Equality and Men project, this
book has sought to explore the aims and methods underpinning effective
interventions with men and to record emerging practice.
The aim of this Conclusion is to identify strategies for development
organisations and practitioners to involve men positively in initiatives to
promote gender equality, and to explore effective practice in engaging men and
learning from work on specific issues. It ends with some reflections on the
challenges facing development organisations.
Effective practice in engaging men

Developing positive messages and behaviour
A consistent conclusion from the books contributions is that it is essential to engage
men with positive messages that promote their awareness and understanding.
Keating and Rogers describe the reality that men often approach discussions
about gender in a defensive frame of mind, believing that they will be heavily
criticised for the views and feelings they express. Failure to diffuse this reticence
can act as a significant block to progress. As Kaufman comments, Language that
leaves males feeling blamed for things they havent done, or for things they were
taught to do, or guilty for the sins of other men, will simply alienate most boys
and men.
208
Conclusion
This is also relevant to the analytical models on which interventions are based.
Brown cites the example of deficit perspectives of fatherhood in the Caribbean,
which have wrongly, in her view, emphasised mens role as family provider or
protector over that of participant. Rather than holding up ideal images of
fatherhood, against which men are invariably judged as wanting, Brown favours
a developmental approach, based on the idea that men can work at improving
their engagement as fathers over time. She concludes that if this is to happen,
it is vital to respond to mens own expressed desires for improved relationships
and greater family participation. Conversely, men are likely to resist efforts to
fix them.
Although it is important to respond to mens concerns, practitioners need
to ensure that interventions do not undermine improvements in the position
of women and girls, or avoid addressing some mens negative or harmful
behaviours. Brown herself acknowledges the importance of making sure that
women or womens voices are not ignored.
A similar caution should be applied in relation to campaign and advocacy
messages. De Keijzer argues that there are initiatives that are successful in
reaching men, but lack a gender perspective that sensitises men and empowers
women. He criticises campaign slogans from Zimbabwe and Mexico for playing
to mens macho stereotypes of themselves, and argues that such messages
are likely to encourage rather than undermine a backlash against women.
In contrast, Kaufman cites a positive example, in describing how the White
Ribbon Campaign has used a campaign poster in many countries headlined,
These men want to put an end to violence against women, followed by lines
for signatures. This approach effectively challenges men and boys to take
responsibility for change, and focuses on the positive benefits to all.
This emphasis on shared benefits for men and women is critical. Messages
promoting shifts in gender relations can engage men by highlighting the
potential positive outcomes for themselves, their partners, and their children
even in situations where men may have to give up some of their privileges.
The importance of this point is reinforced by the fact that men and women are
not homogeneous groups. As identified at the start of this chapter, there are
divisions of interest among men, and some groups of men are willing, in relation
to some issues, to align themselves with women or with particular groups of
women.
This is confirmed by Barker in this volume, who highlights the importance of
identifying existing gender equitable commitments and behaviours among
men, and building on them. This approach involves not just offering positive
messages to men, but also looking for existing positive behaviours in men,
209
celebrating them, and developing communities of support for them. A key

challenge here is to support emerging initiatives such as this one, which are
encouraging positive behaviour among men and alliance-building between men
and women.
Identifying effective messengers

A central element in developing effective practice in work with men is to identify
who are the most effective communicators of messages. Several contributors
highlight the advantages, in their particular context, of getting boys or men
to engage other boys or men with gender issues. This is evident, for example, in
the work of AMKV in Timor Leste (de Araujo) and of TAI in South Africa
(le Grange). Both describe the benefits of raising the awareness of boys and men
and mobilising them to help design and deliver appropriate messages (about
mens violence, and about HIV/AIDS respectively), and of supporting and
nurturing such groups. Kaufman reminds us that this is important not only so
that men organise themselves to work for gender equality, but also because
participating in such groups can shift their relations with other men in a positive
direction.
Using informed and self-critical male messengers can therefore be a very useful
strategy. However this it is not necessarily the same as saying that boys (or men)
need male role models, above all else. This assumption is often made too easily,
without asking who those models should be, and what qualities they will impart;
for instance, having no father is likely to be less damaging for a child than
having a violent father. Gender learning is an active process, not a step-by-step
progression. Just because a particular boy has a male role model, does not mean
that the model will be one that the boy should, or in practice will, emulate.
Similarly, some organisations claim success in appealing to men and boys by the
use of celebrities, especially those from the sporting world. Here again, care must
be taken to avoid the risk of reproducing stereotypes and entrenching, rather
than questioning, traditional masculinities.4
Other contributors stress the significance of female role models in particular
sisters, mothers, grandmothers, wives, and girlfriends in encouraging men
to change. From his experience over the past decade with Salud y Gnero in
Mexico, Central America, and Peru, de Keijzer emphasises that, Women play a
central role in the promotion of gender equality, not only through what they are
slowly and painstakingly achieving for themselves, but also by their direct influence
on men they are related to. Among a range of factors helping to make men more
aware of gender issues, Rogers cites the strongest one as seeing the effects of
gender discrimination on people they know.
210
Conclusion
Workshops with men, or with men and women together, provide key
opportunities for messengers to raise gender issues. In many cases, having men
working with women as co-facilitators with an equal voice can be an effective
way of modelling appropriate behaviour. It can help to reduce the risk that male
facilitators will avoid tackling power issues in relation to gender, or worse, will
slip into collusion with male participants. Keating argues convincingly that for
male facilitators, it is important to identify and confront this malemale
bargain at an early stage of a workshop. It is also worth noting the challenges
for female facilitators; as Joshua says, Gender training offers men a perfect
opportunity to assert their control over women trainers.5 Women trainers,
therefore, are more likely to face challenges to the idea that women face
inequality. Because of these challenges facing male and female facilitators in
working with men, there is a need to develop training for facilitators in this
field, and in particular to increase the numbers of men who are able to undertake
this work.
Engaging with mens emotional and personal lives

Throughout this book, the contributors highlight the negative impact for men,
women, and children of men conforming to restrictive definitions of masculinity
(see de Keijzer, Kaufman, Mehta et al.). The dominant notions of what a boy or
a man is supposed to be and how he is supposed to behave undoubtedly vary to
some extent between societies.Yet, as described in this collection, the similarities
in the models of masculinity adopted by boys and men are perhaps more
striking than the differences. There are many examples presented of men
needing to show that they are strong, tough, in control, independent and the
negative effects of these gender norms.
This reality underlines the importance of attempts to encourage men to engage
more actively with their emotional and personal lives. Several articles show how
it is essential to create space for men to undertake such exploration. Brown,
for example, argues that men welcome opportunities to learn about fathering,
and about their own emotions and behaviour in relation to their children.
Pkhakadze and Khoshtaria illustrate how, although men are reticent in seeking
advice on family matters, counselling can assist them to gain new insights and
ways to tackle the issues that face them. And the articles by Lang and Smith and
by Rogers also demonstrate that men are, in situations where they feel they will
not be treated judgementally, able and willing to open up about the personal
issues that matter greatly to them.
The pace of change can be slow, however, and the outcomes uncertain.
De Keijzer describes how male participants in sessions on violence against
women are often confronted with their own fear, sadness, and tenderness, and
211
simultaneously with the power and privilege they hold as men. While this can
lead to high drop-out rates initially, many men do come back to such groups
later on.
Appropriate environment and delivery

Workers from a range of sectors (including, for instance, child welfare, sexual
and reproductive health, and counselling) report difficulties in engaging men
in using formal services. Some clear learning about ways to tackle this issue arise
from the contributions in this volume.
Especially important is the need to be sensitive to mens concerns about their
identities, and how they feel they will be judged if they do access services.
Bennett relates how men failed to pick up leaflets about a particular UK
organisations activities because it offered support; when the wording was
amended to information, men attended.
It can be important to do outreach work in the places men go. Mehta, Peacock,
and Bernal show that men often congregate at certain venues and times such as
at sports events and religious celebrations, in workplaces, and in social locations
such as bars or cafs and these can be focal points for intervention.
There is also evidence that there is value in creating spaces where men can meet
in private. In a public setting, men are less likely to talk openly and honestly, and
are very unlikely to show their vulnerability; the reverse tends to be true in
private spaces.6 This perspective is endorsed in several articles, including those
by le Grange and Brown.
Le Grange goes on to describe how men, especially young men, can be
encouraged to promote gender equality to their peers if given a sufficient degree
of involvement, responsibility, and ownership. This approach is also referred
to in other contributions, including those of Barker and Mehta, Peacock,
and Bernal.
The perspectives of staff in a range of health and welfare services are highly
relevant too. The attitudes of workers (both male and female) can, consciously
or unconsciously, lead to men being marginalised. For instance, family services
may focus exclusively on the needs of mothers and children, reinforcing the
centrality of childcare as womens work. And workers in a range of settings may
lack confidence in communicating with male clients, and be uncertain as to their
needs. Tackling these issues requires efforts to make gender visible in services,
by providing opportunities for staff to reflect upon the gendered nature of
the work and their practice.7
212
Conclusion
Cultural issues play a significant role. Elsanousis description of how boys and
men learn about gender roles in Yemen suggests that very restrictive notions of
masculinity apply in that context. Nevertheless, she argues that, as long as
approaches are avoided that may challenge mens identity too overtly, it is
possible to influence change using references to culturally accepted codes and
behaviour. An example of this in practice is cited by Keating, who shows how a
female trainer in Afghanistan was able to use her familiarity with Islam and
Quranic scripture to advance the case for gender equality.
The evidence presented in this book indicates that men respond more positively
to the language and tone of training and educational group sessions when it is
grounded in their own experiences and concerns. Young men especially value
humour as a way of diffusing discussions that might otherwise be experienced as
threatening, as le Grange highlights. Materials aimed at young men also need to
be easily accessible and presented in a way with which they can identify. Barker
draws attention to a lifestyle marketing campaign in Brazil which reflects this
awareness.
Overall, it is essential to devote time and resources to appropriate communi-
cation strategies. Among these, the most important appear to be: using
contemporary language, design, and branding; exploiting the potential of film,
TV, radio, and the Internet; and targeting information at the places where
men gather.8
The process of change

