BOOK REVIEW — The Other Half of Gender
My perusal of “The Other Half of Gender Men’s Issues in Development” published by the World Bank dating back a decade and a half, talks about that ‘half’ as captured in its title. The book is not overtly long, as it is spread across eleven chapters. Although the opening chapter, i.e., chapter 1, by Joyce Jacobsen, provided a broad overview of the conversations, i.e., “Men’s Issues in Development,” four other chapters highlight the gender imbalance from the lens of Africa — notably, and in no particular order, chapter 7 on “Fearing Africa’s Young Men: Male Youth, Conflict, Urbanization, and the Case of Rwanda” by Marc Sommers, chapter 8 on “Young Men and the Construction of Masculinity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for HIV/AIDS, Conflict, and Violence” by Gary Barker and Christine Ricardo, chapter 9 on Liberia and Sierra Leone capturing the role of “Young Men and Gender in War and Postwar Reconstruction” by Paul Richards, and chapter 10 on Kenya entitled “Collapsing Livelihoods and the Crisis of Masculinity in Rural Kenya” by Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo & Paul Francis.
What strikes me most about the book is its attempt to bring:
“…the gender and development debate full circle — from a much-needed focus on empowering women to a more comprehensive gender framework that considers gender as a system that affects both women and men” equally.
Here are my reflections on five focus chapters. In the opening chapter 1, entitled “Men’s Issues in Development,” Joyce Jacobsen — a woman, makes a rather pertinent point by asking the question, “why are men’s issues in development important?” She takes the question further by emphasising the:
“…unmet needs of men throughout the world [in what she] considered an annotated outline and a starting point for further research and potential policy interventions to address men’s issues in development.”
In the second chapter under interrogation, i.e., chapter 7, Marc Sommers talks about “Fearing Africa’s Young Men: Male Youth, Conflict, Urbanization, and the Case of Rwanda” (pp. 137–158). In unpacking this particular chapter, the conversation picks up on p. 140 with the following commentary:
“…curiously, in many Sub-Saharan African cities, the dreadful future that youth bulge proponents highlight, of too many male youth packed into cities, has long ago become a location for high concentrations of male youth.”
He also draws our attention to one important thought process:
“Since the predicted danger of large numbers of young men concentrated in urban areas has long ago come to pass across Sub-Saharan Africa, one can reasonably ask why [SSA] cities are not much more dangerous.”
That discourse is extended to the topic of “Rwandan Youth in Context” (see p. 142), where an interesting question was posed thus, “Is there a better example of fearsome male youth than the notorious Interahamwe — variously interpreted as ‘those who work together’?” While that question has a slightly different connotation, i.e., “those who stand together,” and “those who attack together” — militiamen of Rwanda, Sommers goes on to opine that “it is a well-known fact, and is consistently related in literature on the genocide, that unemployed, undereducated male youth made up most of the foot soldiers of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.”
Moving to chapter 8 on “Young Men and the Construction of Masculinity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for HIV/AIDS, Conflict, and Violence,” (pp.159–194) the excerpts are quite revealing where Gary Barker & Christine Ricardo, focused on the trending topic of sexual violence. In their opening statement on p. 159, the authors opined that:
“Most gender analyses of conflict focus on sexual violence against women or on the relatively small number of female combatants […] who use weapons are usually young men and that those who suffer the consequences of conflict are women and girls.”
Indeed, too many women have been made vulnerable by the behaviour of men in conflict and sexual relationships. However, development literature and many policy statements on gender, generally present SSA men in “simplistic and overtly negative terms” ignoring men in the gender calculus [emphasis added] — especially as:
“…men appear very little, often as hazy background figures — ‘Good girl/bad boy’ stereotypes present women as resourceful and caring mothers, with men as relatively autonomous individualists, putting their own desires for drink or cigarettes before the family’s needs.”
The authors went on to argue for “applying a more sophisticated gender analysis that requires us to understand how men and women, and boys and girls, are made vulnerable by rigid notions of manhood and gender hierarchies.”
To justify this proposition, they called for reflection on two pertinent questions — First, what does a gender perspective mean when applied to young men in Sub-Saharan Africa? Second, in terms of conflict and HIV/AIDS, what are the program, policy, and research implications of studying the gender-specific realities and vulnerabilities of young men? (p. 160).
Paul Richards in chapter 9 (p. 215, Taking Youth and Gender Policy Seriously), argued that “given the huge demographic increase in young men and women in West Africa over the past half century, it is not surprising that countries in the region now have ministries of gender and youth.” He further opines that:
“Typically, these are add-on or offshoot agencies, i.e., they mix a range of concerns such as gender, youth, sports, and culture, or perhaps emerged as a devolved subsection of the ministry of education. This seems to be the wrong institutional approach. Youth and gender are overarching policy concerns, and the relevant minister should be coordinating a range of key activities, including education, employment, social welfare, health, and security.”
Indeed, Youth and gender-based civil society organizations are at times equally neglected by donors seeking to strengthen civil society. For example, organized as sports clubs or mutual aid groups, they remain invisible to donors concerned with “big” issues. This should be reversed — “mainstreaming youth and gender issues in national reconstruction is hardly likely to happen unless they are mainstreamed at the level of the state and civil society.”
His recommendations include to(p. 216):
“Strengthen ministries of gender and youth and ensure they have resources and capacity commensurate with their policy role. Ensure that national gender and youth policies are elaborated, implemented, and monitored. Encourage gender and youth-based organizations to mobilize, federate, and enter policy debates and democratic politics…”
Finally, in chapter 10 on “Collapsing Livelihoods and the Crisis of Masculinity in Rural Kenya” (pp. 219–244) Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo & Paul Francis argued that the “economic collapse and changes in livelihood are leading to the disempowerment of men at a time when, out of necessity, women are developing new coping strategies and greater empowerment.”
They went on to posit that (p. 242):
“the focus of the government and development agencies on women and girls and the empowerment and emancipation of women and affirmative action have largely side-lined men, who increasingly find themselves dependent on the women who seem better able to develop alternative income-generation activities…”
Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, this review seems a bit skewed towards chapter 8 on “Young Men and the Construction of Masculinity in Sub-Saharan Africa…,” as espoused by Barker & Ricardo, with implications for other chapters in the collection, capturing the inconvenient truths of the “The other half of Gender” and what this means for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — notable SDG5 on Gender Equality.
Why it Matters
International Men’s Day [November 19] is an opportunity for people everywhere of goodwill to appreciate and celebrate the men in their lives and the contribution they make to society for the greater good of all.
By facing long-held assumptions, one woman reevaluates her own gender biases, and here are the key highlights of her talk:
Other side of the Gender Equality equation.
Why doesn’t our society care about men’s rights?
Peeling back the layers of my own bias.
I no longer call myself a feminist… I now care about Men’s rights as well.
We need to invite all voices to the table…
But this is not what is happening… Men groups continue to be vilified … and their voices are systematically silenced…
If one group is being silenced, that’s a problem for all of us…
Documentary Filmmaker, The Red Pill, Cassie Jaye founded “Jaye Bird Productions” in 2008, which has since produced a collection of documentary films that have been praised for being thought-provoking, entertaining and respectful in representing multiple competing views within each film.
Jaye’s most notable films were the award winning feature documentaries “Daddy I Do” (which examined the Abstinence-Only Movement versus Comprehensive Sex Education) and “The Right to Love: An American Family” (which followed one family’s activism fighting for same-sex marriage rights in California).
Both films showed that Jaye’s interview style is to allow people to share their views honestly, openly and candidly while allowing audiences to come to their own conclusions.
Maria C. Correia & Ian Bannon (2006) (Eds.) The Other Half of Gender Men’s Issues in Development. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