There is agreement among contributors that the process of engaging with men
and beginning to shift their attitudes and behaviour can be slow, and that,
although long-standing examples do exist (such as the initiatives described by
Barker, de Keijzer, and Kaufman), much programme work to actively engage
men with gender equality work is still in its infancy.
There are a number of factors that appear to support or accelerate change in
individual men. Sometimes change can come about as a result of a significant life
event: becoming a father or grandfather; the breakdown of a relationship;
illness; or the death of a loved one. Rogers identifies other influences which have
in some cases shifted mens perceptions, usually over a period of time. These
include realising the impact of discrimination (especially on daughters),
increased informal or professional contact with women, learning about the
womens movement, and messages from popular culture.
A key element is the desire to change. As de Keijzer notes in relation to
interventions, Men who only attend workshops as a result of partner, institutional,
or peer pressure will eventually drop out. He goes on to suggest that workshops
213
can lead men to question their socialisation, and when they do this with other
men, the experience can be powerful; they may develop more gender equitable
perspectives and may even become role models for other men. Nevertheless, this
progression is not necessarily linear: some men start to change, but then
re-establish former patterns; others learn to change what they say, but find it
more difficult to change what they do.
This underlines the importance of facilitators recognising the potential
difficulties that may be encountered in workshops, and structuring the
educational processes in such as way as to minimise them. For example, one-off
activities may have some impact, but sustained initiatives over a period of time
are more likely to achieve positive results. It is also essential to tackle themes in a
logical sequence. Rather than confront men directly with a personal gender-
change agenda, a gradual, structured approach will probably encounter less
resistance, and will ultimately achieve more. This was evident from the work of
NGOs such as HASIK (Philippines), ROZAN (Pakistan), and Stepping Stones
(UK and international), presented at a workshop in Oxford as part of the
GEM project.9
Opportunities to promote change can be closely linked to the context in specific
societies. As Mehta, Peacock, and Bernal make clear, economic and social crises
(including, for example, the HIV epidemic, large-scale unemployment and
poverty, and concern about mens violence) can all give rise to shifts in gender
relations, providing new opportunities for intervention, as shown in the
practical examples from Timor Leste and Georgia given in this volume.
It is also essential to locate grassroots interventions in the context of broader
social measures. In the case of Georgia, for instance, the authors suggest that
alongside the development of counselling services, further action including
media campaigns, legal reform, the development of services, and further
research is required by government and other key stakeholders. While action in
these areas may not be appropriate in all cases, these are some of the options that
it may be desirable to pursue alongside intervention at local level.
Alliance building
Considerable scepticism exists about the potential for men and women to work
together in pursuit of gender equality, especially among some women.10 Many
womens groups argue that the impetus for progressive change has always come
from them, and that it is hard to envisage men or mens groups becoming
involved without men deflecting the agenda, or worse, taking over. They draw
attention, in particular, to the backward-looking approach of some vocal
mens movements working to undermine progress towards gender equality.
214
Conclusion
Nevertheless, there are counter examples, though less well known, of men
working together for gender justice. Perhaps the most extensive of these have
been the campaigns of gay men in some countries against discrimination and
around HIV/AIDS activism. And in principle, those working with men have
much to learn from womens groups with a longer history and a developed
understanding of working for gender equality; such connections can reduce the
risk that mens groups will shore up traditional masculinities, and provide
a practical illustration of how mens and womens interests can coincide
(for example, in addressing violence against women).
The evidence presented in several chapters in this book suggests that useful
models of co-operation exist where men and women have been able to affect
change positively. Kaufman cites the well-known example of the White Ribbon
Campaign, which has brought men together to tackle violence against women,
working closely with womens organisations (and other key stakeholders) in
many countries. This experience is mirrored at national level by Mario de
Araujos description of AMKVs work in Timor Leste. He acknowledges that
the very existence of AMKV is an endorsement of the work of womens
organisations in the past to raise awareness of gender inequality. Similarly,
de Keijzer states that, One of the main influences for change is the continuous
struggle of women towards gender equality in all spheres of society.
Perhaps the most challenging context is described by Elsanousi in her chapter on
Yemen, where men hold the reins of power both in public and in private. Yet the
author shows how, even here, it has been possible to build partnerships between
womens groups and influential men. To make such partnerships work in similar
contexts, she recommends strategies to establish dialogue between mens and
womens organisations, developing training on gender equality for potentially
gender sensitive men, and exploring the positive characteristics of men that
lead them to support gender equality.
Alliance building is not just a matter of developing partnerships between groups
specifically working towards gender equality between men and women. In many
cases, there is potential to construct alliances between these groups and other
organisations that work with men (or women) but do not usually work directly
on gender issues. Mehta, Peacock, and Bernal provide a striking example of this
in EngenderHealths big tent approach in South Africa, where they and PPASA
have established close working relationships with organisations including
unions, community-based organisations, and the military capable of reaching
huge numbers of men. Such efforts are likely to strengthen organisational
learning, create strong coalitions for advocacy and policy change, and ensure
that efforts are well co-ordinated.
215
Monitoring programme effectiveness

Given the embryonic nature of much gender-equality work with men, there are
few examples in the literature of research into the effectiveness of such
programmes. Indeed, Kaufman admits that much work over the past decade has
been intuitive and impressionistic and that further evaluations are necessary.
This is undoubtedly the case, both in order to demonstrate whether such work
has an impact (and if so, what kind), and to clarify whether devoting resources
to it is valuable. Of the few evaluations that have been done,11 the work of Barker
and others to test out their Gender-equitable Men Scale is a noteworthy
example.
It is likely that no one methodology can be applied generally across all countries,
and different contexts would necessitate different responses according to the
patterns of gender roles and models of masculinity present in each. Impact
evaluations also demand considerable resources, and such constraints exist in
many countries. Even so, in the long-term it is likely to prove cost-effective to
invest in this work at an early stage of project design and development. Learning
for practitioners and policy-makers would be augmented, and they would be
better able to target the limited financial and human resources they have.
Learning from work on specific issues

Below, we analyse lessons about five issues addressed by contributors:
reproductive and sexual health; fatherhood; gender-based violence; livelihoods;
and work with young people. Other issues could have been chosen, but these five
were identified for two main reasons.12 First, they provide key entry points for
engaging with large numbers of boys and men. Second, they are areas where the
pressure of social, economic, and political change (both global and local) is
having a significant impact on mens lives, and where intervention may help men
to respond positively in favour of gender equality.
Different sectors in the field of development have emphasised different
approaches. Some, such as sexual and reproductive health, have a more long-
standing tradition of involving men, and have attracted both interest and
resources (partly as a result of the spread of HIV/AIDS). Others have developed
work with men more recently; for instance, rising concern about gender-based
violence in many societies has highlighted mens misuse of power (see le Grange,
de Araujo, Pkhakadze and Khoshtaria, this volume). And others, such as
fatherhood, have been treated with some caution and been given less priority
even though they arguably have great potential to engage with mens emotional
lives and to reach much larger numbers of men.
216
Conclusion
This brief overview of interventions in different sectors probably reflects the

understandable desire of many practitioners to focus primarily on improving
the status and safety of women. Nevertheless, there may be risks associated with
neglect for a sector such as fatherhood; it is possible that failure to engage
positively with men around fatherhood issues has enabled the more strident
mens rights movements that have emerged in countries such as the USA to fill
the vacuum.
In his contribution, de Keijzer raises the interesting question of whether change
in a mans attitudes and behaviour in relation to one issue will promote
comparable change in relation to others. He suggests, for example, that, This has
been reported by men dealing with their violence; many start drinking less
(or stop altogether) and develop richer relationships with their children. However,
he warns that this is by no means automatic, citing the example of men who
want to be more involved fathers, but do little to improve their relationships with
their partners. It is difficult to derive any firm conclusions yet, from anecdotal
evidence such as this. Nevertheless, this is an important area for further
exploration and evaluation.
HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health

Development work around sexual and reproductive health originally focused
primarily on women as targets for intervention. As HIV/AIDS spread during
the 1980s, gay men in developed countries became another target, but the
majority of heterosexual men were largely ignored until the1990s.
Recently, more thoughtful practice initiatives have emerged to engage men in
general in issues concerning HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health,
prompted largely by the concerns of women at grassroots level. Underlining this
shift in focus, the 20002001 World AIDS Campaign slogan was Men Make a
Difference.
Such efforts are particularly relevant to South Africa, where it is estimated
that around 600 people a day currently die of AIDS-related infections. The
construction of male identity is still heavily influenced by the legacy of
apartheid, for example through the separation and disintegration of families as
a result of labour migration. However, it appears also to be closely linked to the
spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, fuelled by and linked with other factors, such
as poverty, violence, and lack of education. In particular, unemployed men have
seen their masculine identities undermined by their lack of work (or work
prospects); as a result many have turned to drink, have become increasingly
promiscuous, and have abandoned their families. Morrell argues that These
steps can be understood as steps of desperation, reflecting their inability to see any
217
other way of dealing with their predicament Living desperate lives is unlikely to
make anybody take safe-sex messages seriously.13 He cautions, however, that
although poverty is implicated, it is not the sole cause, and that the simplistic
identification of poor African men as high risk is not likely to gain their
co-operation in helping to reduce transmission.
Le Grange describes one attempt in KwaZulu Natal to provide young men with
accurate information about sexual and reproductive health, to educate them
about the risk of HIV infection, and to explore their perceptions of masculinity.
The experience of this project suggests that involving young men as peer
educators (in this case through football clubs) can be a very effective strategy
in engaging other young men around these issues. In particular, giving
responsibility to the peer educators to develop approaches in their own schools
and communities with minimal guidance from project staff has encouraged a
participatory learning environment. Activities provide a forum where young
men can talk with trust about sensitive issues that they usually do not discuss.
Even though the topics are serious, opportunities are also provided to have fun
an important element in engaging young men. A sign of the projects success is
that it has become cool for young men to belong to the group.
Mehta, Peacock, and Bernals description of EngenderHealths Men as Partners
(MAP) Programme also suggests some useful lessons. MAP works on a broader
range of sexual and reproductive-health issues (and links these to other
masculinity-related concerns, such as gender-based violence) in South Africa
and a range of other countries (including Bolivia, Guinea, Pakistan, and Nepal).
The authors cite the importance for individual men of providing private spaces
for them to obtain services in order to encourage them to seek help, and of
offering safe and comfortable environments for them to build connections with
other men and to explore their identities. They also highlight the need to assist
staff working in clinics and other service settings to explore their own feelings
about gender and sexuality and about working with men. At organisational
level, they believe it is essential to build support among senior leaders in partner
agencies, and to involve all key stakeholders from the start.
Gender-based violence
Gender-based violence lies at the heart of gender inequality (and racist and
homophobic violence), and is rooted in the beliefs of many men about
masculinity, and their anxieties about their place in the gender hierarchy.14
Considerable practical experience has built up over the last decade or more in
challenging such violence, especially in relation to the domestic sphere, where
many men still believe it is their right to use physical force to control and
discipline their partners.15
218
Conclusion
The best-known example is probably that of the White Ribbon Campaign,

founded in Canada in 1991, and exported to many other countries worldwide
since then. In his contribution, Kaufman highlights some of the key features of
the campaign. These include a specific focus on mens violence against women,
using the white ribbon as a symbol of a public promise by a man never to
commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women; a politically
non-partisan approach (the big tent); working closely with and supporting
womens organisations; and a small decentralised organisational structure,
working as a catalyst in partnership with others (such as schools, corporations,
trade unions, religious institutions, sports clubs, youth groups, government, and
non-government organisations).
A number of other contributions in this book highlight similar approaches to
those outlined by Kaufman. Elsanousis contribution shows how, even in the
gender-segregated context of Yemen, it is possible for womens groups to develop
partnerships with influential men in order to reduce mens violence. In relation
to Timor Leste, de Araujo also draws attention to the significant support of the
womens movement in sustaining the work of the Association of Men Against
Violence. Mehta, Peacock, and Bernal endorse the big tent approach, showing
how EngenderHealth and PPASA have used this to effect in South Africa.
This latter example also highlights how men react in societies undergoing
transition from occupation or external control to freedom. As Connell
describes:
[Insurrections and civil violence] may put young men through a vehement if
informal training that emphasises aggressiveness, physical bravery, distrust of
authority, and loyalty to the immediate group. At the same time, civil conflict
severely disrupts regular education and many of the ties that would have given
young men a secure place in families and communities. The result may be a
continuing problem in the aftermath of civil conflict, with men who were once
regarded as heroes now marginalised and impoverished, possibly very angry,
and well-trained in violence.16
The conditions described by Connell mirror those identified by Mehta, Peacock,
and Bernal, by le Grange in post-apartheid South Africa, and by de Araujo in
Timor Leste. The situation in Georgia appears similar, though the background
of Soviet domination with its emphasis on formal gender equality (although not
implemented in practice) is different.
A number of useful lessons arise from these chapters. For instance, de Araujo
emphasises the importance of developing and sustaining the awareness of their
gendered attitudes and behaviour among men who are members of anti-
violence groups, and shows how concrete examples can be effective in shifting
219
entrenched attitudes in grassroots forums. He also draws attention to the

significance of international exchanges between countries with comparable
histories (in this case with the Puntos de Encuentro group from Nicaragua17) in
developing the ideas and capacity of his group.
At a broader level, Mehta, Peacock, and Bernal highlight how the movement to
end mens violence resonates powerfully with civil rights and other social justice
movements, and how working together can prove mutually beneficial.
Pkhakadze and Khoshtaria also describe wider action on prevention, moving
beyond Sakhlis individual counselling with men and women. This includes
activities to raise awareness of domestic violence in the masculine culture of the
police force, an issue which officers have tended to regard as a private family one.
Livelihoods
There have been very few attempts to address with men gender issues that relate
to the economic aspects of livelihoods, such as production, employment,
marketing, and finance. These areas tend to be seen as male enclaves, where
mens traditional attitudes and behaviour make it difficult to promote gender
equality. Anecdotal evidence suggests that, as a result, projects (in microfinance,
for example) have often targeted women; although some have had unforeseen,
and sometimes negative, effects. Ensuring that women are 7080 per cent of the
borrowers from a particular scheme may sound positive, but in practice, the
project may cause women to increase their workloads in order to achieve
repayment, and cause anger and resentment among men, who believe their
traditional livelihoods are being undermined.18
Kidders contribution suggests ways in which it is possible to explore these areas
with men. In her view, livelihoods strategies need to be informed by gender
analysis. In particular, it is critical to identify how livelihoods projects may be less
effective in achieving their economic objectives if gender stereotypes are not
challenged: When we identify the economic efficiency of addressing gender
equality, some men may find these arguments more acceptable, as well as
motivating. She goes on to cite her experiences of asking men in microfinance
workshops in Santo Domingo, Senegal, and Indonesia, Are women better
repayers? and shows how this question has helped men to identify their
gendered attitudes and roles in household finance, and changes for them that
would be critical for successful microfinance.
An example from the developed world is provided by Bennett, who highlights
how employment-training projects in the UK often reinforce traditional ideas of
mens work. According to project staff, it is only possible to begin to shift mens
perceptions of masculinity and male roles after recruitment, but Bennett warns
220
Conclusion
of the danger that projects may in practice de-prioritise or neglect this

opportunity to promote change, and thereby leave existing gender relations
untouched.
Keating puts a different perspective on such approaches in her article. She argues
that in many cases practitioners use ingenious strategies for leading participants
(both male and female) to the conclusion that gender inequality is a major
obstacle to household income generation and to the achievement of sustainable
livelihoods. However, she believes there is a danger that they may avoid
addressing the unequal balance of power between men and women.
There is no correct answer to the kinds of dilemmas that are raised here, and
choosing the most appropriate strategy will depend on the context. Both Kidder
and Keating agree that both equality and efficiency approaches are valid; their
difference is in how and when to introduce these ideas in a workshop.
Overall, the evidence suggests that livelihoods work is a significant area in which
it is possible to engage men. Given that working on livelihoods in general has
been at the heart of traditional development-sector approaches, it is puzzling
that attempts to work with men on masculinity issues have neglected this topic
so much. It is to be hoped that development organisations will address this gap
in the near future.
Fatherhood
In recent years, traditional models of fathers as providers and mothers as
carers have increasingly been challenged in many countries. This has come
about for several reasons, including changes in the labour market (for example,
greater numbers of women being in paid work, the impact of migration),
changes in family structure (increasing numbers of female-headed households
and step-families), and a re-evaluation of the role of fathers in child
development. To some extent, perspectives and practices among mothers and
fathers themselves are shifting; change is haphazard, however, varying according
to class, race, and age. On the one hand, Pkhakadze and Khoshtaria draw
attention to Georgian womens growing double burden of working and caring.
On the other, based on experience in Latin America, Barker highlights the
positive attitudes and behaviour of some men (particularly young men) who are
prepared to question traditional practices.
An important issue for further exploration is the extent to which the advent of
fatherhood can draw men to support broader aspects of gender equality, and
how such shifts can be nurtured and encouraged. De Keijzer outlines how
fatherhood can be an opportunity for development work to challenge mens
beliefs about authority and negotiation, domestic work, discipline and violence,
221
emotions, reproduction, and so on. And Rogers cites evidence from India and
Pakistan of how individual men have changed through their experience of
becoming fathers (particularly of girls): By seeing women and girls through their
daughters eyes, these men have begun to think about aspects of gender inequality,
such as sexual harassment, inheritance law, and mobility, that might not have
concerned them before. They have also been moved to find ways to defy restrictive
laws, practices, and social pressure, creating strategic models for their children and
peer groups to follow, which in turn allow their children to become role models
as well.
The significant potential of working with fathers is also stressed by other writers.
Chant and Gutmann, for instance, argue that development work is needed to
support men as fathers.19 Moreover, there are risks in failing to pursue this
course: If this does not occur, development policy and practice will be obliged to
continue its current focus on salvage operations which aim to enable women to
bring up their children alone.
More positively, Flood suggests that when men share equally with women in the
care of children, their marriages and relationships improve and that both men
and women benefit from mens involvement in parenting. For this to happen,
changes in gender norms and relations are needed: Mens involvement in
parenting depends on the encouragement of boys and mens parenting and
relationship skills and commitments, more diverse notions of manhood, and
co-operative and egalitarian relations between men and women in families and
elsewhere.20
How can work on fatherhood best be carried out? As indicated above, Brown
favours developmental over deficit approaches, building on fathers strengths
rather than identifying their weaknesses, and providing spaces for men to
discuss fatherhood with each other. She argues that these approaches: are
more likely to be attractive to men as fathers or potential fathers, particularly when
the programme is consultative in terms of topic choice, venue, and timing, is
participatory in nature, and is facilitated in a non-judgmental way.
De Keijzer shows that where trust has built up in a workshop, it is important to
explore participants experiences of having been children, as a way to under-
stand their attitudes as fathers. Although this can prove difficult for them to talk
about (given that their fathers were often absent or rejected them), this approach
provides an entry-point for addressing powerful emotional issues that go to the
heart of mens thinking. Many men are unable to address these issues as fathers,
however, and unconsciously wait until they are grandfathers to do so.
Workshops and activities on active fatherhood are, on their own, likely to play
only a small part in shifting mens attitudes and behaviour. In conjunction with
222
Conclusion
other policy initiatives by development organisations and others, however, such

as attempts to encourage men to make use of family-friendly employment
practices (as advocated by Lang and Smith), they provide powerful arenas for
encouraging men to change.
Young men
Young men have been mentioned in several of the sections above. They also
merit specific consideration, however, not only because it is important to meet
their immediate needs, but also because they are potentially the standard bearers
for future change. In many perhaps most societies, concern is focused on the
negative actions and attitudes of young men, particularly those at the sharp end
of economic and social change. This is related to the generally high levels of
violence, drug and alcohol abuse, crime, and accidents among young men.
Underlying these behaviours is a widespread anxiety among and between young
men about their roles and their futures. In line with Connells theory of
hegemonic masculinity (see Introduction), such experiences can sometimes
translate into aggressive attempts by young men to shore up traditional notions
of masculinity by the reassertion of male power over, for example, other
marginalised men, women, ethnic minority groups, and gay men.
Based on the work of Program H in Brazil and Mexico, Barker offers a more
positive perspective, arguing that even in circumstances where traditional ideas
of male dominance hold sway, alternative, more gender equitable voices are
either present, or can be stimulated, among young men. This view reflects the
conclusions of other studies. Drawing on their work with boys in UK schools,
Frosch, Phoenix, and Pattman, for instance, also argue that young men can be
emotionally and intellectually articulate, thoughtful, and insightful; if they are
to demonstrate these qualities, they depend on the availability of close and
supportive relationships.21
Program H, implemented by four partner NGOs,22 aims to help young men
question traditional norms relating to manhood, using a range of methods and
materials. Qualitative results of field-testing this programme show increased
empathy and reduced conflict among participants, and positive reflection on
relationships with female partners.
This work draws on the findings of a broader review by Barker, for which he
consulted 77 programmes reaching boys and young men in schools,
communities, workplaces, military facilities, and juvenile justice centres.23
He summarises learning from the review as follows: Broadly speaking,
programmatic experiences are generating a series of priorities: identifying boys
own rationale for change; engaging relatively few young men intensively in small
223
groups over an extended period; tapping into the positive power of male peer groups
to encourage gender equity; addressing homophobia; planning high-energy
activities that involve multiple themes; working with boys on self-care and
prevention; and creating settings where young men can talk openly about their
doubts and question issues that are often seen as unquestionable (such as what it
means to be a man).24 Many of the lessons identified are reflected in other
contributions to this volume.
Challenges for development organisations

A range of challenges face development organisations if they are to promote
GAD approaches that address men in the future. One challenge surrounds the
extent to which such organisations (often based in the global North) need to be
responsive to the specific cultural contexts in which they are working (usually
the global South). For example, a male interviewee in Elsanousis article argues
that in his work he doesnt use the term gender, as it envisages absolute equality
between women and men, which is not possible in Yemen. He goes on to suggest
that we may need to Yemenize the gender concept. For some people, in
particular, some women and womens groups, to obscure or downgrade gender
and gender equality in this way is likely to compromise feminist goals too much.
For others (including Elsanousi), such fears are misplaced, especially if it is
possible to demonstrate positive movement towards gender equality from such
approaches. While the articles in this volume do not and arguably could not -
provide a definitive answer to questions of whether to compromise on such
issues, when to do so, and to what extent, it is important that they are considered
carefully by organisations and practitioners.
Another key challenge is how to identify and counter resistance (usually from
men) to gender equality. This resistance can include the denial of discrimination
against women, appointing gender leads with insufficient power to effect
change, using delaying tactics, paying lip-service to notions of gender equality,
and tokenism. Each of these necessitates the development of specific strategies
in response. On one level, these may include gathering and presenting clear
evidence of discrimination, exploring innovative ways to implement particular
programmes, and developing effective monitoring and evaluation. On a deeper
level, de Keijzer shows how tackling male resistance depends on an
understanding of masculinities, of the reasons which cause men to change,
of transition processes themselves, and of the contexts in which change can
take place.
Other challenges are more concerned with how development organisations
operate. Chant and Gutmann, for example, suggest that the patriarchal culture
224
Conclusion
common in many development organisations, with men dominating the higher

management levels, has tended to obstruct progress.25 In practice, this has
enabled senior male managers to maintain dominance not only over women,
but also over other more junior men who might otherwise be more sympathetic
to gender issues. Moreover, this culture may have sustained WID programmes,
which, by focusing specifically on women and womens empowerment, can be
perceived as less threatening to male power.
The contributions to this book outline various strategies which could contribute
to strengthening GAD approaches, and in particular, male participation in
them. In part, this involves reviewing the direction and content of organisational
programmes to ensure that the key points outlined above are incorporated in
practice, and that examples of positive initiatives are publicised and shared.
At a more basic level, it involves agencies reassessing their own policies, and staff
and organisational cultures, from a gender-relations perspective. For example,
the UN Expert Group on the Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender
Equality recommended that in the public sector policies to tackle gender
segmentation should be implemented; men in leadership positions should
support and publicly endorse gender equality in their workplaces; promotion
policies should be designed that encourage men to share caring work; and
budgets should be examined for incentives or disincentives for gender equality.26
These recommendations are echoed in the articles by Lang and Smith and by
Rogers in this volume. Drawing on experience from the UN Working Group
on Men and Gender Equality, and from Oxfam GBs GEM project (see
Introduction), Lang and Smith conclude that development organisations need
to model gender equitable behaviours at institutional policy and project level.
This must involve greater efforts to assist staff especially male staff to see the
connections between the personal and the professional spheres.
Rogers similarly emphasises the importance of organisations actively creating
space for informal, open dialogue on gender issues and sharing about family life
and gender relations beyond the office. In some cases, it may be appropriate to
provide separate spaces for men and women to talk to each other, in others,
combined forums may be worthwhile. In addition, induction of new staff
should provide a focus for training in gender analysis and gender
mainstreaming.
Lang and Smith provide one example of what organisations can do in practice;
Oxfam GBs internal gender-training course, in contrast with much gender
training which focuses more on womens needs, encourages men to take a
proactive approach to gender in their work. Crucial to the courses success is the
fact that it has been led by an effective male-female facilitator combination.
225
However, in general, it is important to note that there is a great lack of skilled

male facilitators working in this area. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the
challenges such a role presents; on the one hand, the male facilitator can be
branded a traitor by other men, on the other, he may be seen as taking over the
gender agenda by women. Given that male facilitators must be ready to address
these criticisms, there may be a need for capacity building in this area.
At policy level, Lang and Smith argue that development organisations should
implement working practices such as paternity and maternity leave and flexible
working hours. From the employee point of view, these are intended to
encourage men to increase their involvement in childcare while reducing the
double burden on women of working and caring. If such policies are to have an
impact, significant efforts are, however, required to ensure men use them.
Failure to do so can entrench rather than undermine traditional gender roles
especially in a context where male work hours tend to be increasing (at least in
developed countries). For this reason, the authors believe that senior managers,
particularly those who are male, should act as role models for others by making
use of such provision.
Into the future: engaging men in working for

gender equality
This book represents an attempt to record progress towards the creation of
strategies and practice that actively engage men in gender-equality work.
Although many initiatives require further evaluation, the diverse examples
described give cause for optimism, and suggest that it is not only desirable, but
also possible for development organisations and practitioners to engage with
men effectively.
As this concluding chapter makes clear, positive ways forward can be identified.
For work with men on gender equality to be successful, however, it is not enough
to be convinced of the theoretical value of such intervention. Connell has
suggested a range of broad social conditions that will support progressive work
with men and boys.27 These are: the presence of a core group of men orientated
towards gender equality and social justice; support and commitment from those
in leadership positions (particularly men); a womens movement that is
prepared to engage in alliance politics with men; the promotion of a clear
statement of the reasons why men and boys should support gender equality; and
programme and policy intervention compatible with at least some of the
interests of men and boys.
226
Conclusion
Contributions to this book draw attention to a range of relevant practice issues

which are related to these conditions, including the importance of developing
positive messages and behaviour; of identifying effective messengers; engaging
with mens emotional and personal lives; ensuring appropriate environment
and delivery; understanding the process of change; alliance building; and
monitoring programme effectiveness.
In addition, key entry points for working with men for gender equality need to
be explored and exploited. This is particularly relevant in sectors where
traditional masculinities are being challenged by the pace of economic, social,
and political change. These sectors include reproductive and sexual health,
fatherhood, gender-based violence, livelihoods, and work with young people.
Alongside such practical measures, development organisations must re-
examine their own policies and cultures at all levels, and ensure that they
reinforce positive efforts to engage men in gender-equality strategies in
programmes and projects while not compromising or undermining prospects
and resources for the empowerment of women.
What is the likelihood of making further progress in the near future? It is
unrealistic to expect men, as a group, suddenly to shift their attitudes and
behaviour completely especially because they continue to derive privileges
(such as higher incomes and caring services) from the patriarchal dividend.
Some men and mens movements, particularly those in the dominant positions,
will doubtless be impervious, or even hostile, to change.
However, the articles in this book suggest that there are others who do understand
the potential of gender reform, the contribution they can make (whether in the
workplace, the community, or the home), and the potential benefits to themselves,
their families, and other people. As we have seen, there are increasingly available
examples of programmes and projects working with men, in alliance with women
and womens groups, which are rooted in a clear support for gender equality.
It is essential to develop work for gender equality as a positive project for men,
engaging their enthusiasm and energy, and encouraging them to see themselves
as active participants in achieving gender equality. Such progress needs to be
nurtured and sustained, and is likely to take place in different sites, at different
times, among different men.
This book shows that a range of stakeholders, including not only development
organisations, but also governments, UN organisations, and other elements in
civil society, can play their part in implementing effective strategies, and that
some initial steps towards positive change are happening at grassroots level.
We hope that the contributions in this volume can add their own momentum
to this process.
227
Notes
1 Report of the UN Secretary General, The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender
Equality, 22 December 2003, E/CN.6/2004/9.
2 The conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women, 48th session, are set out in the
Appendix.
3 S. Chant and M. Gutmann (2000) Mainstreaming Men into Gender and Development,
Oxford: Oxfam GB.
4 M. Flood (2003) Engaging men: strategies and dilemmas in violence prevention education
among men, Women Against Violence: A Feminist Journal, 13.
5 M. Joshua (2001) Gender training with men: experiences and reflections from East Africa,
in C. Sweetman (ed.) Mens Involvement in Gender and Development Policy and Practice:
6 T. Lloyd (1997) Lets Get Changed Lads: Developing Work with Boys and Young Men, London:
Working With Men.
7. S. Ruxton (2001) Men and child welfare services in the UK, in C. Sweetman (ed.), op. cit.
8 R. Poudyal (2000) Alternative masculinities in South Asia: an exploration through films for
schools, IDS Bulletin, 31(2).
9 J. Lang (2002) Gender is Everyones Business: Programming with Men to Achieve Gender
Equality, workshop report 1012 June, Oxford: Oxfam GB
(available on www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/gem/).
10 See for instance S. Chant and M. Guttman (2000) op. cit., pp34.
11 See for instance P. Welsh (2001) Men Arent From Mars: Unlearning Machismo in Nicaragua,
London: Catholic Institute for International Relations.
12 For example, although there are articles here about societies in which upheaval has taken place
in recent years (e.g. East Timor, Georgia, South Africa), there are none about societies
currently experiencing a high level of societal conflict (e.g. Iraq, Palestine). This is a theme on
which further research and analysis on working with men for gender equality would be useful.
13 R. Morrell (2003) Poverty and HIV, contribution to UN web discussion on the HIV/AIDS
pandemic, 11 July 2003, http://esaconf.un.org/~gender-equality-role-men-boys/guests
14 I. Breines, R. Connell, and I. Eide (2000) Male Roles, Masculinities and Violence: A Culture of
Peace Perspective, Paris: UNESCO Publishing; J. Hearn (1998) The Violences of Men: How Men
Talk About and How Agencies Respond to Mens Violence to Women, London: Sage.
15 See, for example, H. Ferguson, J. Hearn, O.G. Holter, L. Jalmert, M. Kimmel, J. Lang, and
R. Morrell (2004) Ending Gender-based Violence: A Call for Global Action to Involve Men,
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, www.sida.se
16 R.W. Connell (2003) The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality, United Nations
Division for the Advancement of Women, Expert Group Meeting, Brasilia, Brazil
2124 October 2003.
228
Conclusion
17 T. Montoya (1998) Nadando Contra Corriente: Buscando Pistas para Prevenir la Violencia
Masculina en las Relaciones de Pareja, Puntos de Encuentros: Managua. See also P. Welsh
(2001) op. cit.
18 See for example quotes from Lorraine Corner (p42) in S. Chant and M. Gutmann (2000)
op. cit., p42.
20 M. Flood (2003) Fatherhood and Fatherlessness, The Australia Institute, Discussion Paper
No. 59.
21 S. Frosch, A. Phoenix, and R. Pattman (2002) Young Masculinities: Understanding Boys in

Contemporary Societies, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
22 Instituto Promundo (co-ordinator), ECOS (in So Paulo, Brazil), Instituto PAPAI

(Recife, Brazil), and Salud Y Gnero (Mexico).
23 G. Barker (2000) What About Boys? A Review and Analysis of International Literature on
the Health and Developmental Needs of Adolescent Boys, World Health Organisation,
www.who.org
24 G. Barker (2003) Introduction to My Father Didnt Think This Way: Nigerian Boys
Contemplate Gender Equality, Q/C/Q No 14, New York: International Womens Health
Coalition/Population Council.
26 UN Division for the Advancement of Women (2003) The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving
Gender Equality, op. cit.
27 R.W. Connell, intervention during panel on Men Working on Gender, UN Commission on

the Status of Women, 4 March 2004, New York.
229
return to contents
Appendix
Commission on the Status of Women

Forty-eighth session 112 March 2004
The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality
Agreed conclusions 12 March 2004, as adopted
1 The Commission on the Status of Women recalls and reiterates that the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action1 encouraged men to participate fully in all
actions towards gender equality and urged the establishment of the principle of shared
power and responsibility between women and men at home, in the community, in
the workplace and in the wider national and international communities.
The Commission also recalls and reiterates the outcome document adopted at the
twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled Gender equality,
development and peace in the twenty-first century2 which emphasized that men must
take joint responsibility with women for the promotion of gender equality.
2 The Commission recognizes that men and boys, while some themselves face
discriminatory barriers and practices, can and do make contributions to gender
equality in their many capacities, including as individuals, members of families, social
groups and communities, and in all spheres of society.
3 The Commission recognizes that gender inequalities still exist and are reflected in
imbalances of power between women and men in all spheres of society. The
Commission further recognizes that everyone benefits from gender equality and that
the negative impacts of gender inequality are borne by society as a whole and
emphasizes, therefore, that men and boys, through taking responsibility themselves
and working jointly in partnership with women and girls, are essential to achieving
the goals of gender equality, development and peace. The Commission recognizes the
capacity of men and boys in bringing about change in attitudes, relationships and
access to resources and decision making which are critical for the promotion of gender
equality and the full enjoyment of all human rights by women.
4 The Commission acknowledges and encourages men and boys to continue to take
positive initiatives to eliminate gender stereotypes and promote gender equality,
including combating violence against women, through networks, peer programmes,
information campaigns, and training programmes. The Commission acknowledges
230
Appendix
the critical role of gender-sensitive education and training in achieving gender

equality.
5 The Commission also recognizes that the participation of men and boys in achieving
gender equality must be consistent with the empowerment of women and girls and
acknowledges that efforts must be made to address the undervaluation of many types
of work, abilities and roles associated with women. In this regard, it is important that
resources for gender equality initiatives for men and boys do not compromise equal
opportunities and resources for women and girls.
6 The Commission urges Governments and, as appropriate, the relevant funds and
programmes, organizations and specialized agencies of the United Nations system,
the international financial institutions, civil society, including the private sector and
nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders, to take the following
actions:
a) Encourage and support the capacity of men and boys in fostering gender equality,
including acting in partnership with women and girls as agents for change and in
providing positive leadership, in particular where men are still key decision
makers responsible for policies, programmes and legislation, as well as holders of
economic and organizational power and public resources;
b) Promote understanding of the importance of fathers, mothers, legal guardians
and other caregivers, to the well being of children and the promotion of gender
equality and of the need to develop policies, programmes and school curricula
that encourage and maximize their positive involvement in achieving gender
equality and positive results for children, families and communities;
c) Create and improve training and education programmes to enhance awareness
and knowledge among men and women on their roles as parents, legal guardians
and caregivers and the importance of sharing family responsibilities, and include
fathers as well as mothers in programmes that teach infant child care
development;
d) Develop and include in education programmes for parents, legal guardians and
other caregivers information on ways and means to increase the capacity of men
to raise children in a manner oriented towards gender equality;
e) Encourage men and boys to work with women and girls in the design of policies
and programmes for men and boys aimed at gender equality and foster the
involvement of men and boys in gender mainstreaming efforts in order to ensure
improved design of all policies and programmes;
f) Encourage the design and implementation of programmes at all levels to
accelerate a socio-cultural change towards gender equality, especially through the
upbringing and educational process, in terms of changing harmful traditional
perceptions and attitudes of male and female roles in order to achieve the full and
equal participation of women and men in the society;
g) Develop and implement programmes for pre-schools, schools, community
centers, youth organizations, sport clubs and centres, and other groups dealing
231
with children and youth, including training for teachers, social workers and other
professionals who deal with children to foster positive attitudes and behaviours
on gender equality;
h) Promote critical reviews of school curricula, textbooks and other information
education and communication materials at all levels in order to recommend ways
to strengthen the promotion of gender equality that involves the engagement of
boys as well as girls;
i) Develop and implement strategies to educate boys and girls and men and women
about tolerance, mutual respect for all individuals and the promotion of all
human rights;
j) Develop and utilize a variety of methods in public information campaigns on the
role of men and boys in promoting gender equality, including through
approaches specifically targeting boys and young men;
k) Engage media, advertising and other related professionals, through the
development of training and other programmes, on the importance of
promoting gender equality, non-stereotypical portrayal of women and girls and
men and boys and on the harms caused by portraying women and girls in a
demeaning or exploitative manner, as well as on the enhanced participation of
women and girls in the media;
l) Take effective measures, to the extent consistent with freedom of expression, to
combat the growing sexualization and use of pornography in media content, in
terms of the rapid development of ICT, encourage men in the media to refrain
from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects
and commodities, combat ICT- and media-based violence against women
including criminal misuse of ICT for sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and
trafficking in women and girls, and support the development and use of ICT as a
resource for the empowerment of women and girls, including those affected by
violence, abuse and other forms of sexual exploitation;
m)Adopt and implement legislation and/or policies to close the gap between
womens and mens pay and promote reconciliation of occupational and family
responsibilities, including through reduction of occupational segregation,
introduction or expansion of parental leave, flexible working arrangements, such
as voluntary part-time work, teleworking, and other home-based work;
n) Encourage men, through training and education, to fully participate in the care
and support of others, including older persons, persons with disabilities and sick
persons, in particular children and other dependants;
o) Encourage active involvement of men and boys through education projects and
peer-based programmes in eliminating gender stereotypes as well as gender
inequality in particular in relation to sexually transmitted infections, including
HIV/AIDS, as well as their full participation in prevention, advocacy, care,
treatment, support and impact evaluation programmes;
p) Ensure mens access to and utilization of reproductive and sexual health services
and programmes, including HIV/AIDS-related programmes and services, and
232
Appendix
encourage men to participate with women in programmes designed to prevent

and treat all forms of HIV/AIDS transmission and other sexually transmitted
infections;
q) Design and implement programmes to encourage and enable men to adopt safe
and responsible sexual and reproductive behaviour, and to use effectively
methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections,
including HIV/AIDS;
r) Encourage and support men and boys to take an active part in the prevention and
elimination of all forms of violence, and especially gender-based violence,
including in the context of HIV/AIDS, and increase awareness of mens and boys
responsibility in ending the cycle of violence, inter alia, through the promotion of
attitudinal and behavioural change, integrated education and training which
prioritize the safety of women and children, prosecution and rehabilitation of
perpetrators, and support for survivors, and recognizing that men and boys also
experience violence;
s) Encourage an increased understanding among men how violence, including
trafficking for the purposes of commercialized sexual exploitation, forced
marriages and forced labour, harms women, men and children and undermines
gender equality, and consider measures aimed at eliminating the demand for
trafficked women and children;
t) Encourage and support both women and men in leadership positions, including
political leaders, traditional leaders, business leaders, community and religious
leaders, musicians, artists and athletes to provide positive role models on gender
equality;
u) Encourage men in leadership positions to ensure equal access for women to
education, property rights and inheritance rights and to promote equal access to
information technology and business and economic opportunities, including in
international trade, in order to provide women with the tools that enable them to
take part fully and equally in economic and political decision-making processes
at all levels;
v) Identify and fully utilize all contexts in which a large number of men can be
reached, particularly in male-dominated institutions, industries and associations,
to sensitize men on their roles and responsibilities in the promotion of gender
equality and the full enjoyment of all human rights by women, including in
relation to HIV/AIDS and violence against women;
w) Develop and use statistics to support and/or carry out research, inter alia, on the
cultural, social and economic conditions, which influence the attitudes and
behaviours of men and boys towards women and girls, their awareness of gender
inequalities and their involvement in promoting gender equality;
x) Carry out research on mens and boys views of gender equality and their
perceptions of their roles through which further programmes and policies can be
developed and identify and widely disseminate good practices. Assess the impact
of efforts undertaken to engage men and boys in achieving gender equality;
233
y) Promote and encourage the representation of men in institutional mechanisms

for the advancement of women;
z) Encourage men and boys to support womens equal participation in conflict
prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-
building;
7 The Commission urges all entities within the UN system to take into account the
recommendations contained in these agreed conclusions and to disseminate these
agreed conclusions widely.
Notes
1 Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 4-15 September 1995 (United
Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13).
2 A/RES/S-23/3, annex.
234
return to contents
Index
Afghanistan 12, 57, 213 Hora H campaign 1534, 213
AIM framework (Kaufman) 5, 246 NGO co-operation in programmes
Albania 12, 69 34, 38, 42, 150, 153, 157
AMKV campaign, Timor Leste 14, 1405,
210, 215, 219 Cambodia 12, 546
Asia 2, 153 see also South Asia; individual Canada 23, 25, 26
countries Caribbean region 1314, 11228, 209
Australia 78 Chile 149
Connell, Robert 78, 9, 219, 223, 226
Bahamas 1223
Bangladesh 15, 17793 Democratic Republic of Congo 12, 53,
Barbados 121, 122 56
Beijing Declaration (1995) 34, 230 development and gender equality 45,
Belize 120, 121 1112, 15, 612, 1745, 194206, 208,
birth control 38, 412, 89, 93, 154, 158 2246
Bolivia 89, 92, 94, 218 Dominica 120
Bourdieu, Pierre 29, 30
boys East Timor see Timor Leste
economic issues 73 economic issues
education 3, 14, 124 of boys 73
gender equality involvement 5, 14, 21, financial services 12, 713, 74
445 in gender analysis 65, 72, 75, 86, 220
in HIV/AIDS campaigns 13, 10710, of gender inequality 9, 12, 14, 51,
111 534, 6575
masculinity issues 14, 25, 30, 31, 734, of men 12, 14, 534, 65, 68, 6970,
110 745, 220
prostitution 104, 105 violence relationship 14, 105, 119,
sexual relationships 104, 107, 109, 132, 133, 139, 223, 227
110, 123 of women 2, 12, 534, 6575
socialisation 10, 73, 74, 95, 105, 1478, education
164 of boys and young men 3, 14, 124
status in family 117, 164 gender bias 51, 143, 144, 162, 163, 164,
transition rites 31 167, 179
violence opposed 26, 30, 31, 98, 110, in gender equality 5, 15, 2930, 37, 78,
148 182, 185, 1901
see also young men of girls and women 10, 35
Brazil about HIV/AIDS 94, 100, 102, 1067,
gender equality programmes 34, 152, 109, 111, 217
1534, 1578 see also Program H in parenting 13, 115, 118, 120, 121, 122
235
public education 13, 23, 1245 see also inclusion of men 5, 67, 1215,
public awareness campaigns 1921, 237, 3741, 16775, 189
violence discouraged 14, 142, 143 inclusion of young men 14, 445, 147,
El Salvador 12, 69 149, 15060, 212, 218, 2234
employment problems 1, 5, 20, 502, 5762, 1956
and gender equality 6, 10, 64, 6570, Gender-equitable Men (GEM) Scale
214, 2201 (Program H) 151, 1548, 159, 216
HIV/AIDS relationship 13, 95 Gender in Development Programme
unemployment and men 14, 15, 77, (UNDP) 198, 200
80, 95, 98, 11314, 21718 Gender Measure (EU) 78, 80, 83, 84, 85,
violence relationship 12, 14, 32, 132, 87, 88
133, 135 gender stereotypes 5, 86, 133, 163, 181,
of women 187, 196, 210
paid 12, 32, 54, 6871, 734, 79, in livelihoods strategies 689, 70, 72,
1323, 205 74, 220
unpaid 12, 14, 64, 65, 67, 80, 132, of men 1213, 15, 25, 38, 53, 82, 834,
162, 205 118
End Violence Against Women of young men 72, 74
programme (Oxfam GB) see EVAW Georgia 9, 10, 14, 1319, 202, 214, 219, 221
programme Ghana 12, 512
EngenderHealth 13, 89, 90, 927, 99, 215, girls
218 education 10
EVAW programme (Oxfam GB) 167, 1689 prostitution 104, 105, 112
sexual relationships 105, 110
feminism 2, 7, 22, 23, 25, 33, 79, 188 socialisation 10, 73, 1478, 181
Freire, Paulo 29, 95 status in family 117, 164
transition rites 31
GEM project (Oxfam GB) 67, 15, globalisation and gender equality 9, 32,
1689, 1734, 2004, 206, 208, 225 6970, 119
Gender Advisory Group, South Yorkshire governments
789, 80, 81, 84 anti-violence campaigns 23, 133, 139,
gender analysis 142, 219
defined 2, 75 birth control campaigns 41, 42
economic issues 65, 72, 75, 86, 220 gender bias 2, 20, 132, 140, 163, 165, 171
in gender equality programmes 6, 14, gender policies 7, 401, 79, 87, 88,
174, 180, 200, 2012 1734, 207
inclusion of men 4, 6, 14, 62, 197, 200, Guinea 89, 92, 93, 94, 99, 218
2012
training in 1901, 225 Haiti 12, 65, 67, 73
Gender and Development (GAD) 4, HASIK, Philippines 214
208, 224, 225 health issues
Gender Equality and Men project and gender equality 412, 91, 103
(Oxfam GB) see GEM project and masculinity 29, 37, 412, 46, 90,
gender equality programmes 91, 95, 1034
football clubs used 13, 81, 1067, 111 mens health 28, 37, 46, 77, 83, 89100,
gender analysis in 6, 14, 174, 180, 200, 123, 152
2012 reproductive and sexual health 13,
gender workshops 12, 301, 379, 289, 412, 89, 123, 157, 216,
5062, 946, 211, 21314 21718
236
Index
womens health 3, 13, 29, 35, 412, 89, hegemonic see dominant above
90, 100 multiple masculinities 8, 30, 117, 119,
of young men 123, 151, 152, 154 205, 207
see also HIV/AIDS negative impacts 1011, 12, 22, 256,
HIV/AIDS 29, 46, 117, 211
campaigns and patriarchy 89, 1920, 22, 42,
for men 89, 90, 91, 946, 98, 216, 217 1634, 169, 179
for young men and boys 13, 10111, peer pressure affects 9, 12, 30, 34, 38,
152, 153, 158, 218 53, 144, 1868
education to combat 94, 100, 102, power issues 89, 10, 22, 38, 207
1067, 109, 111, 217 social issues 9, 10, 12, 30, 104
employment relationship 13, 95 traditional concepts 811, 32,
and homosexuality 33, 42, 216 812, 1034, 1489, 183, 2201,
poverty relationship 13, 102, 1045 223
social issues 13, 35, 102, 214 understanding 711, 14, 15, 2831,
women affected 102, 103, 109 77, 84, 104, 133
homosexuality 8, 9, 30, 323, 42, 216 violence relationship 9, 12, 30, 34,
Horizons Program 157, 159 134, 139, 140, 218
human rights issues 5, 546, 100, 1445, of young men 14, 38, 156, 158, 223
155 media
anti-violence campaigns 23, 135,
India 15, 159, 17793, 222 1378, 139, 140
Indonesia 12, 72, 73 for health promotion 92, 153
Inkunzi Isematholeni project, South in public awareness campaigns 92,
Africa 10710 122, 124, 135, 1378, 213
Islam and gender equality 63, 164, 165, for role models 9, 182, 1856
166, 176, 179, 1889, 213 men
and birth control 38, 412, 89, 93
Jamaica 1201, 122, 123, 1245 as carers 8, 24, 42, 734, 83, 1089,
Kenya 72 118, 196
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) 13, 102, 103, 106, economic issues 12, 14, 534, 65, 68,
218 6970, 745, 220
effects of gender relations changes
Latin America 10, 33, 34, 41, 445, 147, 1011, 12, 22, 325, 3840, 80,
15060, 221 1323, 137
Lillith, Mexico 36 in gender analysis 4, 6, 14, 62, 197,
livelihoods strategies 1, 1213, 589, 200, 2012
6475, 2201 gender equality involvement 35,
1112, 335, 14950, 17793,
Malawi 12, 65 195206, 20816, 2267
masculinity in gender equality programmes 5,
of boys 14, 25, 30, 31, 734, 110 67, 1215, 1921, 237, 3741,
collective 9, 25, 30, 34, 38, 734 16775, 189
dominant 9, 2930, 324, 35, 45, 183, in gender workshops 12, 301, 379,
205, 223 5062, 946, 211, 21314
dynamic nature 10, 207 handling emotions 10, 26, 29, 39,
globalisation affects 9, 32, 6970, 119 456, 164, 211
health issues 29, 37, 412, 46, 90, 91, health issues 28, 37, 46, 77, 83,
95, 1034 89100, 123, 152
237
reproductive and sexual health 13, Nepal 89, 91, 92, 93, 99, 218
289, 412, 89, 123, 157, 216, Nicaragua 12, 67, 71, 73, 220
21718 Nigeria 12, 53, 601
in HIV/AIDS campaigns 89, 90, 91,
946, 216, 217 Objective 1 Structural Funding (EU) 15,
homophobia 30, 33 77, 7886, 87
livelihoods strategies 12, 13, 59, 64, Oxfam GB
745, 2201 anti-violence programmes 7, 131, 162,
mens rights issues 11, 45, 127, 186, 214 164, 1679, 173, 202
poverty affects 1, 6, 10, 13, 32, 95 gender equality programmes 13, 15,
power issues 4, 5, 11, 212, 24, 46, 17793, 2256 see also GEM project
503, 5960 poverty reduction programmes 6, 85,
relationships 201, 203
family 32, 3940, 41, 53, 978, 118,
183, 222 Pakistan 9, 923, 218, 222
as fathers 1314, 41, 423, 11328, PAPAI, Brazil 42, 150, 153
1834, 209, 211, 2213 partnerships in gender equality 5, 11, 13,
with other men 25, 30, 32, 334, 183, 89100, 162, 167, 16875, 21415, 226
211 Peru 38, 40, 45, 152
patriarchal 9, 212, 256, 51, Planned Parenthood Association of South
11617, 132, 140, 1656, 17981 Africa (PPASA) 94, 96, 107, 215, 219
sexual 32, 38, 412, 89, 104 police and violence 9, 14, 138
resistance to change 4, 19, 27, 28, Policy on Gender Equality (Oxfam GB,
3245, 175, 178, 224 2003) 3
risk-taking behaviour 10, 12, 13, 345, poverty
90, 95, 102, 21718 gender inequality relationship 2, 6, 51,
self-esteem issues 15, 21, 39, 80, 81, 53, 545, 589, 132, 163
83, 84, 119 HIV/AIDS relationship 13, 102, 1045
socialisation 2931, 45, 95, 989, men affected 1, 6, 10, 13, 32, 95
1635, 172, 1801, 21314 women affected 3, 51, 80, 98, 101,
unemployment issues 14, 15, 77, 80, 1312, 167
95, 98, 11314, 21718 see also economic issues
violence power issues
against other men 30 of masculinity 89, 10, 22, 38, 207
against women 13, 14, 234, 29, of men 4, 5, 11, 212, 24, 46, 503,
434, 556, 102, 1319 5960, 1635
opposed to 36, 120, 209, 21112, for women 3, 4, 5, 201, 503, 59, 116,
21920 see also AMKV campaign; 1623
EVAW programme; White Program H, Latin America 14, 38, 445,
Ribbon Campaign 147, 149, 15060, 2234
by women 182 Promundo, Brazil 34, 38, 157
see also boys; masculinity; young men prostitution 102, 104
Men Against Violence Against Women public awareness campaigns 14, 1245,
(MAVAW) 120 131, 135, 1378, 139, 142, 1534
Men as Partners (MAP) programme
(EngenderHealth) 13, 89100, 218 rape 30, 54, 56, 89, 97, 102, 109, 141
Mens Association Against Violence, East regeneration and gender equality 7786
Timor see AMKV religion and gender equality 22, 33, 57,
Mexico 8, 12, 2846, 147, 153, 209, 210, 223 92, 99, 100, 1201 see also Islam
238
Index
ReproSalud, Peru 378, 40, 45 UN Working Group on Men and Gender

The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Equality 15, 197200, 206, 225
Gender Equality (UN, 2004) 4, 5, 200, unemployment see employment
225, 2304 USA 33, 345, 37, 217
ROZAN, Pakistan 9, 214
violence
Sakhli Womens Advice Centre, Georgia against men 30, 182
14, 131, 1339, 220 against women
Salud y Gnero, Mexico 12, 289, 35, 37, by men 13, 14, 234, 29, 434, 556,
39, 42, 434, 45, 210 102, 1319
Santo Domingo 71 by women 1812
Senegal 12, 69, 72 by young men 1056, 154
Shosholoza AIDS project, South Africa domestic 14, 31, 32, 36, 556, 116,
103, 1067 1339, 1405
social issues economic issues relationship 14, 105,
of HIV/AIDS 13, 35, 102, 214 119, 132, 133, 139, 223, 227
of masculinity 9, 10, 12, 30, 104 education to discourage 14, 142, 143
social justice 27, 74, 94, 96, 100, 226 gender relations change causes 12, 32,
see also human rights 1323, 137
socialisation government campaigns 23, 133, 139,
of boys and young men 10, 44, 73, 74, 142, 219
95, 105, 1478, 152, 164 masculinity relationship 9, 12, 30, 34,
of men 2931, 45, 95, 989, 1635, 134, 139, 140, 218
172, 1801, 21314 opposed
of women and girls 10, 13, 73, 118, by boys 26, 30, 31, 98, 110, 148
1478, 1623, 1645, 181 by men 36, 120, 209, 21112, 21920
South Africa 13, 44, 91, 946, 10111, by young men 31, 34, 38, 445, 98
210, 215, 217, 218 see also AMKV campaign; EVAW
South Asia 17793 programme; White Ribbon
South Yorkshire, UK 15, 7783, 845, 86 Campaign
sport and gender equality 13, 81, 1067, partnerships against 13, 14, 120,
111, 164, 218 1405, 162, 167, 16875
St. Kitts-Nevis 122, 125 police attitude 9, 14, 138
Stepping Stones 214 sexual 967, 1045, 106, 112
see also rape
Targeted AIDS Intervention project 13, socially acceptable 102, 112, 133,
101, 103, 10611, 210 1389, 140, 148, 165
Timor Leste 10, 14, 1405, 210, 214, 215, unemployment relationship 12, 14,
219 32, 132, 133, 135
Trinidad and Tobago 120, 122, 123, 124
White Ribbon Campaign 234, 25, 26,
UK 6, 70, 85, 202, 2034, 214, 2201 39, 44, 209, 215, 219
see also South Yorkshire women
UK Poverty Programme (Oxfam GB) 6, and birth control 412, 89
85, 202 in development programmes 4, 5
UN Commission on the Status of Women economic issues 2, 12, 534, 6575
(2004) 4, 200, 207, 2304 education 10, 35
UN Development Programme (UNDP) effects of gender relations changes
194, 1978, 200 356, 80, 1323
239
employment Yemen 7, 13, 16275, 202, 213, 215, 219, 224

paid 12, 32, 54, 6871, 734, 79, Yemeni Womens Union (Yemen) 16972
1323, 205 young men
unpaid 12, 14, 64, 65, 67, 80, 132, and birth control 154, 158
162, 205 cool approach succeeds 13, 106, 111,
financial services use 12, 713, 220 153, 213, 218, 224
in gender workshops 12, 301, 53, 57, education 3, 14, 124, 1523
60, 61, 211 financial services use 723, 74
health issues 3, 13, 29, 35, 412, 89, in football clubs 13, 81, 1067, 111,
901, 100 218
HIV/AIDS affects 102, 103, 109 in gender equality programmes 14,
human rights issues 5, 546, 110 445, 147, 149, 15060, 212, 218,
livelihoods strategies 12, 13, 64, 67, 74, 2234
220, 221 health issues 123, 151, 152, 154
poverty affects 3, 51, 80, 98, 101, in HIV/AIDS campaigns 13, 10111,
1312, 167 152, 153, 158, 218
power issues 3, 4, 5, 201, 503, 59, masculinity issues 14, 38, 156, 158,
116, 1623 223
prostitution 102, 112 relationships 149, 158
relationships as fathers 42, 1489, 152, 154, 221
matriarchal 115, 11617, 1801 sexual 104, 1056, 123, 154, 158
patriarchal 9, 31, 103, 11617, 132, risk-taking behaviour 44, 105, 106
140, 1656, 17981 socialisation 10, 44, 74, 105, 152
socialisation 13, 73, 118, 1623, 1645 violence
violence against women 1056, 154
against men 182 opposed to 31, 34, 38, 445, 98
against other women 1812
by men 13, 14, 234, 29, 434, 556, Zimbabwe 42, 209
102, 1319
by young men 1056, 154
violence opposed
by men 36, 120, 209, 21112, 21920
by young men and boys 26, 30, 31,
34, 38, 445, 98, 110, 148
see also AMKV campaign; EVAW
programme; White Ribbon
Campaign
womens organisations 5, 11, 162, 163,
165, 174, 175, 214 see also womens
movement
Women in Development (WID) 4, 225
womens movement 11, 1920, 126, 133,
182, 1845, 226 see also feminism
Womens National Committee (WNC),
Yemen 173
240
Gender Equality
and Men
Why include men in gender equality and anti-poverty work?

What works with men in practice?
What is the impact of including men in gender analysis and action?
How should organisations develop work with men?
In international debates on gender equality there is a growing emphasis
on men, not only as holders of privileges or as perpetrators of violence,
but also as potential and actual contributors to gender equality.
The conclusions of the 48th session of the UN Commission on the Status
of Women in 2004 urged key stakeholders (including governments,
UN organisations, and civil society) to promote action at all levels in
fields such as education, health services, training, media, and the
workplace to increase the contribution of men and boys to furthering
gender equality.
Based on examples of interventions in five fields (reproductive and
sexual health, fatherhood, gender-based violence, livelihoods, and work
with young men) from a range of countries, Gender Equality and Men
aims to provide a critical account of practical experience of work with
men for gender equality and to share knowledge and expertise gained
from programmes run by Oxfam GB and other organisations.
Contributors to this book are development practitioners from both the
global South and North, and there are also contributions from consultants
and researchers.
Building gender justice requires womens and mens shared commitment
and involvement. This cutting-edge collection of international case studies
provides an invaluable account of the benefits, and challenges, of working
with men to foster gender equality.
Dr Michael Flood, the Australia Institute
Sandy Ruxton is an Oxfam GB policy adviser on UK and EU poverty issues.

His published work includes Men, Masculinities, and Poverty in the UK
(Oxfam GB, 2002).
www.oxfam.org.uk

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Gender Equality

EDITED BY SANDY RUXTON

EDITED BY SANDY RUXTON

ISBN 0 85598 514 3

with the prior written permission of the publisher; or

USA: Stylus Publishing LLC, PO Box 605, Herndon, VA 20172-0605, USA

Printed by Biddles Ltd., Kings Lynn

Transforming our interventions for gender equality by addressing and

Masculinities: resistance and change 28

Mainstreaming a male perspective into UK regeneration: the experience in

Men As Partners: lessons learned from engaging men in clinics and

Fatherwork in the Caribbean: examples of support for mens work in relation

How do we know if men have changed? Promoting and measuring attitude

Evolving the gender agenda: the responsibilities and challenges for

Appendix: Conclusions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women,

At the forty-eighth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in

Mario de Araujo is a founding member of the Mens Group Against Violence in

Continuing Studies, at the University of the West Indies (UWI), based in

researcher for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). James

Sue Smith is currently gender adviser to Oxfam GBs UK Poverty Programme.

Tackling gender inequality: Oxfams approach

Why work with men to find solutions to gender

Exploring work with men: Oxfam GBs Gender

production of good-practice case studies, and improvements to programme

A framework for understanding masculinity

sociologist Robert Connell.29 Connells framework amounts to a significant

The invisibility of mens gender identity

Dominant (hegemonic) expressions of masculinity and other forms

Masculinities are actively constructed

Masculinities are dynamic

Negative impacts of masculinities

Challenges in achieving change: the contributions to

Why is it important to include men in gender equality and anti-

What works with men in practice?

carried out on these programmes as yet, Brown believes that developmental

What is the impact of including men in gender analysis and action?

How should organisations develop work with men?

6 N. Kabeer (1994) Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, London:

8 Oxfam GB (2003) Policy on Gender Equality, available at

10 For example, Men and Masculinities, published by Sage.

12 Paragraph 6 of the Political Declaration, 59 June 2000, available at

13 S. Chant and M. Gutmann (2000) op. cit.

14 C. Sweetman (1997) op. cit.

21 For further details, see www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/gender/gem/

25 R. Reddock (2004) Interrogating Caribbean Masculinity, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the

31 R. Morrell (ed.) (2001) op. cit.

33 R.W. Connell (1987) op. cit.

35 B. Pease and K. Pringle (2001) op. cit.

36 R.W. Connell (2000) op. cit.

38 S. Frosch, A. Phoenix, and R. Pattman (2002) Young Masculinities, Basingstoke: Palgrave

40 M. Flood (2001) Mens Role in Achieving Gender Justice, available on

Transforming our interventions for gender

Among NGOs, governments, and international institutions such as the United

Leaving out boys and men: a recipe for failure

womens movement and the struggles led by women.1 It is not surprising,

What men and boys will gain from gender equality

The White Ribbon Campaign

The AIM framework

3 Strive to use the language of responsibility rather than blame. Similarly,